In all the romance novels, the man has a lean, hard, tanned physique.
I saw a show discussing this on one of the science channels. A Chinese scientist noticed that whatever culture of humanity he obeserved, he noticed that the "ideal" couple is where the guy is taller in stature and darker in complexion and the woman is shorter and lighter in those areas.
He said that many years ago he was looking at ads for movies showing in theatres and noticed that in a majority of the cases the men were darker than the women. He had first noticed this in ads featuring Euorpean and Asian actors, but when he noticed it in ads involving African and Indian actors, he figured there had to be more to it.
In a nutshell his investigation led him to conclude that this is something in the genetic makeup of humans and probably has its origin in that men who were taller and bigger more likely were out hunting and providing for their families more and this resulted in their darker complexions.
On the other hand, women who were in childbreaing were more likely to be out of the elements and this resulted in their fairer color. Women who could not concieve worked out on the fields like the men and became darker.
Over time people began to associate these features as positives in the respective sexes and this became the desired traits when it came to attraction. Darker came to represent a better provider in males and lighter equated to a more fertile woman.
Donny