At what age are females at their hottest?
OK, I haven't done a quantitative analysis of anything in awhile, and all this bickering in previous posts / comment sections about when girls are at their physically hottest requires some hard data to settle the matter. I'm going to look at pornstars since they are chosen only on the basis of raw physical and sexual appeal, unlike celebrities who need to act, sing, dance, etc., and unlike role models who exemplify motherly qualities.
The dataset consists of 120 pornstars from LA Direct Models, which manages the most high-profile stars. They must appeal to a very broad audience in order to make the most money, so they are representative of what the male sex finds attractive.
I simply took the age listed on their profile at face value -- it could be lower than the real value if they think guys like much younger girls, but I keep hearing from readers how it’s really women in their mid-late 20s or older who are more physically attractive, more comfortable with their sexuality, and so on, so they might lie upwards too. There is therefore no a priori reason to assume that they are consistently lying in one direction or the other. Data is there for almost all of the girls, but is missing for about six of them, most of whom do look older and work in the fringe MILF market.
That said, here are the frequencies of different ages in this representative sample of popular pornstars:
Not to brag, but I can’t help it if I'm more perceptive than the most bloggers or commenters. I've been saying all along that female physical attractiveness peaks at 22 - 24, and bam: the average age is 22.8 years, with 63.3% of all girls falling between 20 and 24.
You'll notice that the graph is very skewed (or not symmetric), so that there are many more below-23 stars than above-23 stars. Concretely, the skewness is 0.55, while the standard error of skewness is 0.22. Since the skewness is greater than 2 standard errors of skewness, it is no fluke that the graph is weighted more heavily toward below-23 than above-23 girls.
And obviously the graph is truncated on the left since it's illegal for companies to hire under-18 girls. But just finish drawing the curve on the left side, and you can see that if it were legal, there would be a small number of 17 year-olds, even fewer 16 year-olds, and maybe a lone 15 year-old.
The fact that the average guy would prefer watching sex with a 16 y.o. than sex with a 40 y.o. may be disconcerting, but that is the truth. Thankfully, laws prevent this. It is not a question of whether some 40 y.o. might be found who is attractive enough to qualify -- this is obvious. The question is how rare would she be among her age-mates, vs. how rare would the 16 y.o. be among her peers? Surround yourself with a random sample of females of these ages, and you will see that it is easier among the younger ones. This doesn’t mean that the typical 16 y.o. is this attractive, only that a 16 y.o. this attractive might be 1 out of 1 hundred vs. 1 out of 1 hundred-thousand in the 40 y.o. case.
At any rate, the take-home message is clear enough: it is females in their early-mid 20s who are most physically attractive, notwithstanding the wishful thinking of older females or the "sour grapes" self-deception of older males.
posted by agnostic @ 3:40 PM
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19 Comments:
It takes a bit to develop a following though, so the numbers may be a bit high. My own personal opinion would be that 20-22 is the peak.
One should remember a couple things though:
First there is natural variance in peak attractiveness. Some women peak out at 14. Some peak at 28.
Second, women can get better at presentation as they get older which can be significant.
I commented on all this in my Gwen Stefani post here.
Well, this is pretty good... As you can see from my comment in another post about my background, I have no personal agenda here.
Obviously we can also ask if the adult film industry is representative of the preference of the whole population. For instance, there is a lot of teenage and rape-pornography in Japan, which is, we have to agree, mostly cultural.
Testosterone levels will go down as the men age. This would predict also downward trend of general sexuality. So: what is the median age of the people who consume pornography? It can be that porn consumers are in their late 20s or early 30s in general, which would mean the pornstars are not representing the male population as a whole... Of course these guys are supposed to be reproductively active, though...
I just know some people who where chubby acne-faces in late teens and even early 20s, but are hot now in their late 20s. (So the obvious aging is not the only ongoing trend.)
This post has been removed by the author.
Could you fix your RSS-feed to show the full post instead of a short preview?
It's reasonably safe to assume that the ages are accurate. Federal law requires porn producers to maintain age records for all performers no matter how old they appear to be.
There are many porn 'superstars' who start doing something else for personal reasons. So the upper age end of hot girls is always leaking out fast. As prostitution, only a few people would do pornogaphy for a very long time even if they had the looks...
I think there was considerable variation in your data. Some of the girls where really beautiful whereas some... Well, not above average at least...
I don't know where do you get this 'hot age of 20'. Female fat distribution (waist, hips) is not even completely setteled in many 20 year olds.
As prostitution, only a few people would do pornogaphy for a very long time even if they had the looks...
This is true of the bottom end, too, though -- irresponsible wild-child girls who want some quick money rather than work at a pizza stand in a mall get into it when they're 18 and then bail after a year (two years max).
Also, if, say, 30 y.o.s were at their peak, then we would see the same shape but just shifted to the right. Then the "high end that leaks out due to fatigue" would be women in their 40s. So the leaking / fatigue pattern doesn't tell us one way or another where the peak of attractiveness is.
where do you get this 'hot age of 20'.
I've always said 22 - 24, not 20. As you point out, they haven't filled out their shape by 20. As an assman, I am very aware of this -- full butt shape develops by the mid 20s. It takes awhile. Boobs may be at maximum size earlier than that, but I am oblivious to boobs, so I couldn't say.
Obviously, female beauty is essentially nothing else than an indication of fertility and general fitness. Fertility is extremely strongly correlated to age in women. In general, most men are attracted to women between the ages of 13-28, that's normal behaviour. But most men will find
13-15 year old women still a little bit too childish and 24-28 year old women a little bit too old, so the average guy is the most attracted to 17-23 year old women.But I also suspect that most porn users are guys in their thirties and forties, so they are mainly attracted to tewntysomething women. Teen girls (14-20)are very attractive to young men, that is from 18 to 30 years of age. Since making porn involves a contract, I'm fine that the legal age for participating in porn is 18. However, I still believe that age of consent in the US should be 14 because it imprisons young good men for the crime of love with already sexualy mature women.
It is natural for men and women to age, but a man should at least marry a young pretty woman. So the 30 year old man who marries another30 year old woman is deluding himself if he thinks his bride was more attractive now than 10 years ago, and he will end with an alomost infertile and middleaged lady in another 5 years, and have alwatys deprived himself of the pleasures of a young, nubile bride.
It's interesting to ponder what happens to the porn stars of LA Direct Models when they hit their mid-20's. Do they go out of the business entirely, or end up managed by more downscale agencies?
I've heard that high-priced hookers often become S&M dominatices as they get older, as in that field there's relatively less premium on beauty.
Agnostic:"I've always said 22 - 24, not 20."
Yes, but the others keep on claiming about hotness of teenage gils...
Gannon:"Teen girls (14-20)are very attractive to young men, that is from 18 to 30 years of age."
And what is your reference? Does someone really think that Avril Lavigne, Christina Aquilera or some other celeb was hottest when she was around 17?
"However, I still believe that age of consent in the US should be 14"
It is 14 in Russia. I think 16 is better than 14.
I cannot avoid thinking that you are trying to support your own preferences with science. A 13-14 year old girl having a child is facing very big risks (actually a few hundred years ago girls in that age couldn't even have children; better nutrition etc. is influencing that; on the other hand we don't know what has happened to 'mental age'). I bet almost all women are more attractive when they are 28 compared to 14 (but again, I don't know how a 28 year old woman looks where you come from).
@ Ilmari
Hear Gannon's words of wisdom:
As I have said, most males are attracted to 13-28 year old women, so some men will prefer 14-15 year olds while others covet late twenty women. But men's sexual preference is probably shaved like a standard Gauss Bell, being the median at around 20 and the main preference at around 17-35. Sexual preference for prepubescent girls under 12/13 is definitively deviant, but so is probably also strong sexual attraction towards women over 35. Women over 35 can probabvly give men satisfaction by being an analogous substitute, by being pretty similar to the real thing. Women in the 35-45 age bracket can also be attractive if their appear younger and still fertile.
Also, most historic records clearly show that girls have always started menstruating at around 11-12. In roman times, women married at the ages of 13-15 and gave perfectly healthy babies. Its true that during famines and severe malnutrition girls can retard their menarchy until the age of 14-15, but that is the exception, not the rule. During medieval times the roman catholic church set a minimum age of 12 for consumation of marriage, because women where ready back then too. That girls used to menstruate at 16 or 17 is a feminist lie. It is also a feminist lie that pregnancies for women in their middteens are risky. Teen pregnancies are only risky if the mother is under 14 or severly unbderdeveloped for her age. Argentine girls btw look younger than their US counterparts, because they are smaller and skinnier.
There is an obvious reason why most men would prefer a 16 year old over an 28 year old if they were free of their cultural bounds by the way, and that is POTENTIAL.
A 28 year old wife will pop out at most probably 2-3 kids, having her most sensual years behinf her, whereas a 16 year old bride will easily pop out 7-8 healtheir children and have her best years before her.
should say:
main preference at around 17-24, not 17-35
the cold hard facts of ageing for females are colder and harder than they are for males
I sure wish women were made more aware of this and that "Sex and the City" is a "cougar" fantasy. Women need to be getting busy at 22 or 23 to start looking for Mr. Right, and not wait until 29, when they have already began to decline.
For most females, it starts heading downhill at about 26-27 for certain.
For Gannon:
http://www.ined.fr/en/everything_about_population/teaching_kits/population_of_france/age_first_menstruation/
"In the past, girls in Europe had their first period between ages 16 and 18 on average, and likewise in southern countries until quite recently. But the age of menarche has fallen everywhere, and now occurs at age 12 to 13 on average in industrialized countries (figure)."
So you say this is a lie?
"main preference at around 17-24"
And what proof do you have for this?
Of course there is variation in the preference. But you are putting the "centre" of the preference of variation into a wrong point.
"As I have said, most males are attracted to 13-28 year old women"
Hah, I bet there are much more men attracted to 30 year olds than 13 year olds, even if you only count the physical appereance. What kind of idea do you have about appereance of 30 year olds if you have to compare them to 13 year olds; apparently not very good...!
By the way, young men (12-30) consume most pornography.
Plenty of 17 and 18 year old girls are very hot. Younger than that, it gets creepy. Women are hottest at 21 or so. Sharp drop above 25.
@Ilmari: Are you a woman? You sure sound like one and not like a proud PUA!
Nevertheless, I'll gladly answer your questions.
About menarchy (first menstruation), black girls get it earlier than whites, and east asians the latest. Also, closer to the Equator girls will get their menarchy earlier and closer to the poles later. So yes, a black girl in Gana will probably menstruate at 10 and a Japanese girl in Hokkaido at 13.
Age of menarchy has always been associated with age of consent and specially minimum marriageable age. Therefore, feminists in the 19th century who seeked to raise these ages needed to falsify the data in order to achieve their goals. The only proof that I have ever seen that girls used to menstruate at 15, 16, is a study about a very small population of some skandinavian island close to the northpole about some severly underfed girls, which is an exception (strong famine does in fact delay menstruation for a few years, coupled with the high latitude. But all the other data does indicate otherwise. All roman accounts tell us of girls marrying and giving birth at 13-14. In the Torah, girls married at 13 too. In all of medieval Europe, minimum age of consumation of marriage set by the catholic church was 12, because a woman was sexually mature by then. Through modern times, aristocratic girls married at 13-14 too. There is no evidence at all that women used to menstruate at 15, 16, unless they were severly malnurished. Most men like teen girls, the problem is that a lot of men in the US fear telling the truth, feminism has won over. Buy even in the US, 99% of men would choose a 20 year old bride overa 30 year old, all things being equal. At 30, a woman's beauty has jaded significantly, as well as her fertility.
Although you may have recorded the data accurately, your conclusion that the average age a woman peaks in physical attractiveness is utterly erroneous. Several significant confounding factors are likely the cause of the frequency distribution of porn star ages, particularly: (1) the hormone life cycle of a woman peaks at 17 years of age and steadily declines in a woman's 20's, (2) the psycho-social stage or maturation phase of a woman at 19 to 24 is the identity v. role crisis stage, that is, the stage when woman is forced to discover or experiment with her self identity and roles as a woman in the world, (3) the male audience for pornography typically prefers a younger porn actress. I believe these factors confound your conclusion that the average age a woman physically peaks in physical appearance. I suggest performing an experiment on female physical appearance by first looking at the age their biological age begins to decline. Concurrently, experimental psychologists have already concluded that the average human begins to experience apoptosis or "cell death" at 35. Thus, I am willing to say that physical appearance peaks around 35 and slowly declines. The confounding factor at 35, of course, is the frequency of single woman at 35 that care for their physical appearance.
I'd say the median (most common) physical peak for women is roughly from 15-25 (20 if you want to narrow down to one age). Women are typically most beautiful, nubile, and fertile at these ages.
More broadly individual women can be at their physical peak anywhere from roughly 13-33 (2 years past menarche-early 30s). Although the lower and higher ranges of this are uncommon.
The lower range (13) being for a female who went through and finished early puberty (fully physcially developed already), and the higher range (early 30s) for women with good genetics and/or self care that allows them to maintain near their peak beauty into their early 30s.
Women can still be incredibly gorgeous and attractive past this age (early 30s), but with all other things equal it will always be less-so than when they were younger. Non-withstanding better presentation (e.g. makeup, wardrobe, hairstyle), physical adaptation (e.g. weight optimization, muscle toning, plastic surgery), etc... I mean look at Gwen Stefani for example. She worked hard (exercise, diet, braces, sexier more feminine wardrobe, etc..) to look possibly sexier in her mid 30s vs her 20s.
So far I'm pretty much agreeing with Gannon. Women's physical maturity and peak beauty often occur well before it's socially acceptable for men to acknowledge.
For example. It's not uncommon for me to hear guys (20s-30s) say between friends something like:
"Dayum I met this that girl was sooo hot! Her drop dead gorgeous glowing face, tiny waist, perky humongous boobs, and curvy round ass were just poppin out. Yum! *drools* Shit! Then I found out she was only (15-19) yrs old." *turns red* Other guy (friends) laugh and calls said fellow a perve, although they were salvilating at the details until they heard the age.
Now where I cringed was Gannon's suggestion of lowering the age of consent in the US to 14. Girls of that age are sometimes physically mature already and at their peak of beauty, but mental and social maturity is another matter. So while a legalizing a partner within a few years may be reasonable (e.g. legalize 14 with 14-17), a blanket change of the age to 14 is dubious in my mind.
This is to protect against unfair manipulation by older partners. Not that most men are this way, but laws are put in place to protect against the lowest denominator. This may be unfair to those fully responsible and mature (both female and male partners), but I don't know if there is a better option?
Personally I'm doubtful that I'd want to get involved with a women under 20 (I'm mid-twenties) because of the social/mental disconnect, but it's only natural to find young women most attractive.
Girls peak between 12-17 years old. That is when their faces are most beautiful and their hips and ass are sexiest.
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