What data is there on men's sexual preferences?
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What data is there on men's sexual preferences?
I'm willing to bet that the number on average of older men attracted to younger than 18 girls is rather low.
Sexually attraction is a rather broad term in any case. Obviously there's physical attraction to the person's face or other parts of the body, but there's the sound of their voice, how they dress, the activity they are engaged in, their smile, sense of humor, even smell accounts for more than most people realize or care to admit. All of these can play a role in sexual attraction.
And those things change with time. Now I'd find a glowing apparently fit 40 years old who's slightly winded after a work out and offering a good smile far more sexual attractive than the cutest faced, well breasted 20 year old who's chatting on her cell phone and perhaps looks like she could use a few workouts. And I'm long past being sexually attracted to pimply faced emotive fifteen year olds, though that's not far from the girl I fell head over heels in love with over 30 years ago who's still my best friend and lover.
Don't know. Most adult men I know, and since most of my friends are male, are actually attracted to more mature women. Usually when they dated much younger women, while the appeal my be sexual, it was the brain of the younger woman that didn't keep the relationship alive.
Agree with a lot of the other comments. I doubt that many men are attracted to girls who do not look fully sexually mature.
It is true that such maturity can arrive at ages below 18. I recall at the sailing club in Dubai, in the 80s, some of us men used to joke about the "jailbait" arriving during the school holidays. Some of these "girls" of 15 or 16 looked as if they could have been in their 20s and were extremely beautiful young women. There is a lot of sanctimonious tosh around this. There have been cases in the papers about schoolteachers running off with 15 year olds and so on. But these were fully physically mature young women, really. And of course this ambiguity is reflected in the way the age of consent varies from country to country. It strikes me as ludicrous to stigmatise men as "paedophile" for finding such girls/women attractive.
It seems to me that is very different indeed from men who find sexual attraction in girls that look sexually immature. That is true paedophilia and I feel sure it is unusual - and worthy of psychological investigation.
(One thing I would say about sexually mature teenagers is whatever superficial attraction there might initially be usually does not survive first encounter, due to the yawning gulf in experience, tastes and mental maturity that becomes apparent almost instantly. So there's a fairly good natural safety net, to keep us chaps out of trouble with "jailbait".)
I think it changes with age. When I was 15, I wanted 15 year old girls. I don't feel that way anymore. Now, when I see a teenage girl, I mostly ponder what a nightmare having one for a kid must be.
One of the nice things about getting older is how the women get prettier, and the age at which they cease to do so increases, so that one is continually surprised by how many pretty women there are around. The bad news is that exchemist's dictum applies a fortiori , namely that one's relevance to a woman is inversely related to her attractiveness. I first realised this on a business visit to Kobe about 20 years ago, during which I saw lots of modern Japanese girls, growing nowadays tall and willowy, with lovely skin and eyes, cheekbones to die for, etc.......... and they all looked straight through me, as if I were a pot plant. They did not even see me as a man, let alone a possibly desirable one. Ah well, c'est la vie.
Health, fitness and youth quite frequently go hand-in-hand and any healthy animal in it's prime is going to garner attention. That being said, while many (both male and female) may enjoy the 'scenery', as far as establishing an enduring relationship goes, experience, values, and intellect are strong attractors and retainers, by most accounts.
While an appreciation for the attractiveness of youth is quite normal, the persistent pursuit of same where age is a great disparity is not considered 'normal' in this culture although May-December romances do sometimes perform quite well. In cultures where arranged marriages are typical, I gather that the man is very often much older than the woman so this may proliferate the perception that men prefer adolescent girls. IDK...
As far as the data is concerned, you might look at the average age of beauty contest winners. You'd probably want to look at the earlier contests before political correctness set in, if you want to accurately measure men's perception of physical beauty.
The subjective data that I personally am aware of is that more men seem attracted to a woman with an ample frontal endowment (large 'rack', lol...) which is usually not yet fully developed in adolescent girls. While others may lust after the younger gazelles, there is usually NOT a reciprocated interest unless the male has significant stature in wealth or power. Many women are attracted to status and the security it seemingly affords.
Attraction as a function of age can be approximated like this for most men (well just me)![]()
where
is age in years and
is constant based on beauty and skillz
![]()
Last edited by Gere; September 25th, 2013 at 04:20 PM.
My brothers and I had a far simpler rule, which was that the best you could hope for in a woman was two out of the following three attributes: beauty, intelligence and a charming personality, or a combination of them adding up to 2 in total. Hence we grew to dread remarks about a girl along the lines of "she has a lovely personality", as being code for "looks like the back end of a bus". I'm pleased to say I found a woman that broke the rule and came close to all 3 - though sometimes I think she's a bit bonkers.....
Damn wrong order, corrected![]()
Adolescent? I think not. Sexually developed teenager? Maybe sexually at some primal level, but certainly not mentally nor ethically. The short answer is I think "most" people would not.
As an older single man, I find it hard to get sexually excited by woman in my age range. But then any woman I find sexually exciting is to young and out of my league and living with her would be a nightmare in progress.
One thing that wasn't mentioned as a sexual attraction was innocence or at least that innocent look. Young adult females can achieve that innocent look by working at it and some have it naturally. Just about all preteen girls have it in spades and it's not just a look.
One of the things that makes having many wives attractive is you can add a new young one every few years and have the older ones teach her everything she needs to know about pleasing you.
Many of you have indicated that you think not many men like very young girls, but if you browse the sex offenders list in just about every city, it's usually a very long list, much longer than most would expect.
I still chuckle at the tale of a mature male friend of mine who recounts the night that a charming younger lady (but far beyond jailbait) escorted him home from the bar with certain 'expectations.'
He gave the matter some serious deliberation, realizing that in the morning he would be in a completely different frame of mind and that she might have considerably greater expectations than himself of a relationship beyond the moment.
He called a cab, tucked her in and sent her home. I respect his decision.
I would suggest that many, if not most men, would find young ladies attractive, but certainly not all men seek them out as their 'sexual preference'.
As for young ladies being the preference of sex offenders...that's WHY they are sex offenders in countries where there is a legal age of consent.![]()
My first lover was 15 and i was 17 when she seduced me. (Ok we decided to try sex and went to the library to read up on it---the librarian, who knew us both because of our many visits, figured out what we were doing and offered us a list of suitable literature)
so
Ever since then 15 year old women have looked damned good to me, but, as the years have gone by, most of the time, they just look like children.
Bodies are nice to look at, but it's the mind that holds my attention.
........................
for sculpting, I prefer athletic models in their 20s-30s
Last edited by sculptor; September 25th, 2013 at 08:23 PM.
It's still very tiny % of the total population not at all representative of the average or median.
Also if you dig into those list many on them are there for things that probably shouldn't be there at all. A man stumbles out of a bar, staggers to a curb, and takes a leak just as a police cruiser passes by. He gets busted for exposing himself which is considered a sex crime in many states, added to a registry and stigmatized for life. The false positives are so numerous in some states that law enforcement is wanting the laws changed so they can sort out the real offenders and stop wasting time administrating the ones that shouldn't be on there.
And as we all know apparent age and actual age are often different. A 25 year old man who has sex with what appears to be a fully mature 16 year old might be breaking the law but probably isn't' a pedophile...while if she was a late blooming (sorry but having fun here) 16 year old who hadn't fully developed secondary sex characteristics he probably would be. The difference of course whether the man is attracted to adult secondary sex characteristics or prepubescent ones.
Yes the sex offender list is only a small percentage, but if you add it up for all of the US male population, it's going to be in the millions. Then you have to consider that the sex offender list is only the tip of an iceberg of adult males that find underage females attractive from a sexual POV. They would never consider acting on those feelings because good people don't do things that will cause harm to others and having sex with children nearly always causes a great deal of harm. Also I would say getting accurate numbers on the real feelings of adult males would be next to impossible, because in our society the reaction of others can be quite extreme and most people are just not going to take any chance of expressing feelings that put them in danger for having feeling they are never going to act on.
I wouldn't want to attend the bachelor party with dancers that are my age.jus sayin
Well less than a million Sex Offender Statistics | Statistic Brain Many of which include crimes that have absolutely nothing to with sexual attraction---men who pee on the side of the road, moon at a party or streak through a camp ground. Than there's those who rape others which is often more a crime of exerting power and imposing humiliation than one that has anything do with sexual attraction. Sex offenders the outlyers of human sexuality, being both small in number and more often than not having nothing to do with sexual attraction. The idea that there are large numbers attracted to adolescent (itself a fuzzy term because of the range of reaching puberty) and only being held back by respect for the law seems like unfounded speculation.
It's not just the law, but ordinary parents that have nightmares about their little girls being raped by pedophile strangers. Once you pick up a pedophile label the rest of your life becomes a living hell. Personally I don't have much sympathy for anyone that hurts others whether they be children or not. A rape victim at any age has a very damaged rest of their lives. But for some reason people are a lot more offended if they are children.
It's not just the law, but ordinary parents that have nightmares about their little girls being raped by pedophile strangers.
Well of course. Parents often aren't rational about their children, tend to imagine the worse and go overboard to protect them. But what's that got to do with this thread? While rape sometimes has a sexual attraction component it usually doesn't. We also throw around the term pedophile far too often--being attracted to a 16 or 17 year old who has fully developed secondary sex characteristics has nothing to do with pedophilia.
It's far better to have a word that covers the topic - Ephebophilia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia .
My suspicion is that some men found certain music, girls, fashion, activities or food attractive in their mid-teens to mid-twenties and just stuck there. It makes them boring adults with such a limited taste in music or hobbies. It's bad for their health to continue consuming adolescent levels of calories when they're 35+. They can look downright stupid in out of date or unsuitable for their age clothes. And they risk being creepy or worse if they maintain or restrict their sexual interest to women who are becoming younger and younger relative to them as they age.
I haven't saved it, but I remember reading a piece a couple of years (maybe more) ago about people regarding their youthful experiences and perceptions as the most fun, best of their lives, even if that period was one of deprivation or wartime. Anyone who knows someone old who talks about "the good times" when they were young, and you realise that they're talking about the depression or rationing during/ after wartime, is displaying this. Someone with a rigid cast of mind might decide - once and for all - when they're about 23 that they'll never let themselves get old, or eat certain foods, or agree that any musicians are better than Sinatra, Presley, Beatles, Springsteen or whoever, or be. seen. with. an. "aging". woman. Such a person is laying up trouble of various sorts in store for themselves when they hit 35 or 50. Maybe depression and disappointment. Maybe jail.
To me girls younger than myself looks good to love,date but not to have sex with......but of course I manage#
After skimming through the thread, seeing quotes about "adolescent preferences", sexual attractiveness, etc., I can't help but wonder how it escaped the Trash Bin? jocular
If I'm anything to go by, the best answer would be - by the skin of its teeth.
I'm having difficulties making sense of "sexual preferences" used in the OP.
Does it mean sexually aroused by adolescent girls, wanting/fantasying about having sex with adolescent girls, or admiring the youthfulness and perhaps the subjective form of "cuteness" of adolescent girls? I am able to do the latter but not the former, simply because the (often annoying) juvenile behaviour and mental immaturity of most adolescent girls I've met.
Why qualify your statement this way? You imply thus that perhaps your opinion sits lesser in value to that of other administrators (or mods, or W.E.T.H. the levels of control mean). Your stance smacks of being subordinate, (female?). Go ahead, then, flog me if you will feel better. I can take any form of retribution the 'Net has to mete out, for, I have seen it all, chauvinism, "pigs", etc., and I am sickened by it. joc
I'm "perilously close" by being able to admire the youthfulness and cuteness of adolescent girls, but not being able to be sexually aroused by them simply because of how annoying they may be due to their juvenile behaviour and mental immaturity?
Odd, I would think it should be the other way around.![]()
I took it to be more the former. For myself, an average 15 year old seductively licks an ice cream cone, I'm most likely to be disgusted and perhaps concerned about their home life. If a healthy forty year old so much as smiled at me while licking a cone...well... I'd probably have force myself to stop thinking with the wrong head and sit down out of embarrassment. Its about sex...what gets your engine running...lol.
--
As well studied as human sexuality is I spent a few minutes trying to find a good study but kept hitting commercial crap... I'm probably not framing the query right...perhaps someone else will have more success.
In my humble opinion ,this thread is in no way allowed to be honest. First you have humans and their makes. Their mate's size shape qualities and other things are what are important. Age doesn't even become a factor until you put them in a framework of civilization.Then factors become age wars money nazis powers and a a whole handfull of other irrellvent things.This thread focuses upon age and legalities starts off assuming that under the age of 18 is wrong.What does age have to do with anything in the first place?
1. Legality
2. Emotional damage
3. Physical trauma
4. Sorry pedophila isn't acceptable.
5. And some sick F*** who thinks age has nothing to do with it.
It does...
13 year old?
Emotionally of psychologically ready
NO!
sick way of looking at it to me.....
in my humble opinion
SICK
Excuse me.What a hassle.What I meant was to disregard the age thing entirly OLDER or YOUNGER.
Never occurred to me.Why qualify your statement this way? You imply thus that perhaps your opinion sits lesser in value to that of other administrators
I was simply saying that I was only one person - and in this case, the matter hadn't been discussed among moderators so I have no way of knowing what the others might be thinking.
Yeah. The merest acquaintance with a bit of Mandatory Reporting or similar training for teachers or health workers gives you quite a different perspective on teenage behaviour.I'm most likely to be disgusted and perhaps concerned about their home life.
This reminds me that "there are no homosexuals in Iran", logic and probability can be thrown out of the window, because its not politically correct.
And also, male rabbits have no sexual attraction for a female rabbit until the female rabbit arrives at the age of sexual reproduction, plus a certain number of days, arbitrarily selected by rabbit society, thats right, age of reproduction + 364 days the male rabbit is not only not attracted but is repelled because its sick, then on the next morning, he eats magically delicious Lucky Charms and tada! now he is magically attracted! On that exact day!
(edit: And "data" can sometimes be worthless, btw. We have a socially unpopular party who's actual election result always defies the polling data, as if people were ashamed to admit they plan on voting for scoundrels, but in the secrecy of the booth vote for them.)
Last edited by icewendigo; September 27th, 2013 at 04:35 AM.
Oh I thought there were no homosexuals in France - or was it Russia. Or Cuba? Anyway, what about homosexual rabbits? I thought rabbits tried to hump anything vaguely furry that moved.
Seriously though, with human beings there are good reasons for all the socially imposed taboos. For us, rearing a child takes years of collaboration between father and mother and includes a huge teaching component, due to the intelligence of the human brain, which is not the case with any other animal. This is unlikely to work well if either partner is immature. But, as to whether sex is legal at 15, 16 or 18, these are tiny cultural differences. In Romeo and Juliet, Capulet discussed this with Paris, Juliet's suitor:
Capulet: My child is yet a stranger in the world.She hath not seen the change of fourteen years.
Let two more summers wither in their pride
Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride.
Paris: Younger than she are happy mothers made.
Capulet: And too soon marred are those so early made.
So it seems in Shakespeare's time, either in England or in Italy where the action is set, girls got married off when they were 15 or less - and according to Paris, some at less than 13, though Capulet evidently disapproves of the practice. Paedophiia, shmaedophilia, perhaps. But personally, I agree with old man Capulet.
Last edited by exchemist; September 27th, 2013 at 04:48 AM.
Hmm, sexual imprinting to a specific age group rather than a broader scope of potential partners seems rather odd to me. I might be able to understand being attracted to a peer group of similar age, but specifically one of adolescence (even for older males) seems to suggest something deeper in the psyche may be out of whack; that or I am the one that is out of whack since that does not describe me.
I can be seduced by both older and younger, but I wouldn't necessarily prefer the younger one. It all depends on who I'm more comfortable with.
Has anybody else been following the sting operation in Washington where the police posted a Craigslist ad by a 15 year old cheerleader to have sex with older men for $100? They've busted over 30 men who responded to the ad already.
My personal opinion on this activity, is that it's blatant entrapment by the police and all these cases should be thrown out. At the same time I don't have a lot of sympathy for the stupidity of those men that responded. As most people know in the porn industry, they lie about the age of the females being depicted and that same attitude is carried on in the sex trade business and most people would see any ads claiming 15 y o sex as a lie but still expecting to see a very young looking adult. If that's the case, how would they be able to explain it to a jury so they would understand or at least believe?
JUST KNOW I should not get involved, but........
If the "shill's" alleged age was included in the offering, then it definitely smacks of entrapment. If not, then the judgment of the respondents is dubious. Win/win for somebody, as yet not determined. jocular
Cops Pose as Teen Cheerleader in Sex Sting, Net High School Teacher
This is one article I found, but I was going by what has been on the TV news for about a week now.
Checking........in#
There is the old French saying. The ideal woman is half a man's age plus 7 years.
I got a shock recently. I am 64 and long since gave up any illusion about being attractive to younger women. However, I was visiting the Philippines. That group of islands is stricken with poverty, and has an excessively large human population. One result is that young gals dream of marrying a western man and going to live in a wealthy country.
Since most speak English, I socialised with many groups, both genders, and all ages. I treat all the same, with a friendly approach, smiles, and good will. On one occasion, I was chatting to a group of young gals, of which the oldest would have been, maybe, 20. One asked me if I was looking for a girl. My reply was:"I am too old, too ugly, and too married to be looking for a girl."
One girl replied, very seriously, that I was not too old. A second told me, equally seriously, that I was not ugly. Then they had a quick group discussion, and concluded that being married was a deal breaker. Staggering for this old codger to realise that those young girls were actually interested in me, maritally. Of course, that is a result of the strong desire to escape poverty.
Or as a friend once told me :"A womans interest in a man is purely physical. It is about the bulge in his wallet."
In my case, BR, it is getting into NZ.
However, I am told that the philippine girls tend to be very loyal to their husbands, whatever age, if they are treated kindly. If a man is one of those arseholes who gets drunk and beats his wife, then I hope she takes him for all he has got!
I would gather the above provided formula a nice one. When I google/wikied I got the prefered age of 21 back too. Appearantly males prefer girls around 21... Atleast they prefer females younger then themselves and females prefer their mate to be a bit older. Ofcourse this all varies when you throw in cultural and religious preferences.
It would make sence. At age 21 a female is biologically mature enough to make babies without the risk of them dying. Their pelvis is now wide enough too, so it makes sence that would be the prefered age for men, to want too copulate with these women, from the point of evolution.
I recall studies I heard about a few years ago, that a female face around that time (age 21) is considered to be the most beautifull from a male's perspective,... it is the face halfway in the process of changing from teen girl's face into that of a fully mature female's face. But I could not find a reference for it so quickly, so I am not sure about the age preference.
I googled: "evolution and sexual age preferences"...
but all I got back was tons of links for studies, which I would have to buy in order to be able to read the PDF... which I ofcourse am not going to do.
... All the other links were links to articles about perverts.
Can anyone provide a link to a peer-reviewed article about it? Because I could not find one so quickly.
Which I would consider reasonable.
The thing is that it does not take much money to turn their lives around. If you send, say, $ 50 per month to the head of their family, that would get them a new home, food on the table, and the chance to save a bit to start a business.
Certainly, if an ugly old bastard ends up with a pretty young wife, that would be the least he should do. While I was over there, I met a German guy who had his 20 year old Filipino wife in tow. He would have been over 50, and about 6 ft. 4 inches, with an incredible pot belly. He was seriously obese. Finagle only knows how he and his slim young wife ever made love! I hope like hell that she makes him send money to her family.
Women are illogical creatures that I absolutely hate...
how much I like them *sighs*
It's like enjoying torture.
Do I find younger women attractive, many times yes, in a sexual fashion, or a lustful way. I have lately learned (or had it beaten into me), that this is not the whole of attraction or love, as such I find myself much more attracted to maturity, integrity, and honesty, and a 30 40 or 50 year old woman with those qualities will be far more "attractive" to me than a younger bimbo without, and they make them far more beautiful too in the end.
growing up in rural illinois, i had oft heart this phrase:
"If they're old enough to bleed, they'e old enough to breed"
Well that actually is a fact. And in medieval times the bleeding of a girl was often seen as a sign of maturity. Facts however are that the pelvis of a girl will take a few more years to mature. The menstrual cycle and the growth of the rest of the body,... is not in sync.
People in medieval times were well know to marry and then copulate with what we would these days call under-aged girls. Girls 12-13-14-15... what ever. It makes sence too. The average age in medieval times was not that high ... 30-something perhaps? So it makes sence to make your daughters breeding machines at an earlier age,... eventhough the girl's body may not be ready for it yet. If she survives... awesome... lets copulate with her some more!
But horrible from our modern viewpoint.
It's my assumption, that possibly, it is an instinct to be sexually attracted to younger females because they produce the healthiest sex cells.
I really don't know, just throwing it out there.
year numbers names like eighteen is invention of humans... that said its better to say im wiling to bet that the number on average of older man attracted to girls who don't have matting hormones yet nor got into their puberty nor are biologicaly ready to be mother.. is rather low
The data doesn't entirely support your conclusion. Age of puberty for women was actually significantly older than before the 20th century, a well supported observation known as secular effect. We see the effect rather dramatically in nations that have modernized in recent decades as well such as this study of Gambian adolescents that shows a two year drop in less than 3 decades. Western and American has similar drops but protracted over a century. While I'd like to think that young adolescent girls weren't' being forced to have sex soon after their arranged marriages but before menarche, I'm not sure if we really have an information about that.
,
Evidence for a downward secular trend in age of menarche in a rural Gambian population.
![]()
There is an interesting correlation between age of greatest fertility in women and age of greatest success in beauty contests. In an article I read on this, both centred on age 20. Fertility is high from about age 16 to age 30, and drops after that. Physical attractiveness seems to follow the same pattern. For those of us who like explanations based on evolution, no more needs to be said.
Apparently it may not be as black and white as that. The statistics everyone relies on are based on data from France between 1670 and 1830.Fertility is high from about age 16 to age 30, and drops after that.
Are the Age-Related Fertility Statistics Out of Date? Maybe, But Modern Stats Aren't Much Better
One big issue that arises for women over 35 is how much older their partner is. It may be more about the age of the couple rather than of the woman alone.
Recently some researchers analyzed all the porn searches on the Internet and published a book about it: A Billion Wicked Thoughts.
Amazon.com: A Billion Wicked Thoughts: What the Internet Tells Us About Sexual Relationships eBook: Ogi Ogas, Sai Gaddam: Kindle Store
They analyzed what countries search for what porn keywords, etc. I haven't read it but the reviews make it seem interesting.
Of course the original sex researcher was Kinsey. He discovered that all the "staid, straight" Americans were cheating on their spouses and having all kinds of non-governmental approved fun in private.
Speaking personally, my sexual preference is consenting adults.
I don't believe breeding success wholly explains sexual preferences when the species is highly social with individuals having specialized roles. In our case it is better for the larger group (and even family) that some of us don't breed. I mean that, counterintuitively, the sibling or other relation of a non-breeder may be more successful and thereby propagate the non-breeder's genes. Bees are an extreme example of this. The genetically expedient way to make some individuals non-breeders is to "switch off" the particular instincts that would cause them to breed successfully. Since this should apply to humans, I pose it as a prediction.
Adelady
The issue being debated in the male interest in younger women.
It may well be that the combined age of both is of vital importance, but that does not address why a man wants a particular age in his female partner. If a younger women increases his chances of reproducing successfully, then evolution will direct males to search out younger partners.
I'm not sure that that's not one of those evo-psych just-so stories. My feeling is that the preferences of younger men who are not wonderfully confident and secure in their emotional and sexual development leads them to prefer girls (rather than women) who are even less confident. These preferences change in most men as they mature, but not in all.If a younger women increases his chances of reproducing successfully, then evolution will direct males to search out younger partners.
As for reproductive success being a big driver, the societies and communities that made it obligatory for a woman to already to have a child in order to be considered suitable for marriage would be the prime example. How many of the men you're talking about would take that view? If they wouldn't, then the possibility of reproductive success is not as important to them as they say, or infer, it is.
I wasn't arguing for or against alpha male + younger woman. Just pointing out that because beauty pageants entertain the fantasy of candidates' eligibility (as brides, girlfriends, dates) women of ineligible demographics need not apply. If they showcased the exact same bodies, and all confirmed lesbians, they'd attract a different viewership. Same deal if they're all Jewish, etc. Remember I'm not talking about raw physical attraction here, just some conditions of beauty pageants.
Now about the evolution viewpoint. I think we all agree with blackscorp's theory, that sexual attraction follows reproductive success. That's the only explanation necessary when it's best for every member of a population to reproduce. Our social species doesn't work like that. As a group, we perform better (reproductively) when some members aren't breeding. Well, just imagine if every man and woman had to marry and raise children, and every one of us was keen to be the perfect spouse and parent. That's the situation blackscorp's theory predicts.
How can evolution cause some percentage of a population to not go down the breeding path? One way, is to broadly suppress reproduction across the entire population. So, many people try and fail to be good spouses, many people try and fail to have children. This is a wasteful and dangerous game to play. You're aiming for an optimal rate of reproductive success (i.e. birthrate) by hampering everybody. Another way, is to introduce variation in mate selection, so that some individuals will choose "inappropriate" mates, while others are allowed to breed without handicap.
I think the latter solution works better. I think it works best if non-breeding individuals appear sporadically and are well enough defined so not to waste energy attempting to reproduce. They might even become a majority, as exemplified by honeybees. As for homo sapiens I predict this mechanism is partially evolved already, and that it should be genetic, cultural, or both. If we take the theory further, we find it predicts some, er, kinks, that are quite testable. But that's enough for my pet theory here!
If that were so, the most attractive women would be those who'd already successfully borne a child. Guaranteed reproductive ability. Seeing as that isn't our cultural norm, there's something else at play here.I think we all agree with blackscorp's theory, that sexual attraction follows reproductive success.
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