The other
day I mentioned to a friend that some people have unrealistic expectations of
what men and women are supposed to look like. They both want someone beautiful
and young. I mean, that’s common
knowledge, right? Movies, magazines, television shows are all presenting glamorous
people with pretty faces and flawless bodies that never seem to age past their
twenties. (On the other hand, even teenage characters are often not played by teenage actors, but actors in their twenties.) It all creates an ideal image that lots of people desire in others in real life. It’s
not just the guys with those unrealistic expectations, but often the girls too. Right?
Well, my friend pulled up an unique article that showed this phenomenon. It
was a chart “of
how straight women [of different ages] rate the men on OKCupid based on their age.”
Here it is:
Then right below it
was the male version….
Hmm. Interesting isn't it? Based on the data
from this dating site, men seem to hold on to that unrealistic expectation of
women throughout their life. It doesn't matter if their 30 or 50, a lot of
these guys are looking for a girls with the face and body of a 20 to 24 year-old.
The presenter, the president
and co-founder of the online dating site, commented “From the time you’re 22 you’ll
be less hot than a 20-year-old, based on this data.”
So although I still tend to think that women also have
unrealistic expectations of men, maybe their expectations for beauty and youth change as they age. Whereas – as
my friend helped me see – men still expect the attractive younger women.
Let’s face it, guys; not all women and not
all men, are going to look like the young movie stars that show up on our televisions. And they are not going to stay twenty forever.
For some reason I always believed both genders did the same thing when it came to this. Perhaps women just look for some young features in en while men basically look for 20 year old's at the age of 40. Your use of the two graphs is awesome because it might have just sounded like an opinion if it were typed out. I'm really curious as to how older men would feel about this post.
ReplyDeleteBut then again I'm not because most of the men in my family are old and that's just weird. It's a really interesting topic with pretty shocking results. Not all women age at the same pace (looks wise) and it's just really unfortunate that no matter what, men still expect them to look half their age. That must definitely take a toll on their insecurities at times.
You (and the original poster) misunderstand. Men do not expect 40 year old women to look half their age. The point of the graph is that given a choice, the majority of men will choose a woman under the age of 24 over a woman who is older.
DeleteNow granted, not all older men have the SMV to succeed. But that doesn't change their desire.
I also wonder if the data would be similar coming from other dating websites. I can think of quite a few couples I know where the man is 10+ years older than the woman, but I can't think of a single couple I know that the woman is significantly older than the man. I find it very interesting to look at a graph like the ones you have shown and then prove that information by looking at relationships in my own life.
ReplyDelete"I can't think of a single couple I know that the woman is significantly older than the man."
DeleteThere are sound reasons rooted in mammalian biology as to why this is so.