# Average women from 41 different countries **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 25, 2011, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549 "2011-02-25T06:09:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/21 "2011-02-25T13:01:34Z")
Link off a link off this site: **Catwalk Falls** [http://artsyspot.com/catwalk-falls-and-fails/#5353](http://artsyspot.com/catwalk-falls-and-fails/#5353) ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/22 "2011-02-25T13:16:17Z")
There is no fucking way that is the “average” South African woman, given our demographics. The “average” South African woman is black. This is unscientific bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/23 "2011-02-25T13:44:08Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > There is no fucking way that is the “average” South African woman, given our demographics. The “average” South African woman is black. Yeah, I noticed that. Does it look like a white South African? ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/24 "2011-02-25T13:48:28Z")
I have a hard time believing the “average” woman in any of those countries is so beautiful. I’ve seen lots of faces lo these 43 years and on average, people are much much less attractive than the faces on that page. It might be averaging the faces of the Miss Universe contestants from each of those places, but that’s about it. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/25 "2011-02-25T13:52:38Z")
Did you try the link? ---
**Author:** ![Khaki\_Campbell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Khaki\_Campbell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khaki_Campbell)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/26 "2011-02-25T14:04:49Z")
How the “French woman” went off so attractive (considering what I see everyday) is beyond me. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/27 "2011-02-25T14:13:12Z")
> [@Khaki\_Campbell](#): > > How the “French woman” went off so attractive (considering what I see everyday) is beyond me. As Sparks said, try the link. I specifically picked women I simply could not have sex with, mixed them and it produced a result which, though not head turning, would qualify as “person who would be supposed to be average in a Hollywood movie”. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/28 "2011-02-25T14:21:43Z")
Jesus Christ these faces are hot. Except the Samoan. But besides her: Stunning! ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/29 "2011-02-25T14:39:54Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > There is no fucking way that is the “average” South African woman, given our demographics. The “average” South African woman is black. This is unscientific bullshit. Jaysus, didn’t notice that. Maybe it’s an advertorial for beauty products. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/30 "2011-02-25T14:51:44Z")
An average is not a predictor. If you use averages to make predictions, you’ll be very,\* very\* wrong. The average daytime temp for a given area might be 52 degrees. But expecting a 52-degree day would set you up to be way, way off probably well over 75% of the time. The pictures _average out_ women, but that does **not** mean it (the technique) predicts what the average woman looks like (as the link headline implies). . ---
**Author:** ![Al\_Bundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@Al\_Bundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al_Bundy)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/31 "2011-02-25T15:19:11Z")
There was a sameness to all of the pictures. And they were all obviously about the same young age. We all know that most women don’t meet the average. The grouping is designed to sell a software concept. It does not speak to basic appeal. Variation is what makes the world go around. I can be attracted to something the next person rejects. It’s a good thing we are not all attracted to the same woman or she would be unbelievably busy. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/32 "2011-02-25T15:26:06Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > But is that really true in practice? Are the people we (you, I, anybody) individually find most attractive really defined by the… absence of distinction? Yes. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/33 "2011-02-25T15:28:35Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > There is no fucking way that is the “average” South African woman, given our demographics. The “average” South African woman is black. This is unscientific bullshit. I was going to say it more sarcastically - “Gosh, the average South African woman is awfully pale, given than 80% of South African women are black…” but yeah. ---
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/34 "2011-02-25T16:15:07Z")
I read an article a long time ago about research on beauty and genetics ([found it](http://books.google.com/books?id=su8mAQAAIAAJ&q=denzel+washington+beauty+symmetrical&dq=denzel+washington+beauty+symmetrical&hl=en&ei=jNFnTbzQD83pgAfmvvXLCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CEkQ6AEwBA)). One of the key factors found in beauty was symmetry of features. The (conjecture? hypothosis? reasoning?) that the preference for symmetrical faces is evolutionarily advantageous is that asymmetry is caused by disease, and so symmetry indicates more disease resistant genes. It should be obvious that when you average out features for any group you’re going to end up with much more symmetrical features. > [@guizot](#): > > I did the same thing, and I have to conclude that human genetics somehow prevents that from happening. Actually, I remember that either Time or Newsweek did this in 1990, and they had a way to prevent the androgyny. Same article, maybe? From what I’ve read (and another google books query confirms), estrogen and testosterone both affect bone growth. A gross over-simplification would be to say that estrogen stops bone growth and testosterone encourages it. This can explain why women are generally shorter than men, and why women have smaller jaws and finer facial features, while men have larger jaws and heavier features. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/35 "2011-02-25T16:27:52Z")
The average _face_ is perfectly attractive, it’s the average _body_ that needs work. Especially in America. Seriously - the biggest requisite for a person to be considered attractive is not being fat. There are a few people with truly ugly faces, but the majority of people are “attractive” if they are in good physical shape. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/36 "2011-02-25T16:30:22Z")
Besides symmetry, it seems that a huge factor is skin. In the [national/ethnic averages](http://www.gizmocrazed.com/2011/02/software-calculates-what-the-average-woman-looks-like-in-41-countries/), every single one has perfect, absolutely glowing skin. In the [demo](http://www.faceresearch.org/demos/average) you can choose images of people with acne, birthmarks, scars, just terrible complexions… roll them together and again great skin comes out, because everybody’s marks are in different places. BTW, there’s some other stuff going on at the Face Research site. One of their experiments was testing for preferences between nearly-identical pairs of pictures. At the end, I got this, > [@](#): > > This experiment looks at your preferences for symmetry in faces. > > On average, people preferred the more symmetric images 53% of the time. You preferred them 73% of the time. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/37 "2011-02-25T16:31:52Z")
I don’t trust the picture of the English chick. They don’t show her teeth. I’d have to see the average of their teeth but to be honest if there were more than four I’d hit it. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/38 "2011-02-25T17:03:43Z")
> [@Zyada](#): > > Same article, maybe?.. The article was specifically addressing the increasing “interracialness” of the U.S. It wasn’t really concerned with "beauty,’ or what any particular “mix” looked like, so I don’t think we’re talking about the same article. But that gets back to **even sven** ’s point regarding the African continent: [QUOTE=even sven] “Africa” is not a country. If you are going to bother to separate the UK into Wales, Ireland. and have the courtesy to divide Asia into actual individual countries.. [/quote] Conversely, the United States _ **is** _ a country. “Africa America” is _ **not** _ a country. So someone please tell me why there is an image for “African American”? ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/39 "2011-02-25T17:07:29Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > …A face with truly “averaged” proportions is somewhat rare and very desirable especially among males. Christopher Walken had it [(when he was young)](http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lc41w1oZLV1qbvk7po1_500.jpg); … I would like to thank you personally for providing that link. I hadn’t seen that particular picture before. Just … woah. Da-yum. ---
**Author:** ![hdc\_bst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/9f8e36/32.png) [@hdc\_bst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hdc_bst)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/40 "2011-02-25T17:39:23Z")
Very neat stuff. It is quite interesting that the averages tend to be considered beautiful. The ‘averaging’ technique they’re using is described at (pdf): [http://www.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk/files/publications/download/TSP06a.pdf](http://www.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk/files/publications/download/TSP06a.pdf) It would be interesting if face-research gave some indication of how they’re building their representative image suites. There may or may not be some bias created by their inclusion rules. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549.md?page=3)