# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![Prelude\_to\_Fascination](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Prelude\_to\_Fascination](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prelude_to_Fascination)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/41 "2011-02-25T17:55:53Z")
Slightly off topic, because this deals with the average _human_ as opposed to the average _woman_, but National Geographic has [this](http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/03/age-of-man/face-interactive) image showing what we would look like if all 7 billion of us were averaged out. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/42 "2011-02-25T17:59:36Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > Anyway, the point is if you are doing a project that does address ethnicity and you are making differentiations as fine as that between Mainland Chinese and the Taiwanese, you can at least bother to not just lump an enormous diverse continent into a couple of half-assed meaningless “Eh, they’re black” categories. Relax. It’s obviously not any kind of rigorous or scientific effort (even if the site implies this). They have both “Indian” and “South Indian” (and the latter does not look nearly dark enough to be typical for the region). The “South African” appears to be derived mostly from those of European ancestry; a face representing the “average” of the population as a whole would look much more Bantu. And one would expect a Puerto Rican “average” face to look more African if it was really representative. ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/43 "2011-02-25T18:30:57Z")
I’m thinking their software is wonky. Several of the nationalities had heads that looked spherical. Compare the French woman and the German woman. The average German woman looks like a female Charlie Brown. Compare the skull widths of the Samoan woman and Italian woman; there’s a glitch somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/44 "2011-02-25T18:34:47Z")
> [@](#): > > 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). QFT > [@Colibri](#): > > Relax. It’s obviously not any kind of rigorous or scientific effort (even if the site implies this). They have both “Indian” and “South Indian” (and the latter does not look nearly dark enough to be typical for the region). The “South African” appears to be derived mostly from those of European ancestry; a face representing the “average” of the population as a whole would look much more Bantu. And one would expect a Puerto Rican “average” face to look more African if it was really representative. **Philster** nailed it. This DOES NOT represent the average-looking woman of any given country. That is determined by genetic interactions, and there is no population-level force acting to average the phenotypic features of millions of women. This averages the faces of extant women, and tends to minimize extremes. As with any strictly mathematical average, a statistical minority (in this case, 9.2% “white”, vs. 79.4% “black”, according to Wiki) will exert a powerful force on the resulting average, skewing the average results toward the “white” side. Again, those who are objecting to this method on the basis of “well, that’s NOT what the average X ethnicity looks like!” need to realize that they’re sort of barking up the wrong tree. This is not the complex interaction of social factors, mate selection, and phenotypic expression. It’s just a simple mathematical average. ---
**Author:** ![Ostrya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/35a633/32.png) [@Ostrya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ostrya)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/45 "2011-02-25T18:40:11Z")
Philster nailed it? I think most of us would like to nail these women, they are absurdly good looking. Too bad it’s fantasy, there’s no way in hell these are averages. Or my girlfriend is an alien from the planet Xenon. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/46 "2011-02-25T18:44:12Z")
> [@the lone cashew](#): > > Philster nailed it? I think most of us would like to nail these women, they are absurdly good looking. Too bad it’s fantasy, there’s no way in hell these are averages. Or my girlfriend is an alien from the planet Xenon. No, they absolutely ARE averages, but that doesn’t mean that the average woman looks like this. They’re simply mathematical averages of faces of real women, which tends to cancel out extremes on any one face. ---
**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, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/47 "2011-02-25T18:45:52Z")
> [@Ogre](#): > > This is not the complex interaction of social factors, mate selection, and phenotypic expression. It’s just a simple mathematical average. It’s not mathematics if they separate races within one nation (“African American”) and but not in any others. Maybe they do, and those just aren’t posted. (But in that case, why bother to do the exercise at all?) Otherwise, why separate “African Americans” and not “African Mexicans,” or “Indio Mexicans”? That’s not mathematical; that’s ideological. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/48 "2011-02-25T18:56:20Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > It’s not mathematics if they separate races within one nation (“African American”) and but not in any others. Maybe they do, and those just aren’t posted. (But in that case, why bother to do the exercise at all?) Otherwise, why separate “African Americans” and not “African Mexicans,” or “Indio Mexicans”? That’s not mathematical; that’s ideological. No, no, no. Skin pigmentation is another characteristic that will be significantly impacted by outliers in a mathematical average (which is what is being used.) Do it yourself on the page you posted. Take a few “black” faces, and average them with one “white” face. Notice how strongly the white face affects the average. Means are strongly affected by outliers. ---
**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, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/49 "2011-02-25T18:58:49Z")
> [@Ogre](#): > > No, no, no. Skin pigmentation is another characteristic that will be significantly impacted by outliers in a mathematical average (which is what is being used.) Do it yourself on the page you posted. Take a few “black” faces, and average them with one “white” face. Notice how strongly the white face affects the average. Means are strongly affected by outliers. I’m not talking about the actual images. I understand that entirely. I’m talking about the organization/presentation of the website. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/50 "2011-02-25T19:04:20Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > I’m not talking about the actual images. I understand that entirely. I’m talking about the organization/presentation of the website. Ah, I see. Sorry. Although, that’s entirely defensible to me as well, since “African-American” is a well-known, large minority in the U.S. (and a poorly-named one at that, but that’s a different thread), whereas “African-Mexican” and “Indio-Mexican” would, I would guess, be much, much smaller demographics. And I’m sure they’re not about to process average faces for every possible ethnic combination. For that matter, you can do that yourself, if you’d like. ---
**Author:** ![mookieblaylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@mookieblaylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mookieblaylock)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/51 "2011-02-25T19:16:57Z")
And summing all these women up, I certainly couldn’t get a date in their countries either. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/52 "2011-02-25T19:17:46Z")
> [@mookieblaylock](#): > > And summing all these women up, I certainly couldn’t get a date in their countries either. Reported for being a you-know-what. ---
**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, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/53 "2011-02-25T19:19:48Z")
> [@Prelude\_to\_Fascination](#): > > Slightly off topic, because this deals with the average _human_ as opposed to the average _woman_, but National Geographic has [this](http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/03/age-of-man/face-interactive) image showing what we would look like if all 7 billion of us were averaged out. So we’d be Asian. Seems about right. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/54 "2011-02-25T19:39:06Z")
> [@mookieblaylock](#): > > And summing all these women up, I certainly couldn’t get a date in their countries either. **mookie** , we’ve told you to keep your comments about your depression in that one thread of yours. This makes the third warning you’ve gotten in the last week or so for ignoring that moderator instruction. Your posting privileges have been under discussion, but, per mod consensus, I’m putting you on a two-week suspension now. **twickster** , for the SDMB ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/55 "2011-02-25T19:45:58Z")
Wow - that Polish woman’s eye shape thing I’ve noticed IRL is reflected in the Polish woman’s averaged face. Interesting. Also, [QUOTE=Zebra] I like women. [/quote] Yeah. Women are hot. ---
**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, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/56 "2011-02-25T19:53:30Z")
> [@Ogre](#): > > … “African-Mexican” and “Indio-Mexican” would, I would guess, be much, much smaller demographics… Actually, Amerindians make up 10-14% of Mexcio–the same percentage made up by the category “African American” in the U.S. (And “Latino” would make an even larger group in the U.S.) The real question is at what point is someone in Mexico no longer considered Amerindian and then called “Mestizo”? [QUOTE=Widipedia] Judging Mexicans based on racial classification is never precise or accurate due to the various standards of measurement employed in classification which are often based on ambiguous standards and definitions. The percentages will inevitably overlap when comparing different sources because through some standards of classification certain individuals can classify in one group while in another study with different criteria they would be classified under another group. [/quote] Why say this about Mexico and not the U.S.? Few “African Americans” have absolutely no trace of Caucasian blood. Obama is just as much white as he is black, but everyone calls him a “black president.” [QUOTE=Ogre] And I’m sure they’re not about to process average faces for every possible ethnic combination. [/quote] Exactly. So when they do make a decision to separate one group (and when they do it for one country and not another) that decision is inevitably ideological. If they can mix everyone up in Puerto Rico, they certainly can mix everyone up in the Continental U.S. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/57 "2011-02-25T19:55:27Z")
Some misconceptions here. I very highly doubt that this research is making claims about what the average person in various countries look like, rather the average of a given subset of faces. I suspect some of these are the average of a particular international student population in Scotland. Also, I doubt they mean to suggest that all these are countries. African American isn’t a nationality (but then neither are other subdivisions, and Puerto Rico is not a country either), but then so what? Take a study, filter it through a popular science article, and the claims become more sensational. ---
**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, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/58 "2011-02-25T20:13:47Z")
What someone needs to do now is take all those faces and average THEM together so that we can see what the “average” human female face looks like. ---
**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, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/59 "2011-02-25T20:21:11Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Some misconceptions here. I very highly doubt that this research is making claims about what the average person in various countries look like, rather the average of a given subset of faces. Of course, but why some subsets and not others. If you’re after “averages,” then why work with subsets? An exaggeration to make the point: “On the average day in mid-February when both oil prices are high and “House” is a re-run, the temperature is 41 degrees in San Francisco.” That’s only meaningful to a person who trades in oil, watches “House,” and has free time in San Francisco in mid-February. > [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > I suspect some of these are the average of a particular international student population in Scotland. And for whom is _this_ average meaningful? > [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Also, I doubt they mean to suggest that all these are countries…Take a study, filter it through a popular science article, and the claims become more sensational. I would say that to make the images most meaningful, they should in fact use country (and country alone) to sort their data, because the place where a person lives is up to little interpretation. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/60 "2011-02-25T20:41:14Z")
> [@Ogre](#): > > Again, those who are objecting to this method on the basis of “well, that’s NOT what the average X ethnicity looks like!” need to realize that they’re sort of barking up the wrong tree. This is not the complex interaction of social factors, mate selection, and phenotypic expression. It’s just a simple mathematical average. And I’m sure it’s not a scientifically chosen representative sample of each population, but rather just a mash-up of whichever individuals of that ethnicity they happened to have around. > [@guizot](#): > > Actually, Amerindians make up 10-14% of Mexcio–the same percentage made up by the category “African American” in the U.S. (And “Latino” would make an even larger group in the U.S.) The real question is at what point is someone in Mexico no longer considered Amerindian and then called “Mestizo”? The line between “Indian” and “non-Indian” is much more a matter of language and culture than of appearance or genetic background. People are considered Indian mainly when their birth language is an Indian one rather than Spanish, and who maintain Indian dress and culture. Someone can be nearly 100% Indian in appearance, but won’t be considered Indian if their birth language and culture are Spanish. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549.md?page=4)