# 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:** 15\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2011, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/101 "2011-02-27T23:49:45Z")
Just remember, everyone, the average human has approximately one testicle and one ovary. Just because something’s average, doesn’t mean you’ll ever actually see it. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/102 "2011-02-28T00:05:53Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Just remember, everyone, the average human has approximately one testicle and one ovary. Just because something’s average, doesn’t mean you’ll ever actually see it. It could happen. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/103 "2011-02-28T03:07:55Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Just remember, everyone, the average human has approximately one testicle and one ovary. Just because something’s average, doesn’t mean you’ll ever actually see it. That means I’m above average, um, in the sack. Woo hoo! ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/104 "2011-02-28T07:05:40Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Just remember, everyone, the average human has approximately one testicle and one ovary. Just because something’s average, doesn’t mean you’ll ever actually see it. The average human also has less than two legs. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/105 "2011-02-28T07:57:48Z")
> [@Philster](#): > > If you use averages to make predictions, you’ll be very,\* very\* wrong. Absolutely. This experiment illustrates the difference between the average and the typical. Another thing to consider is what is being averaged and what is not. The software is designed to produce some sort of mean of the shapes and proportions of the faces and features. It is not designed to produce the mean of the attractiveness of the faces (I don’t know how you would do this). The fact that average attractiveness is not preserved when the average shape and proportion is calculated should not be too surprising. What is is interesting is that this type of averaging produces attractive results so consistently. I’d like to see this same experiment done with faces that are considered very attractive. What would the average of Charlize Theron, Halle Berry and the like produce? It wouldn’t surprise me if the average of a set of beautiful faces were a little _less_ attractive than the typical face in the set. ---
**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 28, 2011, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/106 "2011-02-28T17:46:55Z")
> [@Manduck](#): > > I think you are misunderstanding what is going on on that page. If you click the “How it was made” link it explains that it’s a picture of a Han Chinese male. It’s just that the image was composed of thousands of human figures supposedly representing different segments of the world population. If you zoom in on the figures it turns out to be really unremarkable. Anyway, just a picture of a chinese guy, not an average of all people. Actually, just taking the site I linked to, you’d be correct. But in the new issue of NatGeo magazine (I just got it in the mail last week, so I believe it’s March), there’s a poster with the picture of the Han Chinese guy, and the poster details that there are 1.01 men to every woman in the world, and with China being the most populous country…well, that’s how they came up with that particular average of everyone. So the poster included with the magazine actually gives details the site doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/107 "2011-02-28T18:20:41Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Just remember, everyone, the average human has approximately one testicle and one ovary. Remember that you can only take the arithmetic mean (which is the kind of average you presumably intended) of a numerical variable. Similarly for medians. People have properties that can be expressed numerically, but we are not numerical quantities. You can say “the average _number_ of testicles that a human has is one; ditto the average number of ovaries,” but you can’t say that the average _person_ has one of each. With respect to people, people often use ‘average’ as a synonym for ‘typical’ which is a perfectly reasonable colloquial use, so long as nobody tries to pretend it’s a mathematical or statistical term of art. ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2011, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/108 "2011-03-01T00:09:04Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > And from those links, here’s the average [white American male](http://pmsol3.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/whiteamericanmale.jpg?w=400&h=610) and [white American female](http://pmsol3.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/whiteamericanfemale.jpg?w=400&h=623). The average white American guy is Ben Affleck? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2011, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/109 "2011-03-01T00:35:04Z")
> [@Jenaroph](#): > > The average white American guy is Ben Affleck? I was thinking the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2011, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/110 "2011-03-01T07:59:57Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Just remember, everyone, the average human has approximately one testicle and one ovary. Just because something’s average, doesn’t mean you’ll ever actually see it. Also, the Vatican City, measuring as it does 0.5 km2, has an average of 2 popes/km2. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2011, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/111 "2011-03-01T08:01:56Z")
> [@TokyoPlayer](#): > > I have yet to meet someone who can clearly differentiate Chinese Americans, Korean Americans and Japanese Americans. > > My wife is Taiwanese, but has lived in Japan for 12 years. No one can tell what nationality she is. Yep. Take away language and clothes and I’ve still yet to meet anyone who can reliably tell the difference between Chinese Japanese and Koreans (maybe Taiwanese too). ---
**Author:** ![Crown\_Prince\_of\_Irony](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ed655f/32.png) [@Crown\_Prince\_of\_Irony](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crown_Prince_of_Irony)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2011, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/112 "2011-03-01T08:14:56Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > And from those links, here’s the average [white American male](http://pmsol3.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/whiteamericanmale.jpg?w=400&h=610) and [white American female](http://pmsol3.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/whiteamericanfemale.jpg?w=400&h=623). He looks just like a sales rep that works in my office - weird. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2011, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/113 "2011-03-02T22:51:37Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > I would like to thank you personally for providing that link. I hadn’t seen that particular picture before. Just … woah. Da-yum. Yes, in fact I actually uttered the word ‘‘damn’’ out loud. Holy shit. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2011, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/114 "2011-03-03T13:30:59Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > I think people who say they can distinguish the different “Asians” based on facial features alone are just Asianophiles who wanna look cool. Or, if they are Asian, they think that they have some type of special radar that the rest of us lack. I think so. Just as one example, my Japanese ex-wife used to swear that she could tell them apart because of facial features. I tested her on Japanese-Americans, Korean-Americans and Chinese-Americans, and she consistently failed. > [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > My Thai wife is ethnically Chinese. In Thailand, other Thais have mistaken her for Japanese and Filipina. In the US, she was once mistaken for Hawaiian. My wife is also ethnically Han Chinese (with perhaps a tiny bit of Taiwanese aborigine, but of unknown percentage). However, since she’s lived in Japan for 12 years, any buys clothes here, then people can never get her right. She’s mistaken for Japanese in Japan; Korean in Korea; and Vietnamese in Vietnam, which also has a ethnic Chinese population. > [@spark240](#): > > [Here’s a quiz](http://alllooksame.com/quiz.php?tid=1) to try for the three Asian sets. > > I just got 12/18, which is a little worse than I’d hoped, but the average score is only 7. (Random chance would be 6.) Note that this test is not a test of facial features, but of hair and clothes. Also note that the pictures are at least several years old. Are we surprised that the men with the yellowest hair are Japanese? Genetically, the groups are closely related, if not indistinguishable, which makes listening to the self-proclaimed experts amusing. > [@Isamu](#): > > Yep. Take away language and clothes and I’ve still yet to meet anyone who can reliably tell the difference between Chinese Japanese and Koreans (maybe Taiwanese too). Exactly. ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2011, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549/115 "2011-03-03T16:35:01Z")
> [@Philster](#): > > 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). > > . Exactly- too many of the readers here are equating average with typical. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-women-from-41-different-countries/572549.md?page=5)