# Does Your Sexual Attraction Age As You Do? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 6, 2011, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-sexual-attraction-age-as-you-do/577339 "2011-04-06T01:16:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-sexual-attraction-age-as-you-do/577339/42 "2011-04-07T15:34:57Z")
> [@Polerius](#): > > The best way to represent my answer to the OP is with graphs… No wonder the supermodels just throw themselves at you! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Polerius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d78d45/32.png) [@Polerius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polerius)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-sexual-attraction-age-as-you-do/577339/43 "2011-04-07T15:53:49Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > No wonder the supermodels just throw themselves at you! 😉 I can’t keep them off me, I tell ya 😃 FYI, I expressed a similar feeling as **Shodan** and **ThisOneGuy** , but I did such a terrible job by using those graphs that **Shodan** thought he was the only one in this thread to have a mostly constant age range of attractiveness. ---
**Author:** ![Nathan\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/47e85d/32.png) [@Nathan\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nathan_S)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-sexual-attraction-age-as-you-do/577339/44 "2011-04-07T17:23:52Z")
Heh, when I first read the thread title, I thought OP would be asking whether we’d gotten more sexually attractive as we aged. To which my response would have been “hell yes”. I’m certainly less physically attractive at 54 than I was at, say, 24, but also waaay more fascinating. 🙂 However, with regard to the _real_ point of the thread, yeah, my sexual attraction has definitely aged. I guess part of it is having daughters 18 and 19 years old. I can admire a young girl’s beauty, but cannot imagine being sexual attracted to someone that young. Even the 30 year olds kinda look like jail bait now. ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-sexual-attraction-age-as-you-do/577339/45 "2011-04-07T18:05:46Z")
> [@Nathan\_S](#): > > Even the 30 year olds kinda look like jail bait now. To venture slightly off-topic, this has become a minor issue for me: I’m almost 40 but I look like I’m almost 30 (no, really), and sometimes 40- and 50-something guys assume that I’m too young for them. But then sometimes it seems that they talk to me _because_ they think that I’m 28 – which means that I’m probably not what they’re looking for (and vice-versa). The 50-year-old guy from the bar who I mentioned in my previous post? He was a nice change, because he started out assuming that I wasn’t 30 yet but I think I actually became more interesting to him once he found out my age – and once we started talking about music/local bands and he discovered that I actually knew some stuff. 🙂 Anyway, as I said, it’s only a minor issue. Most of the men I meet aren’t single/available, so it’s not like I run into this a lot, but it _is_ something that I’ve started to notice. ---
**Author:** ![11811](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/9d8465/32.png) [@11811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/11811)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-sexual-attraction-age-as-you-do/577339/46 "2011-04-07T22:36:33Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > So that’s what I mean by my question, does your attraction to the opposite sex, or same sex if your gay, change as you age? Sometimes I’ll become aware that what I find attractive about a woman is that she’s young and firm of flesh. And I mean “firm of flesh” literally, not that she’s built like a brick shithouse. And sometimes she’s also built like a brick shithouse. I’m 50, and women in their 40’s are attractive to me in a way they weren’t when I was in my 40’s. ---
**Author:** ![rhubarbarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2011, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-sexual-attraction-age-as-you-do/577339/47 "2011-04-08T01:29:44Z")
I am only 25, but haven’t noticed any changes in this for the last 7 or 8 years. Obviously I no longer find prepubescent children or gawky early teens attractive like I did when I was their age, but my age limits for attractive individuals have always been broad and are remaining so as I age. I still find some of the more well-developed people in their mid teens to late teens to be very attractive, and older people into their 50s. In general I am very shallow, and that hasn’t changed either. I imagine if I ever find myself single again, it will be a different ball game than it was in my teens. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2011, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-sexual-attraction-age-as-you-do/577339/48 "2011-04-08T01:59:47Z")
I was tracking right along with the females exactly my age until I hit my mid-thirties when that line in time just froze. I can’t see that sweet spot moving any time soon. I don’t plan to ever get married again but I think I am going to look at the 1980 - 1985 model years if I have to do any kind of trade. Those weren’t good years for Detroit but U.S. hospitals were pushing out a quality product back then from what I can tell. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2011, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-sexual-attraction-age-as-you-do/577339/49 "2011-04-08T15:09:01Z")
For physical attraction, count me in the broadening camp. I’m post-40 now, and find many women older than me quite attractive. The 18 yo’s are still hot also. For mental/social attraction, I’ve always found the 25-35 range most attractive. Below that tends to be too naive and childish, above that tends to be too closed-minded, settled, or atrophied. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2011, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-sexual-attraction-age-as-you-do/577339/50 "2011-04-08T15:31:43Z")
I always look to The Golden Girls for inspiration - they are no spring chickens and none of them have any problems having affairs or getting dates, even the old lady, with age-appropriate gentlemen! 🙂 Myself: I can appreciate a man’s good bod at any age (anyone see 64 year old Iggy Pop on AI?), but not in a hit-that kind of way. Young men aren’t very attractive looking to me now, with their stupid clothes, odd facial hair, and shaved heads, though I don’t mind tattoes or piercings. I’m more inclined to look at sensitive emo Goth boys and think, oh, if I were only several decades younger! … Men my own age mostly look like decrepit wrecks, so that window has closed. I suppose I will go into my old age content with being a crazy cat lady, watching ‘my stories’. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2011, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-sexual-attraction-age-as-you-do/577339/51 "2011-04-08T17:32:40Z")
My attractions haven’t changed, only because they didn’t need to. I have always been attracted to guys of all different ages, with no preference whatsoever. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2011, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-sexual-attraction-age-as-you-do/577339/52 "2011-04-08T17:38:24Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Now that I’m 46, I find (pretty) women of my own age very attractive. And, I still can appreciate 18-year-olds, even if I recognize that sort of makes me a dirty old man. Another middle-aged guy in the same boat 😃 These days, it’s not uncommon that I see women in their 60s who can still stir the loins. 25 years ago – no way. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-sexual-attraction-age-as-you-do/577339.md?page=2)