You have the most marvelous youth, and youth is the one thing worth having.… Someday
when you are old and wrinkled and ugly, when thought has seared your forehead with its lines
and passion branded your lips with its hideous fires, you will feel it. You will feel it terribly. Now,
wherever you go you charm the world. Will it always be so? You have a wonderfully beautiful
face,Mr. Gray.…And beauty is a formof genius-is higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no
explanation. It is one of the great facts of the world, like sunlight or springtime or the reflection
in dark waters of that silver shell we call theMoon. It cannot be questioned. It has its divine right
of sovereignty. It makes princes of those who have it. You smile-ah, when you have lost it you
won’t smile. People say sometimes that beauty is only superficial. That may be so, but at least
it is not so superficial as thought is. To me, beauty is the wonder of wonders. It is only shallow
people who do not judge by appearances. The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the
invisible.
Women with high reproductive value attract men. 19-year-old women are likely to produce the
greatest number of children–twice as many as 30-year-old women.
Teenage boys, on average, prefer girls a year older. Men in their middle twenties usually prefer
women a year or two younger. Thirty-something men prefer women 5 to 10 years younger. Many
men in their 40s and 50s prefer women 10 to 20 years younger.
Women of all ages up to about 45 prefer, on average, a man a few years older.1
These statistical findings are mostly medians, however, and not necessarily the mode. In reality,
age preferences vary widely from individual to individual, and sometimes from one stage of life
to the next.
Neoteny
Neoteny is the retention of juvenile characteristics into adulthood.
In other primates, e.g., chimpanzees and gorillas, both male and female adults have tough skin,
coarse body hair, Adam’s apples, and deep voices. Humans, however, have characteristics of
neoteny. Some of themappear in men, but most appear in women.
Adult women, for example, usually have higher voices like children.2 Men and women agree that
attractive women have the large eyes and lips and small noses and chins of children. Attractive
women’s faces have the proportions of 11-to-14-year-old children.3
Women further neoteny by using cosmetics, shaving their legs, and wearing children’s clothing,
e.g.,Mary Jane shoes.
However, attraction of men toward pre-pubescent girls has no reproductive value. Mature
women have features that distinguish them frompre-pubescent girls, yet are different frommen.
These secondary sexual characteristics include prominent breasts, clearly defined waists, and
full hips. They reflect sexualmaturity and fertility, offsetting the pre-pubescence that neotenous
characteristics could otherwise suggest.
Children’s long dependency on their fathers is associated with neoteny. Fatherless children–a
million years ago or today–were less likely to learn adult skills, inherit social status, and reproduce.
Women who appeared young and remained strong were able to keep a man for twenty
years, instead of losing him to a younger woman. A young-looking widow could find a second
husband, whereas an older-looking counterpart of the same chronological age might not.4 Some
statistical extrapolations suggest that someone ismore likely to stay with one partner, the longer
the partner continues to appear young. A hypothesis has been given to suggest that children
with mothers who retain youthful characteristics were more likely to have both parents throughout
their childhood, and grow up to reproduce and have descendants. Parents with neotenous
characteristics would pass them on to their offspring. E.g., a mother who has certain features
that cause her to look younger than other women her age is likely to have daughters having that
appearance as well.
when you are old and wrinkled and ugly, when thought has seared your forehead with its lines
and passion branded your lips with its hideous fires, you will feel it. You will feel it terribly. Now,
wherever you go you charm the world. Will it always be so? You have a wonderfully beautiful
face,Mr. Gray.…And beauty is a formof genius-is higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no
explanation. It is one of the great facts of the world, like sunlight or springtime or the reflection
in dark waters of that silver shell we call theMoon. It cannot be questioned. It has its divine right
of sovereignty. It makes princes of those who have it. You smile-ah, when you have lost it you
won’t smile. People say sometimes that beauty is only superficial. That may be so, but at least
it is not so superficial as thought is. To me, beauty is the wonder of wonders. It is only shallow
people who do not judge by appearances. The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the
invisible.
Women with high reproductive value attract men. 19-year-old women are likely to produce the
greatest number of children–twice as many as 30-year-old women.
Teenage boys, on average, prefer girls a year older. Men in their middle twenties usually prefer
women a year or two younger. Thirty-something men prefer women 5 to 10 years younger. Many
men in their 40s and 50s prefer women 10 to 20 years younger.
Women of all ages up to about 45 prefer, on average, a man a few years older.1
These statistical findings are mostly medians, however, and not necessarily the mode. In reality,
age preferences vary widely from individual to individual, and sometimes from one stage of life
to the next.
Neoteny
Neoteny is the retention of juvenile characteristics into adulthood.
In other primates, e.g., chimpanzees and gorillas, both male and female adults have tough skin,
coarse body hair, Adam’s apples, and deep voices. Humans, however, have characteristics of
neoteny. Some of themappear in men, but most appear in women.
Adult women, for example, usually have higher voices like children.2 Men and women agree that
attractive women have the large eyes and lips and small noses and chins of children. Attractive
women’s faces have the proportions of 11-to-14-year-old children.3
Women further neoteny by using cosmetics, shaving their legs, and wearing children’s clothing,
e.g.,Mary Jane shoes.
However, attraction of men toward pre-pubescent girls has no reproductive value. Mature
women have features that distinguish them frompre-pubescent girls, yet are different frommen.
These secondary sexual characteristics include prominent breasts, clearly defined waists, and
full hips. They reflect sexualmaturity and fertility, offsetting the pre-pubescence that neotenous
characteristics could otherwise suggest.
Children’s long dependency on their fathers is associated with neoteny. Fatherless children–a
million years ago or today–were less likely to learn adult skills, inherit social status, and reproduce.
Women who appeared young and remained strong were able to keep a man for twenty
years, instead of losing him to a younger woman. A young-looking widow could find a second
husband, whereas an older-looking counterpart of the same chronological age might not.4 Some
statistical extrapolations suggest that someone ismore likely to stay with one partner, the longer
the partner continues to appear young. A hypothesis has been given to suggest that children
with mothers who retain youthful characteristics were more likely to have both parents throughout
their childhood, and grow up to reproduce and have descendants. Parents with neotenous
characteristics would pass them on to their offspring. E.g., a mother who has certain features
that cause her to look younger than other women her age is likely to have daughters having that
appearance as well.
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