“At what age are you most beautiful?”
That was the question posed in a survey sent earlier this year to about 16,000 adults in the United States and seven other countries.
The collective answer was age 30, though respondents, all of whom were 35 or older, offered a few caveats. Men, for example, reach maximum beauty at 32 while women reach it at 28, according to the survey. Also, peak beauty apparently can arrive at different times in different countries, with Canadians and Germans saying men hit it at 35 and Italians saying women are most beautiful at 24.
But, details aside, the basic message was clear: We humans believe we are most attractive sometime after the earliest bloom of adulthood but a solid decade, or more, before anything close to middle age.
As for peak beauty and old age? It’s not even close. For all the lip service paid to the idea that beauty is as much about attitude as any physical attribute or birthday – a concept a lot of people would say is demonstrably true – thousands of anonymous responses suggest that’s not actually how we feel.
Just don’t tell Sports Illustrated.
This month, the magazine chose Martha Stewart, age 81, to be one of four cover models for its annual swimsuit issue. Stewart’s appearance generated a lot of buzz, pro and con, from people who track aging and ageism (and sexism, among other ‘isms).
And it wasn’t a one-off. Days before Stewart’s SI cover was revealed, fitness guru Denise Austin, 66, was making news after self-publishing photos of herself wearing a swimsuit she’d modeled several decades previously. And, in the past year, everybody from model Christie Brinkley (69) to music legend Mary J. Blige (52) to soap operate actress Susan Lucci (76), have used glamor shots of themselves looking great in bathing suits to boost their brands.
While the international survey (from NordChem, a UK-based company that makes beauty, health and cleaning products) focused on the “when” of beauty, it…
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