What age do you find women to be most attractive?

[Tamas]

wether or not kids from ages 13 to 17 are considered men/women depends very much on what society's criteria are. And these can (and have) change over time

well yeah I didn't want to start going on about stuff like gypsy marriages with the bride being 12 being so widespread at the outskirts that the police just sort of ignores them.

[Martinus]

Don't girls mature faster than boys though? I think for a long time the marriage eligible age was different for those groups.

Did they actually differentiate in the law? That just seems... wrong.

Errr, laws like this still exist in the US. E.g. In Arkansas with a parental consent girls can marry at 16 and boys at 17.

Edit: and apparently in Kansas you can go as low as 12 for girls and 14 for boys. 

[CountDeMoney]

I don't know why the poll was started at 14, anyway.  18? Sure.  But 14?   Maybe if you're 15.

Because the poll was inspired by the OP's story of a college dude attempting to pick up a 14 year old. 

Yeah, but that was a targeting failure by the forward observer;  there's a difference between being accidentally attracted to a 14 year old that looks 17, and being attracted to a 14 year old.

[FunkMonk]

I don't know why the poll was started at 14, anyway.  18? Sure.  But 14?   Maybe if you're 15.

Because the poll was inspired by the OP's story of a college dude attempting to pick up a 14 year old. 

People always skip the OP in polls. 

I should have included what I was referring to anyway:

Today's pedophile alert comes from: The dumbass who sits two rows in front of me in my afternoon class


There's this girl in my class who, to any rational and non-pedo observer, obviously looks underage. Siegy would like her a lot. Dumbass dude walks in, sits down next to her, and starts the mack attack. I wasn't sure what he was so sure on, but he seemed like the classic smooth talkin' ladies' man, i.e. an idiot.

Class ends and people start shuffling out of the auditorium. I'm walking behind them and I overhear this:

Dumbass: So what are you doing this weekend?
Little girl: Uh, not much. What about you?
Dumbass: I have work but not much else. By the way, what's your major?
Little girl: Oh, I don't have one. I'm just taking classes here. I'm 14.
Dumbass: ....................................................... oh
Random black dude who overheard them: DAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMM
Me: 

[merithyn]

Errr, laws like this still exist in the US. E.g. In Arkansas with a parental consent girls can marry at 16 and boys at 17.

Oh. Well that's Arkansas. They're not real people. They're just caricatures of real people. See: The Clintons.

[HVC]

People always skip the OP in polls. 

Ya, ya. it all makes sense know. you were the guy hitting on the 14 year old, weren't you? WEREN'T YOU?!?

[HVC]

Errr, laws like this still exist in the US. E.g. In Arkansas with a parental consent girls can marry at 16 and boys at 17.

Oh. Well that's Arkansas. They're not real people. They're just caricatures of real people. See: The Clintons.

Garbs gonna scratch you now

[FunkMonk]

People always skip the OP in polls. 

Ya, ya. it all makes sense know. you were the guy hitting on the 14 year old, weren't you? WEREN'T YOU?!?

My cover is blown!  

[Malthus]

People always skip the OP in polls. 

Ya, ya. it all makes sense know. you were the guy hitting on the 14 year old, weren't you? WEREN'T YOU?!?

My cover is blown!  

The question is ... were you. 

[merithyn]

People always skip the OP in polls. 

Ya, ya. it all makes sense know. you were the guy hitting on the 14 year old, weren't you? WEREN'T YOU?!?

My cover is blown!  

The question is ... were you. 

Yeah, see, not okay. 

[Valmy]

And that doesn't answer my question, Tamas. Do you consider boys 14-17 men?

Don't girls mature faster than boys though? I think for a long time the marriage eligible age was different for those groups.

Physically yes which can be sorta creepy when you have a girl who looks 20 but has the mental maturity of a ten year old.

But the whole marriage age thing was more motivated by the desire to produce as many children who survive to adulthood as possible than their actual physical or mental maturity.

[Brazen]

I was interested to find out the other day that in an era where people married young, women didn't reach puberty until later in life, at around 18. In England, the average in 1840 was 16.5 years, compared to today's average age of menarche of about 12.5 years. Of course, back then they'd squeeze out a baby every year until they dropped dead at 30, but that's a different matter.

[Valmy]

Of course, back then they'd squeeze out a baby every year until they dropped dead at 30, but that's a different matter.

And then you would marry another 16 year old and start again.   Ah the good old days.

[merithyn]

And then you would marry another 16 year old and start again.   Ah the good old days.

True story: My ex-husband's great grandfather married his first wife when she was 14 and he was 20. They had 18 children over the course of the marriage. When the youngest was only an infant, an illness came through and wiped the lot of them out. Only he survived. He packed up and moved to the US, where he promptly married another 14 year old (he was now 41) and had 14 more children, most of which survived to adulthood.

My guess is this is why men find teenagers attractive. 

[Eddie Teach]

She's often - and I do mean often - mistaken as a student at the University here. No, there isn't a vast difference - in physical appearance, anyway - between the two ages.

You pretty much have your answer here. For males, attraction is driven primarily by physical traits.