Beauty is in the eye of the older
Over-40s now at top of sex-appeal table
Fears that modern society is obsessed with youth may be unfounded after research showed that the average age of people judged the most beautiful is now close to 40.
Scientists from Boston University School of Medicine compared celebrities who were listed in People magazine’s World’s Most Beautiful list in 1990 with those listed this year.
Three decades ago, the average age of those judged the most beautiful was 33.2, but this year it was 38.9.
Celebrities including actresses Sharon Stone and Michelle Pfeiffer, both 59, helped raise the profile of the mature woman. Julia Roberts, the 49-year-old -actress, was named World’s Most Beautiful woman.
Pfeiffer, Stone and Roberts all feature in the 1990 list, suggesting they are dismantling beauty stereotypes.
The research also showed there had been a shift toward darker skin tones.
In 1990, lighter skins easily dominated the Most Beautiful list, making up 88 per cent of the celebrities. By 2017, lighter-skinned stars had fallen to 70.4 per cent.
The proportion of non-white celebrities on the list increased from 24 per cent in 1990 to 40 per cent today. Mixed-race women were represented by one person in 1990 but by 14 in 2017.
Writing in the journal Jama Dermatology, the team, led by Dr. Neelam Vashi, from the Boston University School of Medicine, concluded: “At present, a wider variety of skin colours and inclusion of older age groups are represented among those deemed most beautiful.
“The mass-media platform has for years introduced certain criteria for what constitutes beauty. Through the World’s Most Beautiful issues of People, we found that these beauty standards are evolving.”