Always entertaining, Jamie Keiles, of the Seventeen Magazine Project and Teenagerie, offered the age distribution of the “hot guys” profiled in the June issue of Seventeen magazine. This issue, after all, was the “Hot Guys of Summer” issue. Fun!
Keiles writes that:
…only two of the guys, Justin Bieber and Nick Jonas, were even in the age range for reading the magazine, ages 12 to 19. What I found weirder, though, is that the largest groups of males featured in the article fell into the two oldest age ranges. This means its possible that the oldest male hottie, Charlie Bewley, could have fathered the youngest targeted Seventeen reader, age 12, when he was 17 years old.
Here’s the data based on an N of 13:
Men and women do marry asymmetrically, with women, on average, marrying men who are taller, more educated, who make a bit more money, have a bit more status, and are a bit older. The average age of marriage for women is 25 and the average age for men is 27. So this is some evidence of early socialization to this idea.
But there’s more…
Not to be underestimated, Keiles asked the question that is on all of our minds: What percentage of hot guys are vampires or vampire-adjacent?
Comments 21
JihadPunk77 — August 19, 2010
well, to be fair-- aren't teenaged (underage) boys also encouraged to lust after older women, too?
abc — August 19, 2010
And of course, vampires are typically *much* older than the teenage youngsters they date.
Syd — August 19, 2010
Aren't these 'hot guys' celebrities, for the most part? The intended demographic is girls in high school, and most of the media aimed at high schoolers (with the notable exception of Degrassi) has actors ranging in age from late teens to early 30s. Also, while OFFICIALLY the demographic of Seventeen is 12-17, look at the 'real girl' models and the girls who write in. More often than not, they're in their late teens, and quite a few are in their twenties. There is a large following among college aged girls, and the publishers know this. Compare Seventeen to something like J-14. You can see immediately that Seventeen is aimed at an older, more sophisticated audience, and J-14 is aimed at a middle school audience, despite officially both being aimed at high schoolers. In J-14 and similar, you can see a drastic difference in the boys/men featured. Most of them are either young (Justin Bieber, Jaden Smith) or aimed specifically at a pre/young teen demographic. And like I said, even when you take into account that the actors in High School Musical and Twilight are much older than the intended demographic or the character they play. Example: Edward Cullen in Twilight, though technically like 100 or something, has the body, mind, and emotional maturity of a 17 year old boy, albeit more life experience. Robert Pattinson, on the other hand, is in his mid twenties (I think; I know he's certainly older than I am). But the girls in the intended demographic of Twilight and these tween magazines aren't really thinking 'Robert Pattinson is so hot, I want him to be my boyfriend.' They may be SAYING that, but what they're really thinking is 'EDWARD CULLEN is so hot, I want him to be my boyfriend.' In their mind, their target is 17, not 25 (or however old he is).
Though this does bring up the interesting topic of what TV Tropes calls Dawson Casting. It's common for articles and commenters here to go on and on about little girls growing up too fast. However, I don't think that is really the case, at least not directly. In shows about 16 year olds, the characters are played by 21 year olds, and in shows about 12 year olds, the actors are 16. The complaint is often that these characters are 'too sexualized' for their age group. That isn't really the case. The issue isn't that the 12 year old is overly sexualized, it's that the 16 year old is totally appropriate for his or her age group, but is being presented as a normal 12 year old. Which leads the children watching the show (who actually ARE normal 12 year olds) to believe that a normal 12 year old looks and acts like a typical 16 year old. When you watch these shows, you often see situations and people who seem realistic enough, but the fact is, they're unrealistic for the age group. Very few 17 year old boys, even if they're actually 100, look like Robert Pattinson. We know (from previously mentioned example Degrassi) that shows aimed at teens CAN be done effectively with actors at or close to the ages of the characters are playing. It's just incredibly rare for producers of these shows to actually think 'let's find a 12 or 13 year old to play the 7th grade protagonist of the show.' Kids think they look awkward or babyish in comparison to the older teens playing young kids, and strive to look like those actors. They aren't thinking 'I want to look 16,' they legitimately believe that the 16 year old actor or actress is a reasonable representation of a 12 year old.
adamson — August 19, 2010
I don't find (completely) the fact that the guys are older than their reader's demographics awkward. What I find awkward is the whole 'vampire' trend and how _everything_ geared towards (female) teenagers now has vampires in it.
Sadie — August 19, 2010
I wouldn't worry about the Vampire trend. It's come and gone before.
As for the ages of the guys depicted, well...have you ever looked at a 16 year old boy? Really, in general, they aren't terribly attractive. Kinda greasy, zitty and awkward. They are ugly ducklings, and they don't come out the swan end for some time (usually in their 20's). So it would seem somewhat reasonable to me that if we are looking at truly attractive men, we are looking at post-pubescent males.
Magazines have been doing this for a long time and I see nothing wrong with it. Most teens will look at adult fashion magazines like Elle and Vogue and see 30 and 40-plus actresses depicted. Isn't that a good thing? I think it's kinda nice that teens don't automatically assume everyone past the age of 30 is ugly.
I don't really think that girls are supposed to think they need to date a man who is 23 when they're 16, or that it really teaches them to "date up" at all. Most teen girls will date within their peer group, people who are within a couple of years of their age. This is just "eye candy" for girls.
As for me...my fiancee is 10 years older than I am, much taller than I am, and has two more degrees than I do. Did I learn this from Seventeen? I wish! If only I had known then what I know now!
A — August 19, 2010
Is this post original to Sociological Images? I was trying to find the source and cannot.
Andrew — August 19, 2010
Previous posts have expressed some dismay at underage boys being presented as objects of desire, so there is perhaps a bit of dissonance here. Perhaps we can all agree that it's nice that none of the "hot guys of summer" are under 12 and that most are legal.
Also, I find it interesting that Lisa depicts the "hot guys" spread as "teaching girls [how] to date." When a lad mag releases its "hottest chicks" issue, not many people would say that it's teaching boys how to date. Rather, the story I'd expect to hear here is that the women (also generally over 17, I hope) are being objectified, and that if boys are being taught anything it's what they're supposed to sexually desire.
How is this any different? Adolescent girls are just as full of sexual desire as boys (and earlier on at that), and no reader of Seventeen will actually have a chance to date the men being profiled. The message I get is: these men and boys are the appropriate characters to sexually fantasize about this season, and here are some sexy pictures you can...er...enjoy without worrying about parental disapproval.
Anonymous — August 20, 2010
I would imagine most of the celebrity women teenage boys consider "hot" are also in their 20's.
eeka — January 16, 2011
Doesn't that add up to 14, not 13?