Which Female Celebrities Have the Most Attractive Bodies?

A little while ago, I asked our newsletter what topics they wanted me to cover. One of the most common questions was: what female body shape do men actually prefer? There are a few different ways to answer that question. I covered the scientific research in this article, and I had men rate my drawings in this article.

But I figured one of the best ways to figure out what body shape men prefer most of all, in real life, was to ask them which female celebrities had the most attractive bodies. That way, they wouldn’t be limited to whatever options I was showing them. They could pick whoever they wanted.

I surveyed 574 men, ranging from teenagers to men in their 70s. I asked them, “Which female celebrity has the most attractive body?” I didn’t present them with any options. They could write in whichever celebrity they wanted, adding whatever comments they wanted.

Posed vs Candid

Before we go into the results, there are a couple of competing truths here. When men say Salma Hayek is the actress with the sexiest body shape of all time, perhaps they’re imagining her at 29 years old, in perfect lighting, dancing in the 1996 movie From Dusk Till Dawn:

This photo represents the idealized female body. She has a feminine bone structure, an athletic amount of muscle, radiant skin, a healthy amount of body fat, and she’s storing most of that fat in the healthiest places: her breasts, butt, and thighs. There’s nothing all that extreme or unnatural about her physique, but she’s in impressively good shape.

But that isn’t what Salma Hayek normally looked like then, and it isn’t what she normally looks like now, and men know that. Salma Hayek is 59 years old, and that photo is from a 1996 movie. Most of the men who wrote in her name are in their fifties. Some of them wrote that they liked how she was aging in a way that looks healthy and natural, which is rare for celebrities her age.

This is what Salma Hayek looks like now, in her fifties. On the left, she’s posing for a photo. It might be touched up. On the right, a paparazzi caught her in a candid pose.

The temptation is to say that she looks great on the left and bad on the right, and that the paparazzi were cruel for posting that photo. I’m not a fan of the paparazzi, and that definitely isn’t the most flattering photo, but that also isn’t how men think. We aren’t looking at women critically like that. In the eyes of the average man within a decade of her age, she looks amazing in both photos.

The candid photos are more likely to represent what these woman actually look like under more normal circumstances, so I’m going to bias those ones. I think that will give you a better idea of what kind of shape you’d need to be in to have an “ideal” figure (according to men).

Sydney Sweeney

Sydney Sweeney (28 years old) got the most votes overall. This isn’t a candid photo, but I think it does a good job of showing her body shape. She’s got a thin figure with famously large breasts, and she’s (in)famous enough that her name easily comes to mind. What’s interesting is that her hips aren’t much wider than her waist. She has a slender bone structure.

• Men under 30: 14 guys wrote in her name
• Men 30–50: 27 guys wrote in her name
• Men 50+: 0 men wrote in her name. She’s too young. They chose Jennifer Lopez (56 years old) and Salma Hayek (59 years old).

That’s 41 votes out of 574 men, which may not sound like much, but they’re picking from every famous woman in the world. I think the best thing to do is focus less on the particular person, more on the physique traits all of them share.

Surveys like this favour the women with the most famous names over the women with the most perfect figures. It isn’t typical for guys to be fans of female celebrities or follow them on social media. They’re more likely to be following male influencers and celebrities than female ones. When you ask a guy a question like this, most guys don’t have a female celebrity that comes to mind. But maybe they heard about how there was some controversy over a jeans ad, and they remember her name.

Scarlett Johansson

Scarlett Johansson (41 years old) got the second most votes. She’s famous for being curvy in a way that looks natural, healthy, and feminine. Some guys pointed out that they liked her fuller, more feminine figure. Almost nobody spelled her name correctly.

• Men under 30: 11 guys wrote in her name
• Men 30–50: 17 guys wrote in her name
• Men 50+: 2 men wrote in her name.

Salma Hayek

Salma Hayek (59 years old) came in third, with almost all of her votes coming from men over thirty. She did even better with guys over fifty. These are the guys who remember her snake-dancing scene from 1996.

A couple of guys wrote in comments like “Salma Hayek in her prime,” but most did the opposite, saying they preferred women who were aging more naturally. I’m not sure how natural she actually is, but at the very least, she’s maintaining the illusion of it.

Jennifer Lopez

Jennifer Lopez (56 years old) got the most votes from guys over 50, just slightly edging out Salma Hayek. She didn’t get as many votes from younger guys, though, putting her slightly behind overall. She’s the curviest, with the strongest lower body.

When guys wrote in extra notes, they commented that she looked healthy and seemed to be aging gracefully, with no obvious signs of plastic surgery.

Margot Robbie

Margot Robbie (35 years old) was in the top 10 with men under 30, but she picked up most of her votes from men between 30–50 years old, just barely beating out Megan Fox and Ana de Armas.

Female Athletes

With a survey like this, where men can write in whichever celebrities they want, the most recognizable names tend to rise to the top. That doesn’t necessarily mean they have the best bodies, just that they’re more likely to come to the minds of more men.

When I asked women this same question, they were picking guys like Brad Pitt for that same reason. It isn’t that his physique is uniquely attractive, it’s that his name comes to men when thinking of someone generally attractive.

Some guys took a different path.

Quite a few guys wrote in the names of a wide range of female athletes, with the most popular of those being Maria Andrejczyk, an Olympic javelin thrower (above). Guys also mentioned Gabby Thomas (below), Emma Raducanu, Ilona Maher, Olivia Dunne (the gymnast who went viral a couple of years ago), and Lean Beef Patty (a female fitness influencer who makes thirst traps for men).

Some guys wrote in entire categories of athletes, like long jumpers, pole vaulters, gymnasts, and powerlifters. They would often add comments about how they didn’t follow any specific female celebrities, and no names came to mind, but they preferred regular women with generically athletic builds.

That lines up well with the results I got in my other surveys, and it lines up well with the scientific research. Men aren’t looking for anything exotic or dramatic, but they care a great deal about signals of genuine health: a thin waist, an athletic amount of muscle, good skin, and so on.

Men under 30 weren’t likely to pick women much over 30. Men over 30 were most likely to pick women about their age, or perhaps a few years younger. Most men aren’t looking for women who are actually younger, but rather for women who look youthful and healthy for their age, without any obvious signs of trying to hide their age.