So last week I decided to do my own world’s sexiest poll. The turnout was pretty good. The original LJ post had some 170 comments before I was a dumbass and erased them all. Luckily, I had saved all the votes. There were another 25 on the repost, and the myspace crosspost had another 12. Each voter was allowed to vote for up to 10 women with 10 points being awarded to their number 1 choice, 9 for number 2, all the way down to 1 for number 10. In all, 53 ballots were cast with 437 votes for a total of 2587 points. In all, 218 different women were named. In the end the women were ranked by number of points with ties being broken by number of votes. And if there was still a tie, it was simply allowed to remain.
And now the results:
Honorable mentions must be given to Sarah Michelle Gellar, Shirley Manson, Lindsay Lohan and Mena Suvari, all of whom tied for 51st place with 12 points and 2 votes.
50. Mia Kirshnir (actress, 24, The L Word) – 12 points, 3 votes
46. Reese Witherspoon (actress, Legally Blonde, Freeway) – 13 points, 2 votes
46. Summer Glau (actress, Firefly, Serenity) – 13 points, 2 votes
46. Michelle Pfeiffer (actress, Grease 2, Dangerous Minds) – 13 points, 2 votes
46. Jenniffer Connelly (actress. The Rocketeer, Labyrinth) – 13 points, 2 votes
45. Eva Longoria (actress, Desperate Housewives) – 13 points, 3 votes
43. Amy Lee (musician, Evanescence) – 14 points, 2 votes
43. Grace Park (actress, Battlestar Galactica) – 14 points, 2 votes
41. Sandra Bullock (actress, Bionic Showdown: The Six Million Dollar Man & The Bionic Woman, Miss Congeniality 2) – 14 points, 3 votes
41. Morena Baccarin (actress, Firefly, Serenity) – 14 points, 3 votes
38. Christina Aguilera (musician) – 15 points, 2 votes
38. Stacy Kiebler (wrestling diva) – 15 points, 2 votes
38. Jessica Biel (actress, 7th Heaven, Blade: Trinity) – 15 points, 2 votes
37. Eva Mendes (actress, My Brother the Pig. Children of the Corn V) – 16 points, 2 votes
36. Mariska Hargitay (actress, Law & Order: SVU) – 16 points, 3 votes
35. Christy Hemme (wrestling diva) – 17 points, 3 votes
33. Gwen Stefani (musician, No Doubt) – 18 points, 2 votes
33. Helena Bonham Carter (actress, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Hamlet) – 18 points, 2 votes
32. Ashley Massaro (wrestling diva) – 18 points, 4 votes
29. Fairuza Balk (actress, Valmont, Return to Oz) – 19 points, 2 votes
29. Kate Moennig (actress, The L Word) – 19 points, 2 votes
29. Audrey Tatou (actress, Amelie, Dirty Pretty Things) – 19 points, 2 votes
27. Drew Barrymore (actress, E.T., Titan A.E.) – 19 points, 3 votes
27. Rachel Weisz (actress, the Mummy, The Mummy Returns) – 19 points, 3 votes
26. Sarah Shahi (actress, the L Word, Teachers) – 20 points, 3 votes
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| 25. Kirsten Dunst (actress, Spiderman, Interview With The Vampire) – 20 points, 5 votes |
24. Ziyi Zhang (actress, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Memoirs of a Geisha) – 21 points, 5 votes |
23. Kate Winslet (actress, Titanic, Quills) – 23 points, 3 votes |
22. Kari Byron (artist/host, Myth Busters) – 25 points, 4 votes |
21. Charlize Theron (actress, Aeon Flux, Mighty Joe Young) – 26 points, 4 votes |
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| 20. Monica Bellucci (model/actress, Matrix Reloaded) – 28 points, 4 votes | 19. Christina Ricci (actress, The Opposite of Sex, Addams Family Values) – 28 points, 5 votes | 18. mamarayne (my mom) – 30 points, 3 votes | 17. Salma Hayek (actress, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Dogma) – 31 points, 5 votes |
16. Natalie Portman (actress, Mars Attacks, Heat) – 32 points, 8 votes |
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| 15. Cristina Scabbia (musician, Lacuna Coil) – 36 points, 6 votes | 14. Nicole Kidman (actress, Practical Magic, Batman Forever) – 37 points, 6 votes |
13. Catherine Zeta-Jones (actress, Entrapment, The Phantom) – 40 points, 8 votes |
12. Alyson Hannigan (actress, How I met Your Mother, Date Movie) – 43 points, 6 votes |
11. Halle Berry (actress/SI measuring unit, CB4, B*A*P*S) – 43 points, 7 votes |
 10. Milla Jovovich (model/actress/musician, Two Moon Junction, Dazed and Confused) – 47 points, 6 votes |
 9. Winona Ryder (actress, Alien: Resurrection, S1m0ne) – 47 points, 7 votes |
 8. Jessica Alba (actress, Honey, Idle Hands) – 48 points, 8 votes |
 7. Lucy Liu (actress, Joey, Mating Habits of the Earthbound Human) – 56 points, 9 votes |
 6. Eliza Dushku (actress, Tru Calling, Wrong Turn) – 59 points, 8 votes |
 5. Carmen Electra (actress/model/dancer/musician, Raven: The Chosen One, Mating Habits of the Earth Bound Human) – 61 points, 10 votes |
 4. Shakira (musician) – 66 points, 10 votes |
 3. Kiera Knightley (actress, Star Wars Episode 1, Domino) – 90 points, 15 votes |
 2. Angelina Jolie (actress, Gia, Hackers) – 114 points, 14 votes |
1. Scarlett Johansson
(actress, Home Alone 3, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie) – 126 points, 16 votes
So now I am curious as to how people think this worked out. My main thought here was that because I probably have a more varied (albeit smaller) readership than the magazines that usually do this sort of thing (Maxim, People, US Weekly, etc) that I’d end up with a slightly more varied, but still relatively representative list. That is to say, no one would pick the entire top 10 (or 25), but people would be relatively pleased with it. So I ask you, the collective consciousness. Does this list make sense? Was it an interesting exercise? One of the things I find interesting is that although I’ve heard many people complain about lists like this lacking a certain type of woman (or man in the male versions), I think the people who bubble to the top were relatively non-controversial. That is, I think that if the top 10 list were presented to the American public at large, they would probably believe that the list was put together in a legitmate survey (such that Maxim, et al purport to do) instead of a 53 person web survey.
Anyway, I’m curious as to anyone’s thoughts. And thank you all for playing.
Nice layout!
thanx. I was fond of it.
Opinions of the final resluts? Logical? Illogical?
Needed more Claudia Black. I think I got four of the top twenty, and that’s not bad. I thought I’d be the only one voting for Zhang Ziyi. I’m glad I was wrong!
by my count you only got 1 of the top 20 (Shakira), 2 of the top 25 (Ziyi). Who else were you thinking?
Okay, I got four total: Shakira, Morena Baccarin, Lucy Liu, and Zhang Ziyi.
Oh you did have Lucy Liu. That’s right. I missed that one… So two in the top 10. You also had Grace Park who came in at 43. So you had 5.
I got 3 from the top 10: Carmen Electra, Scarlett Johansson, Jessica Alba.
And from the rest of the list I got 3 others : Mia Kirshnir, Grace Park, Ashley Massaro. So 6 total. So I think the list is pretty representative of group opinions.
mmmmmm, resluts.
yes… they’re great with peanut butter.
Any other comments?
I demand a recount!
Maybe I’m just too removed from mainstream (or something of that sort) to think that Milla Jovovich or Carmen Electra should be in the top 10, but the top 4 look legit.
Number 16 is Natalie Portman.
thanx… #16 was Natalie. Fixed it.
Carmen was 85 on the Maxim list. Milla appeared on neither. So I don’t know about Milla. She’s kinda off the radar these days (though maybe not, she did have Ultraviolet recently, and is
making anoter Resident Evil movie now). But Carmen is pretty mainstream still. Hmm… any other thoughts?
Yeah. The results are somewhat skewed in favor of those who are more mainstream/on-radar. Those who are fresh in memory will appear on more lists. And even if on any individual list they rank lower, their total score will be higher. How else would Lucy Liu be (so far) ahead of Christina Aguilera (this couldn’t possibly happen a few years ago) and even Jessica Alba?
What this poll has measured is hotness weighted by popularity. A fairer way to measure hotness would be to give people a list of, say, 500 women and have them order it.
Of course, all of the above is highly subjective and debatable. Not to mention that there’s no voting scheme that cannot be manipulated.
well the entire point was to get a list that was the communities, and not any one person’s. I think it was quite fair. If I had listed 500 women and asked you to rank, first of all, it would have been skewed by my 500 choices, and second, no one would have done it!
But yes, I did design the scoring system such that if one person got two 10s and the other person got four 5s, the person with the 5s would win. That just feels fairer to me, even though it got some of my personal picks burned.
Anyway, why would you say that Lucy Liu shouldn’t be able to beat Xtina? I wouldn’t have expected any less. Jessica Alba, was kinda a wash, but Lucy is only 1 vote and 8 points up. There are a lot of people who don’t like Jessica. So it makes sense. Plus, she’s done a bunch of bombs.
I did work really hard at not letting the voice be manipulated. Though, obviously, my mom managed to get herself in there, so nothing’s perfect.
There is a variety of ways to generate such a list so that it is not representative of one person only, the simplest one being taking the union of all lists that had been submitted to you. A more complicated way would be to select lead actresses from the top grossing movies for the last N years. Throw in there porn stars, models, and athletes based on some other criteria and have all people vote on that same list. But that’s just way too much work. So I’ll have to sell my ideas elsewhere. There has been interest, you know.
I don’t think the scoring system is unfair, what is unfair is that not every woman got the same number of votes.
I totally think Lucy Liu should beat Xtina. But I don’t think she should be that far ahead. Definitely not in the top 20. This is just my personal opinion of course.
Hmmm… I don’t understand your point. Of course not every person got the same number of votes. Its no different than running for president, for instance.
And Xtina is pretty far off the radar right now… more so than Lucy, I’d gather. Or maybe not. But that’s my claim.
I mean, what I’m getting at is, its a popularity contest. By definition its not “fair”
Ah, but it is different. In a presidential election, only the number of votes is counted (either state votes or individual votes — that’s a whole separate issue). If you follow that system, the hottest star would be the one that appears on the most lists. And that would be fair.
I’m certainly no expert on voting systems and only familiar with them superficially (and it’s such a gray and debatable subject anyway), but here’s an example. Candidate X receives 1 vote, which is worth 10 points, and candidate Y receives 2 votes, worth 10 and 9 points. If you use the total number of points (10 vs. 19) to score them, you’ll have a different result than if you use the average number of points (10 vs. 9.5). However, if candidate X receives 2 votes, worth 10 and 8 points, then both the total (18 vs. 19) and the average (9 vs. 9.5) will produce the same list. In theory (read: in my opinion) you should have the same results whether you are using totals or averages. Why am I bringing averages into this? The average simply normalizes the scores (between 10 and 1 in this case) and does not alter their relative values. In your case, taking the average does alter the final result, and that’s an indication that something is wrong with the scoring method. Granted, you can still normalize the scores using the total number of points awarded by all voters, but that normalization is global and arbitrary since it can be applied to any random set of numbers.
Yes, it is a popularity contest, and it is entertaining regardless of how fair or unfair it is.
actually, my voting is much more fair than that. There are many voting systems in use in the world. The American system, which mixes single vote choice with an electoral college is actually really low on the totem pole of goodness. Instant run-off is way better, but it’s a pain in the ass to count by hand, and I didn’t feel like it. What I’m using is a truncated Borda Count (more or less). Much like all good things in the universe, you can find details on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borda_count
Basically, the problem with your theory is that it effectively lets a minority elect the winner. Since the maximum number of points a person could get is 10, a person who only got a single 10 vote would win. My mom for instance received only 3 votes. All of which were worth 10 points. Kiera Knightley on the other hand received 15 votes. None of which were a 10. So ignoring Angelina and Scarlett for a moment, if there could only be one winner. Who should be picked. My mom who 5% of the electorate REALLY liked (including herself, and a spammer) or Kierra who 28% of the electorate MOSTLY liked. My way places Kierra above. Which is the way I feel it should be. Honestly, I feel that way about electing a President too. The problem with all ranked voting methods is that they are more complicated and take more time than single vote methods. But really, if people don’t want to take time, fuck them. Electing a president isn’t supposed to be easy.
Ha! Did you actually count the anonymous vote?
Anyway, that was the point I was trying to make. If your mom appeared on every list, the situation you’re describing would not be a problem. So I still think having everyone vote on the same list, which can be created by a separate poll, would be a better way to do this.
I sorta skimmed the article, but it looks like that method is applied to a predefined list of candidates.
yes, I counted the anonymous vote.
no, it allows for write-ins. I really don’t see what you’re hoping to gain by having a predefined ballot. Are you implying that you simply didn’t vote for say “Elisha Cuthbert” because you were unaware that she was a choice. You realize of course that even in the broken American system, there are untold hundreds of people running for president in any given election that you never see on the ballot. It also allows for write-ins. You’re unduly influenced to vote for one of two candidates over the hundreds of others because their name appears on the ballot. If no ones name appeared, then no one would have that advantage.
I didn’t vote for Elisha Cuthbert because I have no idea who she is. I’d include Halle Berry in my top 10, but I didn’t vote for her simply because, well, she wasn’t on my mind at the time. But I would if her name was on the list.
Those write-ins are a kludge. In large scale voting their effect is negligible.
only as a flaw in the 2 party single vote electoral college system. In a lot of ways the American electoral system is the worst of all possible worlds.
Anyway, I’m honestly not sure what your point is here. If you don’t know who Elisha is then it doesn’t matter whether she’s on a ballot. If you didn’t remember to vote for Halle then the onus is on you for not thinking about your vote enough. No matter what, if I had chosen nominations it would have artificially limited the voting pool which would be a diservice to the point of the whole experiment in the first place.
Mostly seems about right, but I can’t believe people as a whole voted Winona Ryder hotter than Halle Berry. *shakes head*
yeah… I agree… certainly not in 2006. But those who voted for Winona voted high. And she did have more than 10% of the voters voting for her. So I guess that’s something. Still, I expect the more the poll is opened up to wider audiences, the farther she’d fall. That said, it speaks volumens that her fanbase is hot enough that she did stay in the top 10.
I’m Eliza Dushku, yeah, I’m just hanging out out here on my kitchen counter by my dirty dishes…
yeah… I love that picture. Its one of my desktop backgrounds.
Looks like there might be a slight inflation over the general population in actresses who’ve been in techy/geeky/vampirey movies & TV. 🙂
Another thought: Perhaps those people who find women desirable (rather than just pretty) may have been looking at different features. Like, if I were rating men, I could think, “Ooh la la Brokeback Mountain!”. But for the women, I was much less visceral with my choices, like, “Yeah, I guess she’s hot.”
Also, I’d be interested to see some kind of clustering analysis where you see what “type” of women appeals to certain people, because I did notice some trends in the replies. For instance, if someone picked all brunettes or something. Anyhow – neat poll. 🙂
a slight inflation. But it doesn’t really look that bad. No where near as inflated as I was afraid it might be. I also expected more of a wrestling bend, but wrestling people didn’t vote as much as geek people. In any case, I do think the whole process was pretty interesting. Maybe I’ll do it again in a year.
I do really wish i hadn’t lost all of that comment data so that I could go and do the clustering analysis. I had thought about it too. *sigh*. Oh well. Maybe next year.
Ok, the fact that Scarlett Johannson is #1… over even #50, on any list, is a shame…. I wouldn’t fuck her with my neighbor’s dick. There are so many women much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much more attractive than her…. And Winona Ryder!? Maddonn’ a mia is she hideous…. Sorry, but I can’t stand a good portion of this list….
Ok, that’s not a problem. When Scarlett drops by my house looking for a fucking, I just won’t call you. And if she drops by your house, feel free to send her my way. 🙂
Seriously though, You got Angelina Jolie (who I hate), Ashley Massarro, and Monica Bellucci. That’s 3 out of your 10. Which is better than a lot of people. And a goodly portion of your 11-25 showed up there as well.
Hmm. Helena 33, Summer 46, no Naomi or Sasha at all. I think everyone’s on crack.
Nice pictures and formatting though.
Helena would have fallen even farther if more people voted. I expect Summer might have maybe risen a bit. She really hasn’t hit public eye yet. Serenity and 4400 aren’t exactly mainstream.
Naomi Watts actually surprised me too. I thought for sure she’d make it. In any case, if I’d posted that far, she’d have been tied for 63rd with 10 points and 2 votes. As for Sasha Cohen. She’s kinda cute, but if you think she’d ever make a list like this, you’re dreaming dude. (or gay 🙂 )
yeah, I’m pretty happy with the look of this post. I seriously feel like I should do it once a year.
Naomi Watts actually surprised me too. I thought for sure she’d make it.
It’s probably because not enough people saw Kong. Everyone’s on crack.
I expect Summer might have maybe risen a bit
I would have expected your sampling pool to skew in her direction. Apparently people who are aware of her didn’t find her all that hot. Crack.
(or gay 🙂
I still fail to see how my appreciation for this most exquisite example of feminine form makes me gay, but whatever.
(Crack)
because gay guys like ice skating… or at least therein lies the stereotype.
Yay! For the common folk.
bah! shame on you for fixing my poll!
(yes, I know I fixed the IWC poll a couple months ago, but I’m a hypocrit)
I have NO idea what you’re talking about! I am appalled at the accusation. Don’t be bitter because I am the Common Folk Representative! We need representation and I am only happy to Represent! Westside!
I believe the phrase you’re looking for is “Don’t hate the playa! HATE THE GAME!”
Yeah, that too.
no problem
I think your next poll should be: If you voted for Summer Glau, is it because you think *she* is hot or her messed up character in Firefly/Serenity?
:p
If I would have voted for her, it would have been more for River than for Summer, as I haven’t seen Summer in enough other stuff yet to have a good opinion. I expect most people don’t think about things in those terms as much as I do, however. In any case, she didn’t make my list.
I saw her in an episode of The 4400. She was playing an asylum inmate.
yeah, I am aware, but I have never watched the show…
gotta worry about her typecasting herself like that.
Mariska Hargitay link is broken.
fixed. Thanx.
I’m really amused by your some of your choices of movies in parentheses. Like Keira Knightley apparently being most famous for Phantom Menace, a movie she was in for about thirty seconds only because she kinda sorta looks like Natalie Portman. And no Sin City or Dark Angel for Jessica Alba? Are Joey and Mating Habits of the Earthbound Human really the things for which Lucy Liu is most notable? No way, man. Not when she did an episode of Futurama.
And also, Milla Jovovich was in 2 Moon Junction? There’s a movie I need to see again. And Winona was in The Muppets Take Manhattan? I had no idea. Hmm…if she was who I think she was in that, it was probably her hottest role ever. But I’m thinking you’re mistaken and she wasn’t in it at all.
What are you talking about? Idle Hands is a fine fine film! And I’m, uhhh… sure Honey is too. And what better work can you think of than Joey and Mating Habits for Lucy Liu. Certainly nothing comes to mind for me? And in those thirty seconds, Kiera Knightley became that character!
Actually, I think I was misremembering Winona in Muppets in the haze of my sleepy 4AMness. It was that other girl who looked like her. I’ll change it as soon as I come up with a good little known movie she was in.
And what better work can you think of than Joey and Mating Habits for Lucy Liu.
Don’t end questions with a period, dammit. Even rhetorical questions.
And in those thirty seconds, Kiera Knightley became that character!
Which character? The one she was playing, or the one she was playing was playing?
It was that other girl who looked like her.
Didn’t really look like her, but she was sorta the same type, I guess. Although I think she was actually more Phoebe Catesish. Which reminds me, straying from the topic of hotness for a moment of doofiness, it’s a shame Zach Galligan isn’t 25 years younger. I think he’d make a pretty good Spike.
See, its those complex levels of depth that she brought to the role that gave the character depth. A testament to her ability as as actress.
Geeze… I had to work really hard to figure out who Zach Galligan was.
Who is Zach Galligan?
He played Billy in Gremlins.
Ooh, I just thought of a hot girl that I forgot. Ashley Scott. Sure, her show was bad, but she was really easy on the eyes.
Speaking of eyes, Lynda Carter. Wrong era, I know, but damn, those are some eyes.
And of course there’s Marianne, who was still hot the last time I saw her, maybe 35 years after her show went off the air.
What are you talking about? Birds of Prey was a great show!
By Marianne you mean Mary-Ann? Dawn West of Gilligan’s Island? And yeah, she aged really well.
What are you talking about? Birds of Prey was a great show!
You hated that show. You hated it way more than I did.
Oh wait, allow me a moment…mmm, mia sara.
By Marianne you mean Mary-Ann? Dawn West of Gilligan’s Island? And yeah, she aged really well.
Yeah, her.
Not at all. I loved Birds of Prey. It was bad, but I watched every episode. It was enjoyable bad, and honestly once they started fixing a lot of the garbage in the later episodes it got much better.
Honestly, I didn’t think Mia Sara was that hot in it though. In fact, I found her diminished hottness rather sad.
I think you’re thinking of She Spies. You know. That REALLY bad show.
Not at all. I loved Birds of Prey. It was bad, but I watched every episode. It was enjoyable bad, and honestly once they started fixing a lot of the garbage in the later episodes it got much better.
Well, you sure bitched about it enough.
Honestly, I didn’t think Mia Sara was that hot in it though. In fact, I found her diminished hottness rather sad.
I was actually thinking of Ferris Beuller Mia, but I thought she was still somewhat hot in Birds of Prey, and to the extent she wasn’t, I blame it on the short blond hair and pants.
I think you’re thinking of She Spies. You know. That REALLY bad show.
You’re on crack, but you’re not alone. I’m also mad that I’m the only one who voted for Natashia Williams. Damn crack.
actually going back and reading my reviews of the show and the pilot you’ll see that I was trying really hard to like it. I definitely acknowledged its badness but I enjoyed watching it, and in fact watched every episode, hoping it would make it and looking for things to priase about it.
Mia Sara had also aged 18 years. Honestly, they weren’t exactly kind to her. I mean she was by no means awful looking. But she wasn’t a hottie anymore. In fact, she had bags under her eyes that mader her look very tired to me.
I’ll grant you that Natashia Williams was hot. Not hot enough to warrant watching She Spies. But she’s definitely easy on the eyes.
I’d hardly call those bags. More like “bottom eyelids” which we all have when Maxim doesn’t photoshop them out. Don’t really find them at all unattractive.
The hair, though, ugh.
They probably intentionally de-hottified her because she was the villain. Not that villains shouldn’t be hot, but it seems like the kinda mistake the producers of that show would make.
nah, they’re bags. She has them in other more recent pictures of her too. She didn’t have them in ferris bueller or timecop she does have them now. I’m not saying she’s ugly. She’s just less hot. It’s just part of getting older. She’s no longer top 10 material. And that’s the kinda show that would never intentionally dehottify a woman, vilanous or no.
Lynda Carter was in the running for my list.
See, I totally don’t understand that. Same thing with Max and Helena Bonham Carter. To a lesser extent. I mean, at least he’s seen her sort of recently. But you’re basing thinking Lynda Carter is attractive on pictures of her from 30 years ago. For all you know she was horribly scarred in a hunting accident in the late 90s.
Actually, she wasn’t. I am aware of two relatively big budget films that she was in in 2005. But I’m wondering if you’ve seen them or could even name them.
Sorry, I don’t mean to sound like I’m picking on you. I’m just really curious as to why in a poll for sexiest of 2006 people would vote for people who were sexy in the past. Any thoughts?
You did say, in regards to whether it was right now or all time, that it was right now but it could go either way.
Lynda was still pretty hot in that contact lens commercial she did a few years ago. I’d like to think her eyes will still be hot when she’s a hundred and fifty.
Yeah, I intended it to be for the current year, but much like Ebony/Maxim/US Weekly/People or whatever, I wasn’t going to stop anyone from voting for an all time favorite if they wanted. Mostly I was just trying to play fast and loose with the whole thing.
Honestly, I find it really odd that your tastes don’t change from year to year… or even day to day. If I were really serious about it, I’d have trouble keeping the list consistent for more than an hour.
My tastes change minute to minute, but at the top of the list, there are people I’m pretty much in love with, and it’s hard to break into that crowd. Also hard to drop out of it, but it’s possible, and it really hurts, for example, that I couldn’t put Meg Ryan or Alicia Silverstone in my top 10.
see, I think you let love cloud hotness. I think of them as separate things. For instance you still love Meg Ryan, but you acknowledge she’s less hot. Honestly, I would have put Alicia above HBC if it were me, but neither of them would really make my top 25 these days.
For kicks, what was your whole list again, if you have it? You were one of the early people that I lost.
see, I think you let love cloud hotness. I think of them as separate things. For instance you still love Meg Ryan, but you acknowledge she’s less hot.
Try giving an example where I let love cloud hotness, rather than one where I explicitly don’t.
But to me they’re much the same thing. At least when we’re talking about celebrities. I really don’t care how perfectly round Angelina’s breasts are, or how long Nicole Kidman’s legs are. Those might be CGI or a body double for all I know anyway. I care about how badly I want to spend time with her on my TV or movie screen. The key ingredients here are face and personality (personality does include physical attributes, but not so much body type as the way, for example, Summer or Sasha or Naomi move).
If I were staring at magazines, maybe my list would be different, but I don’t really do that. I often look at pictures on the web, but I’m kinda desensitized to those.
Maybe I also find “cute” to be hotter than you do. I’m pretty sure I find “crazy” hotter. But, you know, when one is the only person who’s not on crack, it helps to have a particular attraction to crazy girls.
Don’t have my list on me (though I could probably find it tomorrow). So from memory:
Helena, Naomi, Sasha, Summer, Natashia, um . . . Eliza . . . Christina Ricci . . . Claire Danes . . . Julia Stiles . . . and one more who I can’t remember. Can’t really remember the order either, except Helena and Naomi were 1 and 2.
I found Alicia really not hot in that show she was in a year or two ago. Not that she was old or anything, I just really hated her character, hated the show, hated the way they made her look . . . they pretty much killed my Alicia image. I need to buy Aerosmith videos from iTunes or something to restore it.
Oh, now I remember. Zhang.
Try giving an example where I let love cloud hotness, rather than one where I explicitly don’t.
Another factor might be the nature of memory. For someone to have made my list, they needed to have made a lasting impression on me. For example, I remember thinking Milla Jovovich was insanely hot in 5th Element, and pretty damn hot in that five minutes (and ten seconds I kept rewinding) of that zombie flick. But I don’t have the time or resources to go back and watch every movie with a hot girl in it just to take your poll. So I look up Milla on the web and, well, the pictures just aren’t doing that much for me. So Milla doesn’t make my list.
Also Thandie Newton. I remember her being the hottest girl in the world when I watched MI:2, and the sole reason I don’t regret losing those two hours of my life. But then I saw her a few times on when I accidentally watched ER, and while I can’t pick out any particular reason, she just wasn’t hot there.
So my list is composed of people who maintain an actively hot presence in my mind, Meg left out because I did actually see her being not hot (and am still very upset about that). Making me fall in love with them is a definite advantage.
See, that’s the thing that I find weird. For me, when I made my list, at least the top 10, people needed to have a current hot pressence. As opposed to only being hot in my memory. That would have made it way too hard. I would have had to include Audrey Hepburn, for instance. As a good example, because of this I ended up leaving certain people that I’m totally hot for off the list because they just weren’t “around” for me in the last year. Key in point: Dominique Swain (who I maintain is mindblowingly hot, but just basically did nothing the last couple of years), Taryn Manning (who actually was in Hustle & Flow last year, but I haven’t bothered to watch it yet), Jennifer Love Hewitt (who at least has a show, but I’ve never watched it), Sunrise Adams (gorgeous porn star, retired), Alicia Keys (crazy hot, but no album last year… if I had done it for 2005 instead of 2006, she’d totally be there), Ashanti (same thing), Halle Berry (only a voice actress last year).
Like I said before. My requirements certainly aren’t requirements for everyone. I just don’t see how anyone could do it otherwise. That’s what I’m seeking to understand. In the last year HBC was in Corpse Bride, and Wallace & Grommet, neither of which she actually appears in, and Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, in which I found her distinctly NOT HOT.
I think definitions of “current” differ. If I had to go by people who I’d seen being hot this week I’m stuck with Katherine McPhee and that girl who plays Veronica Mars. That doesn’t make for much of a list. Also, I don’t wanna vote for a flash in the pan, because there are so many such flashes whose names i don’t even remember at this point.
I didn’t see Charlie and the Chocolate factory, nor any other evidence of any diminishing hotness on Helena’s part, so nothing to knock her out of the top spot. Looking at pics on the web, I see that she looks kinda tired and haggard, but she looked that way in Hamlet 20 years ago, during her hottest parts of the movie. She was also wearing this big shapeless sackcloth kinda thing. Helena’s hotness is not skin-deep.
Now, I do think she’d be hotter if she stopped hanging out with Tim Burton, who seems to really enjoy uglying her up…
eh, I guess I felt that it was more or less general knowledge that a “most 2006″ list generally covered the last year in terms of recentness. But given the results that I saw, maybe not. In any case, of the “top 10,” the only one that hasn’t been proven to not be flash in the pan at this point is probably Kiera Knightley, and I’m pretty sure that given a nother year (she’s got a few films on the horizon) she’ll be fairly cemented in the popular culture.
That said, if a flash in the pan can’t be hot, what can they be? We’re not talking the Oscars here. I would think that you could be the sexiest in terms of raw sex appeal for a moment without it meaning you have to be meaningful on some other level or lasting way. Which is not to say of course that lasting sex appeal over the ages can’t move you up on the list.
Sure a flash in the pan can be hot, but that doesn’t mean i’ll notice she exists. Like I’ve got no clue who scarlet johansson is. All I know is that she was naked on the cover of some magazine with keira knightley and some dude. Obviously I’m out of the mainstream on this one, since she took first place, but I’m just wondering how the hell everyone else seems to know who she is, and if they’ll remember her a year from now.
Um. I don’t know if I actually have any point here, and I need to save battery.
I think maybe my point is we perceive things on different scales. Pop culture is not a particular area of interest for me. I mean, it’s not like I can avoid it, but I don’t really pay any more attention to it than I have to. So to me, Keira Knightley is still the Hot New Star, and Scarlet hasn’t done enough to even show up in my reality as more than a name and a picture in which I’m annoyed at her for sitting in front of parts of Keira that I’d like to see.
yeah, you’re just way to far outside of the mainstream here. Scarlett is pretty much this year’s It Girl, she’s been around for the alst several though and is widely considered to be about the most successful actress in a generation. She’s far more established than Kiera, having done a string of critically acclaimed films (several of which were Oscar winners or contenders). Anyway, aside from the silly movie choices I mentioned under her picture she also actually starred in:
Ghost World
The Horse Whisperer
The Girl with a Pearl Earring
Lost in Translation
Oh, and she’s wicked fucking hot.
Ha. I haven’t seen a single one of those movies. Though I think maybe I read five words about Ghost World that made me want to see it at some point.
But while they may be critically acclaimed, was any of those a huge megahit like PIrates of the Carribean that it would have taken the slightest amount of effort to avoid?
I think the real key is you take the time to read magazines and websites and whatnot that keep you up to date. I don’t think most people (at least in this sample) really do that, almost certainly not to the same degree. I’m willing to admit you’re right about scarlett being huge, and I might think she’s hot had I actually seen any of her movies, but how do I know there’s not some other girl who’s just as huge and even hotter in some other set of movies that I haven’t seen?
actually, Lost in Translation was that big… you just live in a hole. Now it’s not an action movie, so its lower grossing. But it was a $4million picture that made $44million (domestic) as opposed to Pirates being $130million and making $300million (domestic). Anyway, 11x budget is pretty phenomenal for a non hollywood straight drama.
In all seriousness, it astounds me that you could have possibly not heard of it. The others sure. But that one was an absolutely massively huge movie.
Oh, I heard of it. I even know what it’s about. I just haven’t seen it. 11x budget is great, they should be very happy with themselves. But it’s not the kind of thing that’s going to force itself into my consciousness. (“Steve! We have to go see pirates of the carribean! It’s got a guy from Lord of the Rings in it!” is the way things force their way into my consciousness these days, since I don’t have to ever watch commercials anymore).
There are a zillion movies every year, and people who aren’t pop culture junkies only ever see a small set of them. That probably has as almost as much to do with the variations in these lists as differences in taste. Or rather, taste in movies/TV shows is as relevant as taste in women.
Absolutely. I totally agree. I’m just saying that your barometer of normalness is way off. Hence your knowing Kiera (who really is quite less famous) over Scarlett. I mean for HOVA’s sake, you voted for Natashia Williams, who’s while I acknowledge is hot, her biggest claim to fame is being on a TV show in syndication at 4am that only 14 people nationwide ever watched. I mean, serious, in some markets she probably lost to Ron Popeil. Does that make her less sexy, probably not, but I say she’s much more of a flash in the pan than say Scarlett is. (more like a glimmer in the pan, she never did anything that amounted to causing an actual flash)
Honestly, HBC is probably in that area as well. Quite naturally in order to get the most votes you’re going to have to be popular. Famous. HBC has honestly never really risen above being a B-Lister, while everyone in the top 10 except for maybe Milla is clearly a current A-Lister. And Milla has certainly flirted with the A-List at points in the past. (So has HBC, but I’d say she’s never really busted over the hump in any communal culture altering way). I’d say that the entire concept of these sorts of lists is nothing but an exercise in pop culture, which obviously is why I did it in the first place.
See, your mistake is thinking I care how far out of the mainstream I am, when I’ve already made it perfectly clear how much crack I think they’re all on.
not at all… I totally see that you don’t care. Its just at some point one need to recognize oneself as the odd man out and come to terms with that. The way I do with politics for instance. I realized I’m the weird one, I just tend to believe that it makes me better than all of the rest of you.
Yes, that’s exactly how I feel.
well, not exactly… See, I’m basically at terms with the fact that the world will not recognize my genius in my lifetime. I simply make sure that there is a record of my genius so that future generations can marvel at how before my time I truly was. You on the other hand seem to kind of implore people to come around to your way of thinking. You really seem to think that people will eventually find HBC attractive or She Spies to not be … well… bad. Stuff like that.
Oh and also… I’m right and you’re wrong… so uh… 😛 Pbbbbbt…. or something.
I have no delusions that people will recognize my genius. I just want them to have the opportunity, you know, should they ever put down their crack pipes.
Here’s my list in order:
1. helena bonham carter
2. naomi watts
3. sasha cohen
4. clair danes
5. eliza dushku
7. julia stiles
7. natashia williams
8. summer glau
9. christina ricci
10. xang xiu
This was probably a lot more scientific than the top-whatever lists that come out in the supposedly more reputable media. It’s a fairly level representation and a good mixing of the different genres of hotness. Sorry your girl Elisha didn’t quite make it… but your mom did, so it kind of evens itself out I guess.
On the science. Yeah, I am quite happy with how it turned out. I am contemplating doing another one next year just to see how the group think of my readers changes over time. Also, hopefully I’ll have more readers by then to. Everyone who reads this should invite two friends to come and read it too. And two friends of there, and etc. Once I have more readers than Maxim, we’ll see how it goes.
On Elisha. Eh, I’ll cope. It just means that the rest of you don’t appreciate her and she’ll be mine all mine! MUHAHAHAHA!
I did not vote for my mom… that would be creepy.
>I did not vote for my mom… that would be creepy.
Understandable.
So does that mean I get to keep Melli and Ursula all to myself? Since no one else voted for them, ya poops!
if you can swing it, good luck
The list looks pretty reasonable & representative of different tastes. Maybe next year you can include some demographic info on the respondents.
But I don’t get why Scarlet Johansson is #1. She’s cute, but I don’t see why she’s at the top of the list. And this picture makes her look like a muppet with a disproportionately large head kind of wobbling on top of her body. Maybe that’s hot or something.
Also, congrats to mamarayne! I love her expression (looks real, unlike most of the others).
I actually had initially intended to do some demographic data type stuff… But as you know, I accidentally wiped out the first 170 comments after I had just gotten the vote data.
I also had intended to write a couple little blurbs of data about each of the winners in the top 10. But it was 4am and I was tired.
As for your Scarlett Johansson question, don’t you see that you answered the question yourself in the first paragraph. Everyone has different tastes. Yours just don’t happen to match the majority in the case of her. I actually think she’s really hot (physically, a lot of the times, I disapprove of her personal style. At least in as much as it matches her body. I also find her to be kind of awkward sometimes in mannerism. But maybe that adds some charm to her, making her even cuter).
So you definitely think I should do this again next year then?
Yes, tastes do vary. But I’d expect the variation to decrease as we approach the top of the list, where by the time we get to #1, we’d have someone who pretty much everyone can agree is “hot”. But I don’t see her as hot. Cute, yes, even pretty, but not sexy. It’s too bad you lost the initial ratings, because I wonder what the gender gap looks like for her. Or maybe I’m just weird.
Well of the votes that I still have trackable records for: 13 people (8 male, 5 female) voted for Scarlett (I’m missing 3 ballots). 10 people (6 male, 4 female) voted for Angelina (I’m missing 4 votes). There was an overlap of only 4 people (2 male, 2 female).
Scarlett’s points were: 4,7,10,9,8,8,10,7,10,8,8,7,9,5,8,8
Angelina’s points were: 9,10,8,10,9,8,8,10,10,7,10,5,1,9
Both of them have an average vote of ~8.1
See, I expect that towards the top of the list there’s going to be a lot of polarlization. That is to say I’d think the people who ended up in the top got there because they had a lot of votes from a lot of people who really liked them. One could assume they are “their type.” And that other people that were their type they voted lower, so they’d have an average vote of around 6 or 7 or something. (in fact, everyone else in the top 10 have an average between 6.1 and 7.8). So if there were only two different “types” of women and everyone subscribed to one type or the other. You could expect the list to more or less go #1 Type A, #2 Type B, #3 A, #4 B, #5 A, etc. It takes around 50 points to make the Top 10, so by the time you get down to your #6 choice (5 pts), it takes like 10 people voting for them to get them up there. So at best, if there are only 2 types of women, you only expect your top 5 to be in the top ten even if you’re average.
Let’s see how you did:
So you got 3 in the top 10, and 5 others in the other 50, which is actually better than I did (3 in the top 10, 3 in the other 50, and my 3 were different than your 3).
I’m betting if we were to go through everyone’s votes, 3 in the top 10 would be pretty much an average, and there’s probably a couple that every person really doesn’t get at all. For instance, for me, I don’t really like Angelina or Winona and totally don’t see how they make it up there. Mickey and Gina both said the same thing as you (don’t like Scarlett).
Also, I just want to point out, that you specifically said you voted for Winona because she was adorable (not sexy) which is why you don’t like Scarlett. 😛
Thanks Dr. Steph! I am sooooo real… maybe a bit too real. Anyway, that pic was taken in Jamaica, so I was feeling pretty happy and a little bit spicy 😉
Ah…that explains it!
So now to convince Mav to take me to Jamaica for our next photo shoot :)…
yeah, maybe she can send us as a gift. 🙂
Okey Dokey, let me see if I can get to the store & play my Mega-Millions ticket. I’ll let you know.
My only thought is that there is a stunning lack of both models and musicians in the list. I’d almost believe this was a hottest Actress list, instead of a hottest women list.
Agreed. But that’s just how it ended up rolling. That said. Shakira made the top 10 and she’s only a musician. And Carmen Electra, while she has done most of those things, I think of her mostly as a model right now.
I think its hard with models, because other than a few very key supermodel examples, they are for the most part very anonymous unless they are actresses too (which is the case of every model who made this list). If I had gone all the way to 100, several other models would have made the list. I stopped at 50 however, because at that point people were not getting enough votes that I felt like they were statistically valid. Hopefully next year I’d have twice as many votes minimum and can therefore have a little more confidence in the results.
As for musicians, five of them did make the top 50 (7 if you count Milla and Carmen). One (3) made the top ten. So that’s a pretty consistent 10%, I guess. I thought maybe more would make it, but I guess not. Maybe next year. On the other hand, maybe singers don’t have the visibility that actresses have.
It is an interesting point though.
several of the women on your list (shakira, dushku, etc) constantly looks like they need to be hosed off in much the same way circus elephants and newly imprisoned inmates do. and christina ricci is a perfect example of why retards should be sterilized before they breed. she’s got a fivehead.
a fine opinion to have… is there anyone you do like? (and its totally ok, to flame people here, but sign your name so i can ask follow up questions)
Popularity vs. age
I see two trends at work here:
1. Scarlett Johansson and others are mega-popular right now. I think she, for example, is very pretty, but the only reason she’s at the top of the list is all the buzz about her movies. The same is true for some of the others. Everybody who is reading current magazines that talk about celebrities sees lots of sexy pictures of those people.
2. The average age of our peers increases as we get older…and the average age of your readers is therefore probably in the low 30s…a lot of these people are less in touch with pop-culture than they were 10 years ago, and what pop-culture they’re paying attention to has changed. They don’t even recognize all the new names of the currently sexy. They remember Winona Ryder because she was exactly like Scarlett Johansson…pretty, but only made it onto everybody’s sexy list because she had a lot of buzz back then.
Re: Popularity vs. age
1) Absolutely. But that was kind of my hypothesis in the very beginning. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. Certainly a big part of sexiness is fame. Two reasons. One, “That girl I saw at the store the other day” was pretty sexy. But she’s just not going to get the votes that someone that EVERYONE has seen is. Two, being famous is part of being attractive. Just as much as being rich, or having a nice personality, or having nice boobies. It’s just not as obvious. People like to say “blah blah blah, people I know are much sexier, blah blah” but at the end of the day, I’m not measuring who is personally sexy to Mav or to Dan or whoever, because that’s both really obvious, and not very interesting. What I’m measuring is who does the community as an amalgam find sexy.
2) Not so, actually. My readership is hella varied. I don’t actually know half of the people. And I know for sure that there are a lot of early 20-somethings (and a couple teens) and such reading (and voting) I’d say the average age is actually in the mid 20-somethings somewhere. But it doesn’t matter. I’m not trying to artificially create a list of 20 somethings. I’m creating the list for this community. And while a Winona might make it, so did a Scarlett. As I said elsewhere, the final list actually wasn’t too far off of what FHM/Maxim produced. At least in the top 10.
What if I don’t like 10 of those people? I don’t use the word sexy of these people. But I would love to look like them.
1. Reese Witherspoon
2. Sandra Bullock
3. Natalie Portman
4. Eliza Dushku
5. Alyson Hannigan
is this meant to be for the 2007 poll?
*slaps head* Clicked the wrong thing. Sorry. And I guess I can’t READ either. I’ll go do it righ this time.