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Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 8, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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I suggest that we delineate female perishableness, which is a biological reality that cannot be addressed in polite company without the penalty of cancelling, from the peaking-in-high-school concept that does exist within the Overton window and is thus safe to discuss. I’d also argue that it’s a bit over the top to argue that girls are often at their prettiest at 16-18. Realistically speaking I think female fertility and beauty usually peaks at the age of 21-22.

I suggest that we delineate female perishableness, which is a biological reality that cannot be addressed in polite company without the penalty of cancelling, from the peaking-in-high-school concept that does exist within the Overton window and is thus safe to discuss.

I guess maybe I live in a different Overton Window than you do, but it's pretty common both personally and culturally to mock the "hot girl in high school" who now either isn't as hot as the female speaker mocking her or who rejected the male speaker mocking her back then but would be chasing him now (see the link above to Sk8er Boi). My free association with "peaked in high school" is the proverbial prom king and queen, the jock and the hot girl, who are fat and ugly and still talking about prom twenty years later.

I’d also argue that it’s a bit over the top to argue that girls are often at their prettiest at 16-18. Realistically speaking I think female fertility and beauty usually peaks at the age of 21-22.

I'm not saying most women peak at 16, just that some do. Women in general peak in attractiveness after puberty and before they get fat, and because that's pretty much a ratchet (pre GLP1) and nobody really loses weight, girls who put on the freshman 15 (or 30) when they get to college are less hot than they were in high school.

If we're doing "peak hotness," if you take care of yourself and you don't get fat I don't think there's any really significant decline until at least 35, maybe later. Up to that point variation between people is much more important than variation between age groups.

I ask you to consider that the Overton window has shifted significantly with regard to judging female sexual choice and single motherhood since Sk8er Boi was released. On the other hand I won't disagree that society does indeed give female speakers limited license to mock other women and their life choices in certain contexts.

I ask you to consider that the Overton window has shifted significantly with regard to judging female sexual choice and single motherhood since Sk8er Boi was released.

Like I said, maybe I live in a different one than you do. Because in my social circles, it's extremely common to mock women for getting ugly or having multiple uninvolved fathers to her kids. I guess maybe it's the kind of thing, like being fat, that's tied to another reason to hate them: look at this BITCH from high school and how fat she got. I suppose I wouldn't bring it up at Church, but it's a common enough topic of conversation.