REALITIES

Can the SMV Calculator Help You Find True Love?

Florence Williamson
4 min readSep 16, 2023
Fingers over a pink calculator
Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels

Sometimes, you need a little mathematics to get what you want — even when it comes to dating and relationships.

While the Sexual Market Value or SMV calculator doesn’t really deal with fixed numbers or a specific formula, its main purpose is to help someone determine whether or not they have what it takes to be attractive or desirable using a criteria composed of traits that make someone a good potential lover.

Since sex appeal is often tied to the concept of romance, it may be worth asking: can the SMV calculator also help people find love?

What is the SMV Calculator?

The idea of Sexual Market Value is derived from the Sexual Economics Theory, where sex is seen as a transaction or a market deal. The more value a person has, the higher their “price” is and the more people want them as a sexual partner.

The SMV calculator aims to quantify this value by assigning numerical weight to different traits and characteristics that people have, usually on a scale of one to ten. The goal is to have a high overall score in order to be seen as valuable in the sexual market.

Factors That Determine Your Sexual Market Value (SMV)

There really isn’t a clear origin for the SMV calculator, so it’s difficult to outline the exact traits that are needed to evaluate someone’s true Sexual Market Value score.

But even if different sources have different components, there are still common characteristics that most versions use:

Physical Appearance

The most common factor is centered on a person’s looks and physique. This part of the SMV calculator allows you to judge how conventionally attractive you think you are.

Confidence

Another trait that determines your Sexual Market Value is your self-esteem. The more you believe in yourself and your abilities, the more desirable you apparently become to others.

Status

A person’s status is also important in assessing their chances of being successful in the dating scene. Someone who has a lucrative career and earns a lot will likely have better results when they use the SMV calculator.

Dating Background

Dating history can also affect a person’s overall sex appeal. Past relationships and body count, or the number of people you’ve slept with, are other factors that the SMV calculator can take into consideration.

A red decile under the label ‘looks’ and a blue one under ‘physical fitness’
A sample criteria for an SMV Calculator

The Relationship Between Sexual Market Value (SMV) and True Love

People will always have preferences when it comes to dating, and most of them will be based on personality and individual experiences.

With the concept of Sexual Market Value, not only can you gauge how desirable you’ll be, you can also find out if you’re at risk of approaching someone who is out of your league.

But if the SMV calculator evaluates sex appeal, can its results eventually lead someone to find a genuine relationship, perhaps even true love?

In the end, it depends on how a person associates sex with love.

Some engage in casual dating because they don’t want a serious relationship. For them, their sex appeal draws in people who are interested in sleeping with them without expecting anything else afterward.

For others, however, having a high Sexual Market Value is simply a gateway to meeting someone who can be both a good lover and an excellent partner. With sexual compatibility accounted for, the rest becomes a simple matter of time and commitment.

So if you want to try using an SMV calculator, it’s best to know beforehand how you want to use the results. Do you just want to check your chances of having a good time, or do you want to attract someone who wants something long term?

The insight an SMV calculator will give you can be useful, but you also shouldn’t treat it as gospel truth. After all, though different people will utilize it for different purposes, there are also others who won’t bother with it at all.

Because no matter how high your score is, there are still things about love that no amount of number crunching will be able to solve.

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