Study Finds the Perfect Ratio of Attractiveness 176
Posted
by
samzenpus
from the hey-there-big-arms dept.
from the hey-there-big-arms dept.
Gksksla writes "Scientists in Australia and Hong Kong have conducted a comprehensive study to discover how different body measurements correspond with ratings of female attractiveness. The study, published in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology, found that across cultural divides young, tall and long armed women were considered the most attractive."
Re:Long arms? Uh, no (Score:3, Insightful)
SCIENCE! (Score:4, Insightful)
That makes sense... (Score:5, Insightful)
And yet... (Score:3, Insightful)
Young!? (Score:3, Insightful)
There is a reason Steely Dan doesn't sing a song titled "Hey 39".
There are also plenty of good biological and evolutionary reasons for this.
Pop culture. (Score:3, Insightful)
It seems to me the scope of this study was too limited. What they've defined as attractive seems dictated by celebrity culture. This means excessively thin women who then have to compensate by getting plastic surgery, especially in the US. My impression of many European, excluding England, and South American celebrities is that they're far healthier-looking than Americans.
Hell, look at Japanese illustrations and, excluding some fetishes, the distilled attractive female is generally well-endowed. I don't mean necessarily having large breasts, but nice hips and a fairly curvaceous body. And from personal, admittedly anecdotal, evidence guys are more immediately turned on by a woman with more shape, even if she trends towards being heavy, than they would ever be by someone who's thin.
Unfortunately, the ideal nowadays, for women, seems to be sickeningly thin. And it's generally quite bad in Asia. I'm convinced there's a serious anorexia problem being overlooked out there.
The ideal figure must be aspirational. Looking at classical paintings women were always depicted as a bit heavyset. Generally, it was a considered a sign of wealth given that most didn't have the means to eat so well. Today, in the developed world who doesn't have access to plenty of food. Hell, people who are often considered poor manage to be overweight. So the goal now is to be thin. In some cases it's even been associated with wealth, the argument being that the poor don't have access to good food or have the luxury of being able to work out.