From: Terry W. Colvin (fortean1@mindspring.com)
Date: Sat Dec 21 2002 - 19:06:12 MST
[My gay friends predicted this trend at least 20 years ago, saying that
as their influence in fashion increased men's tastes would change - that
thin, short-haired, androgynous looking women would become popular, and
that did happen. But what I find scary, is that when I watch TV, which
is rare, the people on TV, mainly the women, don't even look *human* to
me. Lot's of cosmetic surgery going on in TV Land methinks.]
http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?id={C19CAD50-9135-40C8-B74F-3D345B387621
}
Playboy study shows men's tastes tilting to
androgynous
Joseph Brean
National Post
Friday, December 20, 2002
Playboy bunnies, and the air-brushed ideals of female beauty they
represent, are starting to look more and more like boys, according to a
scientific study of the magazine.
Reporting tomorrow in the normally staid British Medical Journal,
researchers from Toronto and Austria describe a 50-year
trend toward taller, thinner, even "androgynous" centrefold models with
smaller breasts and thinner hips.
The research by a Canadian psychologist and an Austrian
statistician did not involve looking at naked women, but
rather analyzing body measurements provided online by
Playboy for their 577 centrefolds, all the way from Marilyn
Monroe in December, 1953, to Shanna Moakler in December,
2001.
For every model, researchers calculated various composite
measurements, such as body mass index and waist-to-hip ratio,
and also an androgyny scale based on the model's curvaceousness.
In charting the course of the centrefolds' physiques,
researchers showed that height and waist size have increased,
breast and hip size have decreased along with body mass index,
and the androgyny readings went through the roof. The
models' weight, however, remained nearly constant.
It is as if the perfect woman's curves are smoothing out as she is
stretched vertically, said one of the authors, Maryanne Fisher, a PhD
candidate in psychology at York University.
"And as she's being stretched, her hips are going in and her waist
is coming out," she said.
The research is illustrated in the British Medical Journal with
pictures of three women: Renaissance artist Peter Paul Rubens'
shapely wife Helena, Marilyn Monroe and current sexpot
supermodel Eva Herzigova.
The major implication of the study, according to Ms. Fisher, is that
it debunks previous research on Playboy models that purported to
reveal a stable waist-to-hip ratio over time, hinting that this is the
basis of the perfect figure for attracting a mate. That study was
based on only a subset of the data, however, whereas this new
study is exhaustive.
"There's no formula that we can come up with for female
attractiveness because it's changing," she said.
It appears to be changing in a regular fashion, however, and
Playboy is a good indicator for what will be beautiful tomorrow,
Ms. Fisher said.
"Playboy is extremely widely circulated; at one point it exceeded
Time magazine even, so if you look at the number of people who
buy that and think of them voting on attractiveness with their
money, then it's kind of interesting," she said. "If you take that
with a grain of salt, you could say that this trend is happening in
the general population."
The Playboy study comes on the heels of a Statistics Canada
analysis of underweight people, released this week, which found
they are overwhelmingly young and female. The author, Janet
Che, attributed this trend not only to cultural ideals of
attractiveness but also to genetic, socioeconomic and behavioural
factors, such as income and smoking.
For example, those with a low household income were one-third
more likely to be underweight than those with a high household
income.
When it came to exercise, underweight people were found to be
just as physically active as those with acceptable weight, but
smoking was more common among underweight people. Ms. Che,
a Statscan senior analyst, said this is due in part to the use of
cigarettes as a weight-loss aid.
Underweight people, defined as having a body mass index
(weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in metres) of
less than 20, were also 25% more likely to score high on a scale
measuring emotional distress, Ms. Che reported.
© Copyright 2002 National Post
------------------------
According to the tv, the average female weight has increased to 10 stone
from 8, and the average female waist is 32 inches. Apparently. Which means
that's larger than Mike's!!
Helen of Troy
Oddly pleased to be below average for once :-)
-------------------------
Thing is the pictures in the mags are put their by the same idiots
promoting the thin fashion models. I'd believe this more had they bothered
to ask blokes what they think.
I for one like a curvaceous woman not a stick insect whose ribs I can use
as a zylophone and whose backbone could saw wood!
Steve
Send your unwanted curvy women to the usual address.
-------------------------
I think you have hit the nail on the head.
Those coke induced magazine people have got it wrong.
I personally do not think a thing that looks as if she has come out from
Belsen is my idea of a woman.
I prefer women to be women, and stick women have no place outside of a
Lowrie painting.
Dave
-------------------------
Hear, hear. I recall that some anthropologists once did a study and
found a cross-cultural universal that men thought a ratio of hips
to waist of 4:3 was sexy. If androgyny really were becoming a
preference, you'd expect sales on push-up bras to be down.
--
%% Max Rible
-------------------------
>[My gay friends predicted this trend at least 20 years ago, saying that
>as their influence in fashion increased men's tastes would change - that
>thin, short-haired, androgynous looking women would become popular, and
>that did happen. But what I find scary, is that when I watch TV, which
>is rare, the people on TV, mainly the women, don't even look *human* to
>me. Lot's of cosmetic surgery going on in TV Land methinks.]
People all have their own tastes, I mean, if you tried to judge male ideals
from porn 15 years ago you'd have siad "Ah-ha - men like shaved women with
white groin areas where they are not tanned".
People fancy who they fancy and trying to gauge what half of the population
finds attractive from one small sauce is really going to get you in trouble.
It's like judging a shoal of fish by the light that reflects off of some of
them when they move a certain way.
The London Metro had a story in it today which was based on the same
research claiming that, after looking at porn, women are getting less curvy.
Scott
------------------------
I agree, but the article was talking about long-term trends. I
personally predict that this trend has peaked and fashion will be
looking for something new to spice things up.
Kelly
--
Terry W. Colvin, Sierra Vista, Arizona (USA) < fortean1@mindspring.com >
Alternate: < fortean1@msn.com >
Home Page: < http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Stargate/8958/index.html >
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