Gaby
According to researchers from the University of Constance in Germany, the most attractive women possess a pronounced S-shaped curve from their bust to their hips.
This may explain why curvy stars like Marilyn Monroe and Kim Kardashian are often considered more attractive than their slimmer counterparts. This finding challenges previous studies that suggested the ideal female form is characterized by a waist-to-hip ratio of 0.7, meaning the waist should be 30 percent narrower than the hips.
In past years, scientists favored this ratio, likely because wider hips and a greater distribution of fat in the lower body are associated with childbearing and motherhood. Evolutionary psychologists have suggested that our brains may find this ratio optimal.
Researchers also claimed that a lower waist-to-hip ratio might only be appealing for women with a lower body mass.
The lead author of the new study, Professor Ronald Hübner, asserts that the waist-to-hip ratio is just one part of a much more significant curve that defines an ideal figure.
What Did the Authors of the New Study Report?
The university team behind this new discovery believes that a slim waist is not a prerequisite for an attractive female body. Instead, the overall elegance of the figure and that same pronounced curve between the bust and hips play a more crucial role. This is good news for curvier women, who can now breathe a sigh of relief, as a slim waist is no longer the top priority.
In the first experiment, Professor Hübner’s team showed 80 men and women 12 linear drawings of different female body types. Participants were asked to rate each figure on a scale from 1 to 100, where 1 represented “completely unattractive” and 100 represented “extremely attractive.”
The curves in each drawing perfectly matched the waist-to-hip ratio. This meant that both potential indicators of female attractiveness coexisted harmoniously, making it more challenging for participants to evaluate them separately. The researchers aimed to determine whether the correct waist-to-hip ratio indeed predicts attractiveness. According to the volunteers’ responses, the old theory was confirmed, with female figures in the drawings that had a waist-to-hip ratio close to 0.7 rated as more attractive.
In most cases, a woman with “normal” weight and those ideal proportions received an average score of 74. In contrast, a body of the same weight with a 1:1 ratio received an average score of 54, as reported by the Daily Mail.
The Advantage of a Pronounced Curve
In the second experiment, researchers created a series of drawings where the body curves and the waist-to-hip ratio were not perfectly aligned. This allowed scientists to see which of the two factors would prove more significant in evaluating the figure.
Interestingly, these body drawings were based on photographs of real women wearing extremely tight corsets, emphasizing the most pronounced curves.
Ninety-eight volunteers were asked to rate the figures in the images using the same scale. As before, a waist-to-hip ratio of 0.7 was deemed the most attractive for smaller body types. However, when it came to curvier forms, this ratio ceased to be a key predictor of attractiveness. Notably, the most voluptuous woman, whose body had the coveted parameters with a ratio of 0.7, received only 17 points.
Overall, torsos with more pronounced curves from the bust to the hips were rated as the most attractive across various weights, regardless of the waist-to-hip ratio.
In a report published in the journal Scientific Reports, Professor Hübner and his colleagues wrote: “Theoretical considerations suggest that the waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) cannot be a reliable indicator of attractiveness, as is commonly believed. Therefore, one of the two features must be a more effective predictor of female body attractiveness. The results of the study clearly showed that the curve significantly surpasses WHR in this regard.”
However, as human experience shows, every woman is the most beautiful in the eyes of her beloved. Or, to put it another way: the most attractive woman is the one who is loved.
