Supermodels: stick insects or hourglasses?

Tovée, Martin J.; Mason, Suzanne; Emery, J L; McCluskey, Sara; Cohen-Tovée, Esther

doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(05)64238-9

Cited by 67 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…the body mass index (BMI), the units of which are kg m À2 ) may be a far more important factor than WHR in determining the attractiveness of a female body (Tove¨e et al 1998a). This result is consistent with another study that showed that successful female fashion and glamour models all fall within a narrow BMI range (Tove¨e et al 1997). It is well established that changes in BMI also have a strong impact on health Willet et al 1995) and reproductive potential (Reid & Van Vugt 1987;Frisch 1988;Lake et al 1997).…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Visual cues to female physical attractiveness

Tovée

Maisey

Emery

et al. 1999

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

257

215

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Evolutionary psychology suggests that a woman's sexual attractiveness is based on cues of health and reproductive potential. In recent years, research has focused on the ratio of the width of the waist to the width of the hips (the waist-to-hip ratio (WHR)). A low WHR (i.e. a curvaceous body) is believed to correspond to the optimal fat distribution for high fertility, and so this shape should be highly attractive. In this paper we present evidence that weight scaled for height (the body mass index (BMI)) is the primary determinant of sexual attractiveness rather than WHR. BMI is also strongly linked to health and reproductive potential. Furthermore, we show how covariation of apparent BMI and WHR in previous studies led to the overestimation of the importance of WHR in the perception of female attractiveness. Finally, we show how visual cues, such as the perimeter^area ratio (PAR), can provide an accurate and reliable index of an individual's BMI and could be used by an observer to di¡erentiate between potential partners.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Visual cues to female physical attractiveness

Tovée

Maisey

Emery

et al. 1999

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

257

215

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The differential relationship of androgenousness and curvaceousness cues with unobtrusive FPA measures in the present study was further supported by documented differences in body measures of glamour models versus fashion models (see comparative data in Tovée et al, 1997). Glamour models, who typically pose in magazines, have more curvaceous body shapes, whereas fashion models are frequently seen in motion, such as on the catwalk, and have more androgynous body shapes.…”

Section: Body-mass Index and Waist-to-hip Ratio As Domain-specific Atsupporting

confidence: 78%

“…From the anthropometric data, we calculated the following composite body shape measures: body-mass index (BMI), which is weight scaled for height or degree of "tubular" body shape; waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), which is degree of lower-body curvaceous shape; waist-to-bust-ratio (WBR), which is degree of upper-body curvaceous shape; and bust-to-hip ratio (BHR), which is degree of "hourglass" body shape (Tovée et al, 1997). BMI is a bodily cue of androgenousness (Tovée et al, 1997(Tovée et al, , 1998(Tovée et al, , 1999, where androgeny indicates that the body shape is not overtly feminine nor masculine. In contrast, WHR, WBR, and BHR are cues of curvaceousness (Tovée et al, 1997(Tovée et al, , 1998(Tovée et al, , 1999, meaning the level of gentle or rounded angularity that is evident in body shape.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…BMI is a bodily cue of androgenousness (Tovée et al, 1997(Tovée et al, , 1998(Tovée et al, , 1999, where androgeny indicates that the body shape is not overtly feminine nor masculine. In contrast, WHR, WBR, and BHR are cues of curvaceousness (Tovée et al, 1997(Tovée et al, , 1998(Tovée et al, , 1999, meaning the level of gentle or rounded angularity that is evident in body shape. From the models' birth date, we calculated models' age (as of mid -2001).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Typically, evaluations consist of Likert-scale ratings for course credit that are made mainly by male undergraduates and, in one case, solely by female undergraduates (Forestell, Humphrey, & Stewart, 2004). With the exception of a few accounts (Freese & Meland, 2002;Singh, 1993;Tovée, Mason, Emery, McClusky, & Cohen-Tovée, 1997;Voracek & Fisher, 2002), where body measures of fashion models or Playboy centerfolds were investigated, there has been a lack of FPA studies using unobtrusive measures (Webb, Campbell, Schwartz, & Sechrest, 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Success Is All in the Measures: Androgenousness, Curvaceousness, and Starring Frequencies in Adult Media Actresses

Voracek

Fisher

2006

Arch Sex Behav

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The debate of whether body-mass index (BMI) or waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) is the primary visual cue to female physical attractiveness (FPA) has generated considerable interest. However, experiments addressing this question typically have limited ecological validity and do not capture the ultimate goal of FPA, which is to elicit male sexual arousal. Hence, using an unobtrusive measures design, we retrieved movie and magazine starring frequencies of 125 adult media actresses from a company's database, operationalized starring frequencies as FPA measures, and tested their relationship to actresses' anthropometric data. Low BMI was related to frequent movie starring, while WHR, waistto-bust ratio (WBR), and bust size were not. Conversely, low WHR, low WBR, and larger bust size were related to frequent magazine starring, while BMI was not. Visual cues to FPA might be domain-specific, with androgenousness cues salient for attractiveness evaluation of moving bodies and curvaceousness cues salient for posing bodies.

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Obesity and Culture

Craig¹

2005

Clinical Obesity in Adults and Children

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Supermodels: stick insects or hourglasses?

Cited by 67 publications

References 2 publications

Visual cues to female physical attractiveness

Visual cues to female physical attractiveness

Success Is All in the Measures: Androgenousness, Curvaceousness, and Starring Frequencies in Adult Media Actresses

Obesity and Culture

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