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The ideal or preferred female body size and shape has varied over time and continues to vary among cultures; [46] [47] but a preference for a small waist has remained fairly constant throughout history. [48] A low waist–hip ratio has often been seen as a sign of good health and reproductive potential. [49]
On this (latter) metric, the most attractive ratio of leg to body for men (as seen by American women) is 1:1, [12] matching the 'four heads:four heads' ratio above. A Japanese study using the former metric found the same result for male attractiveness but women with longer legs than body were judged to be more attractive. [13]
Skin color contrast has been identified as a feminine beauty standard observed across multiple cultures. [7] Women tend to have darker eyes and lips than men, especially relative to the rest of their facial features, and this attribute has been associated with female attractiveness and femininity, [7] yet it also decreases male attractiveness according to one study. [8]
In an online experiment of US women, it was found that Pinterest users that followed fitness boards were "more likely to engage in extreme weight-loss behaviors." [44] It was also found that these boards promoted a positive correlation between social comparison, female ideal body typing, and extreme weight loss behaviors. [44]
Mammary glands do not contain muscle tissue. The shape of female breasts is affected by age, genetic factors, and body weight. Women's breasts tend to grow larger after menopause, due to increase in fatty deposits caused by decreasing levels of estrogen. The loss of elasticity from connective tissue associated with menopause also causes sagging.
A component of the female beauty ideal in Persian literature is for women to have faces like a full moon. [192] [209] [210] Similarly, in Arabian society in the Middle Ages, a component of the female beauty ideal was for women to have round faces which were like a "full moon". [193]
In 1961, Danish Egyptologist Erik Iverson described a canon of proportions in classical Egyptian painting. [2] This work was based on still-detectable grid lines on tomb paintings: he determined that the grid was 18 cells high, with the base-line at the soles of the feet and the top of the grid aligned with hair line, [3] and the navel at the eleventh line. [4]
It has been proposed by scientists that the evolutionary reason for the female body shape is due in part to this sexual selection.Sex-typical body shapes (a man's muscular physique and a woman's hourglass figure) are an outcome of evolutionary adaptation for reproductive fitness because they convey information about gene quality, health and fertility, which are important elements for mate ...