End of the Hourglass Figure

In the past few years, scientists who study the eternal signs of beauty have concluded that the perfect figure entails a golden ratio of .7 between a woman’s waist and hips. They further found that this magical formula was biological, not just societal, and was the ideal shape for maximum fertility. Now a new study by anthropologist Elizabeth Cashdan blows holes in that notion. She concludes a woman with a higher ratio’s genes—that is, a woman with a less slim waist—“may favor success in resource competition, particularly under stressful circumstances.” She notes that most societies prefer women with a higher ratio, and those that favor hourglass figures are countries generally “where women are economically dependent on men.”