In a pioneering 1993 study, Singh, asked participants to examine 12 randomly arranged line drawings that represented four levels of WHR at three levels of body weight (underweight, normal, and overweight) and rank them in order of attractiveness. In all weight categories, both male and female participants aged 18-22 rated the figure with the lowest 0.7 WHR as a being youthful, healthy, reproductively capable and as the most attractive. In a related study, Singh, compiled the measurements of Playboy centerfolds and Miss America winners from 1923 to 1990. Their bodies got measurably leaner over the decades, yet their waist-hip ratios stayed within the narrow range of .68 to .72. (Even Twiggy was no tube; at the peak of her fame in the 1960s, the British model had a WHR of .73.) Small wonder that when women were liberated from corsets and bustles, they took up girdles, wide belts and other waist-reducing contraptions! Last year alone, American women's outlays for shape-enhancing garments topped a half-billion dollars. |