The Maintenance Library - Men want Miss Average Article

A friend of mine from India sent me this article (it's on a topic that we both discuss on a regular basis.... AND exactly what my boyfriend (who's also from India) said to me last week crazily enough.

What I'm wondering is this just India, or is it everywhere? What do you guys think?



Men want Miss Average, not centrefold babes
12 Jun 2009

Here’s some good news for size 14 women: Gentlemen find the homely shape of the girl-next-door more attractive than the ''perfect'' proportions

Men find Miss Average more attractive than centrefold babes (Getty Images)
of models.

That’s the conclusion of a new study which involved 100 male students. Miss Average can be defined as a 5ft 4in female with a 30in waist and 40in hips.

Aussie boffins asked male volunteers to rate the attractiveness of more than 200 drawings of female torsos of different sizes, The Couriermail reported.

They then compared the most attractive torsos with the vital statistics of eight groups of women, including models, Playboy centrefolds and normal members of the population.

The New Scientist reports that the real women best matched the ideal body shape, with the best fit being a British size 14.

Researcher Dr Martin Grundl said: “Why the subjects prefer this body most of all is pure speculation.

“That is the nature of beauty - it is very easily to recognize but it is very hard to describe and to explain with words.”

Most guys like girls with curves. I have yet to meet a guy that is attracted to stick figured women (i.e. women with bodies like 12 year old boys)

My guy friends tell me they like those sexy curves.

Even though I think this is true, I have yet to embrace my own curves and be happy. =) It matters more to me what I feel and think about myself.

Well, that's all fine and dandy for men wanting what they want.

But being a size 14 would most likely leave me in the obese category. Certainly in the overweight category. Which would leave me at risk for many cancers, heart disease, diabetes, and a slew of many other debilitating and life altering and life threatening diseases. Sorry guys - no can do.

Oh "studies." :dizzy: This version (http://jezebel.com/5287259/study-men-like-drawings-of-average-women) says men like women who are 5'4" with measurements of 36-28-38. But someone in the comments read the actual study and found out what it was ACTUALLY about:

"The work, by Rob Brooks at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and colleagues, suggests that the popular notion that a waist-hip ratio of 0.7 is the most attractive only holds if the rest of the body is average." (Behavioral Ecology, DOI: [dx.doi.org] ).

So basically what the media is reporting is totally not the point of the study. They already know that men like women with a waist-to-hip ratio of .7, now they just confirmed that they like it best when you don't have giant shoulders or a huge left hand or something.

First of all, just to clarify, a UK size 14 is a size 10 in the US.

I'm not surprised that men would prefer "average" women to super skinny model types. I mean, there are more of us "average" girls around and very few men are perfect specimens themselves. :)

What annoys me is that these studies seem to imply that men must be shallow, otherwise the scientists and the media wouldn't be surprised by the findings. The majority of men that I know are good guys and personality and compatibility are more important to them than mere looks.

You don't have to be a specific size to be sexy!

WooHoo! I'm very nearly Miss Average.

Kitty

Being a sociology/anthropology major... I was actually more interested in the cultural differences.... but yeah, good points everyone. :)