HOURGLASS FIGURE DYING OUT AMONG WOMEN WITH CAREERS

Well here is another headline I have trouble believing.  Both Sophia and Marilyn would be considered plus sized by today's media imposed standards.  And they both (especially Sophia) are beautiful women in my humble opinion. So many body shapes and sizes, bless them all,  who is to say what is normal or politically correct. And just who decided which career or careers were going to be looked at?  What about Police Officer/Captain, or Fire Fighter/Chief,  Fighter Pilot, Bomber Pilot, Nurse/Doctor,  Air Line Pilot,  Mothers?   Exactly which careers were involved in the study?

This was one of those quirky science stories that I love, but the more I read and the more I thought about it, it just seemed the study was pretty fixed.  We need to get together find something strange to study, and then apply for a government grant.  Except the government, money have they none!!  Oh wait, we could promise to name our research after a congressman and make sure we do the research in his home district. I bet the money would be printed up fresh and new and ready for us!!!

HOURGLASS FIGURE DYING OUT AMONG WOMEN WITH CAREERS

The hourglass figure made famous by Hollywood sirens Marilyn Monroe and Sophia Loren is dying out among modern women because of their career demands, it has been claimed.

By Lucy Cockcroft  --  The Telegraph UK, on line edition
 08 Jan 2009

Working women are less likely to have the bombshell look of curved hips, nipped in waist and generous bosom because of the stress levels associated with their jobs.

Instead, women who have high powered careers will probably carry a little more fat around their stomachs than their hips, according to anthropologist Elizabeth Cashdan.

They have taken on a more angular "straight-up-and-down" figure than the softer look of the 1950s stars.

 

Professor Cashdan attributes the look to androgens, a type of hormone that includes testosterone.

These hormones help women become physically stronger and more able to withstand stress, qualities that are needed to handle a rewarding career.

Professor Cashdan, of the University of Utah, studied data from 33 non-Western populations and four European populations.

She examined waist-to-hip ratios, which are calculated by measuring the waist, then hips and dividing the first figure by the second.

Medical studies have previously shown that a curvy waist-to-hip ratio of 0.7 – where the waist circumference is 70 per cent of the hip circumference or lower – is associated with higher fertility and lower rates of chronic disease.

However, Professor Cashdan found that this ratio is rarely found among women who are under pressure to rely on their own resources to support themselves and their families. Instead, she discovered an average waist to hip ratio of 0.8.

She said: 'The hormonal profile associated with high WHR (waist-to-hip ratios) may favour success in resource competition, particularly under stressful circumstances.

'The androgenic effects – stamina-initiative, risk-proneness, assertiveness, dominance – should be particularly useful where a woman must depend on her own resources to support herself and her family.'

 

 

Another Sophia Pic for Cavey, just because. . .