The traditional theory of beauty says that for every man who chases the voluptuous type, such as Jordan or Marilyn Monroe, there is another who prefers to woo a waif such as Twiggy or Kate Moss.

But this and the idea that beauty is subjective and ever-changing has been overturned by Prof Devendra Singh and his daughter Adrian Singh.

The psychologists from the University of Texas today publish research showing that lovestruck men have only one thing on their minds: a woman's WHR - waist-hip ratio, calculated by dividing waist circumference by that of the hips.

Jordan and Twiggy have something in common: both have waists that are noticeably narrower than their hips and Prof Singh has found evidence this "belle curve" is ingrained in the male brain in his studies of Playboy centrefolds, the ancient Egyptians and tests on men from Africa to the Azores.

"We searched the literature for any reference to a female waist and examined every passage that contained each such reference," said Prof Singh. "As a control, we also searched for the words breast, hip, buttocks, leg, thighs, slim and plump and compared how often the authors referred to these characteristics as attractive."

Two independent raters then judged whether the reference was romantic or non-romantic ("her hair came down to her waist" versus "longing to hold her lovely waist").

The romantic entries were divided into those which made no reference to size or shape (for example, "better are thy breasts than wine") and those in which either the shape or size was actually described (for example pretty, round, heavy breasts; slim or tapered waist) or defined by analogy ("thy breasts are like ripe pomegranates"; "whose waist is little as a wand").

For every century, three body parts - breasts, waist and thighs - are more often referred to as beautiful than other body parts.

The team also found the hourglass in ancient literature. Two ancient Indian epics, Mahabharata and Ramayana (first to third century), and Chinese sixth dynastic Palace poetry also link attractiveness with a wasp waist.

Consider, for instance, the description by Chinese writer Xu Ling (507–583): "Beautiful women in the palace of Chu, there were none who did not admire their slender waist; the fair woman of Wei." Similarly, the Mahabharata contains the description: "accept this slender-waisted damsel for thy spouse."

Remarkably, conclude the team, "even without the benefit of modern medical knowledge, both British and Asian writers intuited the biological link between health and beauty".

Goosey's Gabbings...

I am frankly astonished that the classic "Baby Got Back" was left out of this study. Nothing says it more than "I like big butts and I cannot lie..."

I guess this study gives merit to the fact that subscriptions to "Juggs" far outweigh "Anorexic stick people with their ribs showing".

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