Related to the conversation where I'd noted the Brits seem to use more women with "real" shapes (at least in "Dr. Who"). Although, even here i see perceptions have changed. I mean, in what universe is Catherine Zeta-Jones considered curvy? She's beautiful, but I'd call her slim at best. A related article I read was talking about something called the "waist-to-hip" ratio, which supposedly measures a woman's curves. It claimed a WTH of 0.7 indicated a perfect figure. Then, however, the article said that women with that "perfect figure" included Selma Hayek, Jessica Alba, and Audrey Hepburn? Huh? Hayek's got the curves, sho' 'nuff. Alba ain't anything close to what i'd consider curvacious. Fit, but not Coke-bottle curvy. And Hepburn?? My goodness, on this scale, the likes of Pam Grier, Kenya Moore, Nichele Nichols, and other classic voluptuous sisters would be considered overweight!
So much of this conversation on beauty frankly ignores whole groups of people. I rarely see African American or Latina women talked about as the standards, unless it's something stupid like last year's fixation on Michele Obama's arms. At any rate, I hope this is a trend reversing, and more women the world over realize that being anorexic-looking isn't a standard of beauty worth worth obtaining. *********************************************************************** British women 'want to be curvy not thin' (AFP) – Jul 22, 2009 LONDON — British women hanker after a curvy hourglass body shape rather than trying to be ultra slim, preferring Kate Winslet to Kate Moss, according to a poll published Wednesday. Sixty percent admitted to being either an "apple" or "pear shape," but 75 percent said they wanted a figure like Catherine Zeta-Jones or Marilyn Monroe, against only 10 percent who wanted to squeeze into a slim size 10 dress. The findings reflect changing attitudes in Britain -- where obesity is a growing problem -- among women tired of the so-called Size Zero culture long fuelled by advertising and the fashion industry. "The report shows that women's attitudes to slimming over the last 50 years have changed with their figures," said Laura Bryant of the food company which commissioned the poll of 2,000 women. "It seems British women have lost their waists but now they are demanding them back." And she added: "They are more concerned about getting a curvy hourglass shape like their grandmothers instead of being the perfect size 10 which shows a marked shift in attitude from the 80s and 90s, when success and failure when slimming was benchmarked against fitting into certain sized clothes." A top-10 list of female celebrities whose shape inspired women was topped by buxom TV cook Nigella Lawson and actresses Helen Mirren, Judy Dench, and Joanna Lumley. The findings might raise eyebrows in neighbouring France, which has the highest proportion of clinically underweight women in Europe, according to a study published in April. Only half of those French women think they are thin, said the study, noting that in Britain, Spain and Portugal, the number of women who see themselves as seriously skinny easily outstrips the number who actually are. A study last December found that one in three adults in England will be obese by the time London hosts the 2012 Olympics. Between 1993 and 2004 the proportion of obese people rose "significantly", from almost 13.6 percent to 24 percent among men and from almost 17 percent to 24.4 percent among women, according to University College London researchers.