Centerfolds Less Curvaceous

[Jewels]

The curves of Playboy centerfold models have gradually flattened out over the last 50 years, giving way to a more androgynous look, European researchers suggest.

Analyzing every Playboy centerfold since the first one in 1953, they found the models' weight hadn't changed much over time, but busts and hips had diminished, while waists had become less tapered.

The study, published this week in the traditionally lighthearted Christmas edition of the British Medical Journal, does not offer much interpretation of the trend and experts warn against jumping to conclusions.


Does it mean the male idea of female attractiveness has changed over time  that men now prefer a less curvaceous woman, despite their protests that "heroin chic" is not sexy?

Or were the evolutionary scientists who theorized that curves symbolized fertility and that the most reproductively successful females were those who were able to store surplus energy in their curves wrong?

Or have humans now evolved beyond such primitive judgments as the ability to make it through famine?

Or is it simply that Playboy is now out of touch with what men find attractive?

"It's difficult to disentangle cause from effect," said the study's leader, Martin Voracek, a psychology researcher at the University of Vienna in Austria. "All I can say is that attractiveness is not that simple and is not constant over time."

"If Playboy didn't reflect ideals of attractiveness, they wouldn't still be around, so it must be that many men find this shape attractive," Voracek speculated.

However, Adrian Furnham, a professor of psychology at London University who has conducted research on judgments of female attractiveness, was not so ready to draw conclusions.

"I would have thought that to make any deductions would be highly dubious. Some years ago Playboy was the touchstone, but there are now dozens of these things around," he said. "You'd need a whole range of magazines from different countries which showed a consistent pattern. Then, I think, you could start worrying about an explanation, but until then it's just a bit of fun."

It's not as if the Playboy centerfolds are indistinguishable from bony catwalk models, Voracek said, "but at least over the last 15 years or so, there is some sort of converging trend."

Playboy spokesman Bill Farley acknowledged the curves on the centerfolds have changed.

"In the 1950s and into the '60s, the cultural norm was more of the hourglass figure  Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield. That was reflected in the pages of Playboy. As time has gone on and women have become more athletic, more in the business world and more inclined to put themselves through fitness regimes, their bodies have changed, and we reflect that as well," he said.

Many models these days tend to have thinner lower bodies.

"But I would think that no one with eyes to see would consider playmates to be androgynous," Farley said.

  

On the Net:

British Medical Journal, http://www.bmj.com

[Angrist]

Pictures please. ;)

[Jason1]

honestly, when your checking out a girl, do you look to see how curvy she is? Hell no.

[Perfect Stu]

Originally posted by Jason1
honestly, when your checking out a girl, do you look to see how curvy she is? Hell no.

Hell YES

I absolutely LOVE the curvy, womanly figure. I think that the subconcious male instinct is that when they see curves, they see a woman who can bear their child (something like that).

Anyways, Playboy needs to hire women with more meat. I've never been attracted to stick figures, and I never will be.

[Joeiss]

Whatever. All the girls in Playboy since the beginnning of the magazine have been hot, so I do not see them changing in their "hotiness" anytime soon.

[ominub]

i agree joeiss

[Angrist]

Hmm... I don't really like skin on bones... but I don't think anybody likes that... but the perfect women is closer to that than to super-fat. :unsure:

[Joeiss]

Originally posted by Angrist
Hmm... I don't really like skin on bones... but I don't think anybody likes that... but the perfect women is closer to that than to super-fat. :unsure:


Except for those crazy fetish freaks.

[Shiz]

playboy models are ****ing hot, they seem curvy enough to me

[Xantar]

I actually don't find a lot of Playboy models very attractive these days. I think many people drool over them just because they're occasionally naked in a picture.

But then again, I don't like big, clearly part-silicone breasts, so what do I know?

[Jewels]

i hate skin on bones, girls with just bones maybe to some guys, but honestly, SOME of us girls dont like stick guys, nothing there to back them up :p ;) :rolleyes: :roll: :D

[Perfect Stu]

I've met many guys who prefer girls SKINNY as opposed to between average weight and say 10-20 pounds overweight...which I don't agree with. No meat, no treat ;)

but I've only met ONE girl who prefers guys SKINNY as opposed to regular build or big and muscular.

Maybe that's why more girls are anorexic than guys :unsure:

Society today deems the skinny ones the beautiful ones. Look back to 1600s-1700s when artists painted pictures of nude women. They all had some beef...the curvy ones were considered beautiful. Now watch a Victoria Secret special on TV. Most of the models have less meat on them than a chicken wing I ate the other day. It's sad, really.

[DeathsHand]

Originally posted by Perfect Stu
Now watch a Victoria Secret special on TV. Most of the models have less meat on them than a chicken wing I ate the other day. It's sad, really.

*nods in agreement*

Silly silly society today...

[Jason1]

Which is why I like that Hillary Duff girl from that Disney Show lizzie mcgwire.


http://www.starswelove.com/scriptsphp/showimg.php?imageid=14290

http://www.starswelove.com/scriptsphp/showimg.php?imageid=14288


That is one fine hunk of meat right there. I eat it up.:burger:

[Jonbo298]

I like women with some meat on them. I don't like the really thin ones. (Like most models are today). Also, I don't have a preference for women with huge breasts. To me, its really unattractive. I prefer normal REAL breasts. But thats just my opinion.

[ACRULER]

Well personaly i only like one girl but ominub has her But anyway i think that it is stupid that most of the "men" today even look at playboy ~only because they are not an average looking women and well sorry to say the women that they will 'Get' with but sice i'm a hippy and i do look at playboy i think they have not changed

[ghettodude]

hey who cares in the end... a girl being beautiful doesnt depend on how much she weighs.. (ok... well... hmm.. less then 100- over 200 are exceptions) ...... i just kind of negated my point...

.... WELL yea any girl in that range can be pretty damn solid IMO... and i cant say honestly that i "prefer" a girl with "more meat"(by the way... that sounds disgusting.. like she is a ****in porkchop er somethin..).. or prefer a girl who is nothing but "bone" (again..) .. but the right girl doesnt usually catch your attention that way... and in the end the most beautiful girl you ever see will not be defined by those standards... it will go deeper then that.

[Perfect Stu]

oh, now we're talking beauty?

I thought this was all about sexiness of appearance.

I could be very much attracted to a skinny girl or an overweight girl...but as far as physical attraction, I prefer girls who are in between 'average weight' and 15 pounds over 'average weight'.

[Xantar]

Well, a pretty famous study was done on this subject.

The researchers took a bunch of males and showed them a bunch of drawings of the same woman dressed in the same bathing suit standing in the same pose. The difference was that from picture to picture, her apparent body weight changed. There were (I believe) 8 pictures in all, and the guys preferred the third or fourth skinniest one (interestingly, the next most preferred picture was the plumpest woman. Think on that for a while).

Then the researchers showed the pictures to women and asked them which one they thought the guys preferred. The women chose the skinniest or second skinniest picture.

So the moral of the story is this: girls often think they need to be skinnier than guys think they do.

[Destro]

I guess they just do it for themselves then. Perhaps woman think that anorexia is fun. Many of them enjoy Lifetime, so I'd say that anything is possible.

[dwelzy]

hmmm when it comes to outer beauty i prefer a petite person ,but that doesnt mean thats all i look for in a partner....
(ps: booty is good :D )

[Happydude]

I've been gone for 2 day...2 DAYS!!! and look what we are talking about "how curvy women are"...WTF...lol...anyhoo...i didn't bother reading the replies, or the whole article...but yeah...

lol

*walks off muttering and chukling*

[Kitana85]

It's kinda scary really... I read the average model is 5'11 and weighs 117 pounds. I'm 5'2 and weigh only a couple pounds little less than that and I'm considered to be on the slender side. Some of it is muscle from ballet... but still...these models excerise majorly.

[Shadow Fox]

I guess it all depends on the situtation and whatnot that YOU prefer. I personally like thick (meaning thick thighs and backside with slim, size 6-10 waist). I don't really care for big breasts, even though my ex data states otherwise. Hell, I've even dated a girl with short hair (which I HATE), skinny (which I also HATE), and no butt or breasts (which I REALLY HATE), but I she's still majorly attractive to me...:unsure:

But yeah, Playboy never really had no IDEAL women in their mags for me (not that they aren't sexy). They just don't appeal to me.

Then again, I'm a black guy, and I follow closely with the stereotype of "wanting big butts"...:rolleyes:

*searches for Mya*

*leaps back into Mercedes Benz on "24's*

-Official Ninja of XboxAddict

[Destro]

Originally posted by Shadow Fox


*leaps back into Mercedes Benz on "24's*

:lol: :D That's one of the first truly funny things that anyone's said on these boards. Haha.

[Perfect Stu]

Originally posted by Kitana85
It's kinda scary really... I read the average model is 5'11 and weighs 117 pounds. I'm 5'2 and weigh only a couple pounds little less than that and I'm considered to be on the slender side. Some of it is muscle from ballet... but still...these models excerise majorly.

holy sh|te

my sister is 5'10", plays university basketball (she's in very good shape, fairly thin) and weighs about 165 pounds. And models, supposedly the ones chosen for beauty are 50 pounds LIGHTER?? Ick. Today's models...keep strutting...but you won't get my attention till the next time I need a flagpole with hair.

[DenisTheDuDe]

LoL.....flagpole with hair......Thats funny and so true at the same time




:lol:

[Angrist]

Some weeks ago I was walking behind a girl that practicly had no @$$. :eek: That was just freaky, I didn't think she was sexy. :green:

[Jewels]

HEHEHE, the society these days has totally turned heads on how the average male and female should look, if your not thin or beautiful your out... and besides what do the bastards at playboy know about beauty.... some could be ditzy, while others could be anorexic just to SAVE THERE CAREER in the playboy mansion, i mean who CARES! the ideal woman isnt 100% perfect neither is the male figure, according to them to survive ya gotta be beautiful and to be able to turn heads! to some girls there LIFES GOAL is to be as thin as those models, they sicken society because they expect people to follow them... ugh!