Centerfolds Less Curvaceous
 

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

Pictures please. ;)

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.

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.

i agree joeiss

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.

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

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?

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

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.

*nods in agreement*

Silly silly society today...

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


http://www.starswelove.com/scriptsph...?imageid=14290

http://www.starswelove.com/scriptsph...?imageid=14288


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

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.