Hourglass figure

Sex-typical body shapes (a man's muscular physique and a woman's hourglass figure) are an outcome of evolutionary adaptation for reproductive fitness because they convey information about gene quality, health and fertility, which are important elements for mate selection.

She suggests that although sexual dimorphism may partly explain women's body shapes, they likely also reflect adaptation to reproduction and locomotion.

To prevent the center of gravity in a woman's body from being off balance, it is believed that evolution could have favored fat deposits in the gluteal region and the thighs.

[6] A systematic review of multiple studies found that age and sex were the factors most strongly correlated with waist-hip ratio (WHR).

[7] Data from 1996–2005 indicated that women with larger (> 0.5) waist-to-height ratios had a higher risk of premature death and significant health problems.

[13] In Africa's lower Niger region, a traditional Bamana song describes an ideal young woman: A well-formed girl is never disdained, Namu....Her breasts completely fill her chest, Namu....Her buttocks stand out firmly behind her.... Look at her slender, young bamboo-like waist...[14]In Europe, the first representations of truly fashionable women appear in the 14th century.

Between the 14th and 16th centuries in northern Europe, bulging bellies were deemed desirable, however the rest of the figure was generally thin.

This resulted in a beauty standard that reconciled the two aesthetics by using classically proportioned figures who had non-classical amounts of flesh and soft, padded skin.

This may be a reflection of the female style of the day: a long, cylindrical, corseted gown with rippling satin accents.

Consequently, depictions of nude women in the 18th century tend to have a very narrow waist and high, distinct breasts, almost as if they were wearing an invisible corset.

Hourglass corset designs have varied throughout history, but the basic design and intention of the corset remained the same– the reduction of the waist line in order to create the ideal hourglass body shape where the bust and hips were similar in measurement while being much wider than the narrow waist.

This well-known historical attempt at changing a woman's body shape — corseting of the waist to make an hourglass figure — had lasting effects on the skeleton, deforming the ribs and misaligning the spine.

[19] The smooth and narrow waist continues to dominate in fashion designs meant to cater to plus-size women even when that particular body shape, the hourglass, is rarely found.

[21] One study showed that only about 8 percent of women have the sort of hourglass figure flaunted by curvaceous 1950s film stars such as Sophia Loren.

Of 6,000 women's body shapes analyzed, 46 percent were described as rectangular, with the waist less than nine inches smaller than the hips or bust.