Hour-Glass or Belly Fat: Body Shape as Destiny
by Dr. Gabe Mirkin
According to Dr. Elizabeth Cashdan, a cultural anthropologist at the University of Utah, women who have hour- glass figures (storing fat primarily in their hips) are more sexual and less athletic than those who are shaped like men and store fat primarily in their bellies (Cultural Anthropology, December 2008).
Women who are shaped like hour-glasses have wider hips and narrower bellies because they have more of the female hormone, estrogen; and less of the stress hormone, cortisol and the male hormone, testosterone.
Dr. Cashdan proposes that women who are protected by men may not be as stressed as those who have to provide for themselves and their children, and therefore have lower levels of cortisol. Testosterone and cortisol cause fat to be deposited in the belly, while estrogen causes it to be deposited in the hips.
Women who are stronger and more competitive have bigger bellies because they have more masculinizing hormones that make them aggressive. Women who are more fertile, have more babies, and are more sexual tend to have more estrogen and therefore bigger hips and smaller bellies.
In societies that stress fertility and having lots of children, men seem to prefer women who have hour glass-like figures. In societies where women are more independent and have to get their own food and depend on themselves to survive, they are more likely to be shaped like men with a higher waist to hip ratio.
She says: "In Japan, Greece and Portugal, where women tend to be less economically independent, men place a higher value on a thin waist than men in [countries such as] Britain or Denmark, where there tends to be more sexual equality."
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
wow that photo of that woman with a small waist is unbelievable.
It’s allegedly a real photo of the woman who’s in the Guiness Book of World Records for the smallest waist – 12 inches.