Women with muscular bodies are now seen as more attractive than those with thin physiques, researchers say
Researchers from the University of Missouri-Kansas City looked at the
body types that people rate as most attractive, and found that muscular
figures are rated more highly than thin bodies. The researchers studied
photos of women in the Miss USA Competition and found that over
the past 15 years, winners have become increasingly muscular. They came
to this conclusion by analyzing photos of the 1999 to 2013 winners.
In a follow-up study, the researchers investigated whether the
long-held ideal female figure of extreme thinness is also changing to
include muscle tone. They showed photos depicting 14 women to 64
students. Each pair of the images were identical, except that in one
version, muscular definition had been digitally removed thereby making
the women thin in one photo and toned in the other.
When the images were shown to participants separately, they rated the
"thin only" and "toned and thin" versions as being equally attractive.
But when the images were presented side-by-side in pairs, the
participants rated the muscular figures to be the more attractive ones.
Professor Frances Bozsik, lead author of the study, said: "There is a
shift in the thin ideal female figure to one that now includes the
appearance of physical fitness via muscularity."
The researchers suggest that this increased preference for toned
figures is consistent with the models commonly seen in ‘fitspiration’
photos on social media.
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