THE scientist in me was challenging the headline this week “What a waist — why all men have had one vision of the ideal woman”. The story came from research indicating that discernible waists are the one feature of the female form that has always been in demand, being an easily recognised sign of fertility and health.
Apparently, literature searches by the University of Texas, revealed that there was no such unanimity about the ideal size of breasts, which were in any case most associated with romance rather than health or fertility. Oh, really? It got me going, not because I’ve always had an up-and-down waistless figure, but because every year science reveals another piece of the immensely complex jigsaw that is partner selection. There is no doubt that the brain does some selection behind our backs. For instance, without being aware of it, men’s decisions about which woman has the most attractive face rests on which one is the more symmetrical. Another twist is that the symmetry of a woman’s face alters with her menstrual cycle, with it being most symmetrical at the time of ovulation.
Then there is the ratio of breasts to waist, the bigger ratios associated with higher levels of fertility. For women, there is the way testosterone marks the male face to consider. A face with a strong chin and nose is a sign of higher levels of testosterone, and a higher likelihood of infidelity. Research indicates that women prefer the rounder-faced Leonardo DiCaprio-type for long-term relationships.
Then there is smell. A famous experiment had women sniffing pads wiped under male arms, and those that women found most attractive belonged to men who had a section of genome called the MHC (major histocompatability complex) most different from theirs.
The body logic is that variety is good. Incidentally, those couples who suffer recurrent miscarriages include a significant proportion in which partners’ MHCs are similar.
But then other studies have found that we tend to be attracted to facial traits that indicate a personality similar to our own, and long-term partners tend to be very alike. How many times have you seen young overweight couples for whom waist size is clearly not everything? In other words, the factors that contribute to attraction are plentiful and convoluted. And the fact is that evolution is all too easily overridden.
Everything from a partner’s choice of music or clothes, their intelligence or even their ability to dance the tango are part of the mix.
Not to mention those women who are simply programmed to go for bad boys every time.
