Comments on: I Have Even Less Idea What This Is About http://sufficientscruples.com/blog/2006/08/04/i-have-even-less-idea-what-this-is-about/ Bioethics, healthcare policy, and related issues. Tue, 22 May 2012 09:17:58 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: tgirsch http://sufficientscruples.com/blog/2006/08/04/i-have-even-less-idea-what-this-is-about/comment-page-1/#comment-13569 tgirsch Fri, 04 Aug 2006 20:04:39 +0000 http://sufficientscruples.com/blog/2006/08/04/i-have-even-less-idea-what-this-is-about/#comment-13569 From a historical, non-scientific perspective, the trend toward preferring slimmer women (and especially waiflike women) is remarkable recent. By modern standards, women like Marilyn Monroe and Rita Hayworth would be considered "too big." Which is a shame, as far as I'm concerned. There's also archaeological evidence that ancient cultures revered heavier women as being more fertile, and therefore more desirable. Primitive "Earth goddess" statues were virtually always rotund. I've got nothing even remotely scientific to back it up, but it wouldn't surprise me at all to learn that we are genetically predisposed to liking larger women, but that our culture has overridden this biological urge. Nature v. nurture, and all that. From a historical, non-scientific perspective, the trend toward preferring slimmer women (and especially waiflike women) is remarkable recent. By modern standards, women like Marilyn Monroe and Rita Hayworth would be considered “too big.” Which is a shame, as far as I’m concerned.

There’s also archaeological evidence that ancient cultures revered heavier women as being more fertile, and therefore more desirable. Primitive “Earth goddess” statues were virtually always rotund.

I’ve got nothing even remotely scientific to back it up, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all to learn that we are genetically predisposed to liking larger women, but that our culture has overridden this biological urge. Nature v. nurture, and all that.

]]>