A combination of slenderness and femininity contrasts strongly with the combination of slenderness and masculinity typically observed among high-fashion models.
Here is a brief video clip of Anna S, a slender and feminine woman.
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In the following clip, you can see Anna S (the one with the blonde hair dye) dancing with others. Anna S is the most slender of the quartet and two other women have larger breasts, but Anna's physique is the most appealing to me because of its femininity, and her small rib cage and tiny waist especially contribute to the feminine appearance. This clip once again shows that femininity is not merely a function of the amount of body fat and its distribution, but that skeletal proportions and musculoskeletal mass are important variables, too.
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The following clip is of Ekaterina, a slim and feminine woman.
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These videos again clarify that high-fashion models are not just slender, but their body proportions tend to be masculinized, too. Anna S would be outright rejected if she applied to be a fashion model, notwithstanding her slenderness (that will not interefere with the alleged “clothes hangar” function) because her body doesn't remotely approach an adolescent boy's.
The video clips shown above are from Hegre Art, and the group dancing clip is specifically from this video.
Download links for those unable to see the videos above: Anna S intro (avi, 10 MB), Anna S and others dancing (avi, 41 MB), Ekaterina (avi, 31 MB).
fem?
http://e.photos.cx/13684_van_h_nud_123_1168lo-620.jpg
What criterion do you use to decide if a woman's ribcage is "small"? Are you looking at it left-to-right, dorsal-to-ventral, or both? Are you comparing it to her waist, shoulders, or what?
The first girl is actually alright looking. SHe has a pretty good body though her face is more average girl nex door cute. The second girl would be a terrible model and her video is disgusting. She has an average face, bad hair and some ugly, red legs. I have posted some pictures of models with "feminine" bodies before. I don't know why you ignored that post.
Reka Ebergenyi
if they're not 5-9, they cant model then 99% of the time. that has nothing to do with fem or butch
I have read through quite a bit of the site and have not yet encountered a perspective that I'd like to put forth. If I've missed it and you've covered it somewhere, I apologise for the redundancy.
I have to agree with the assertion that femininity and thinness are not mutually exclusive. The balance between looking thin and looking womanly is something that fashion constantly blurs the lines on, or crosses over completely
The link between thinness and attractiveness is related to the overall silhouette versus the dynamic look of a body in motion. In some photographs with careful posing, as you've pointed out, the silhouette is a strikingly feminine shape, when viewed as a two-dimensional image. Most of the manly models that I agree are not attractive can at times present a smooth, curvy frontal line, without bulges or softer flesh that detracts from the overall impression. Even though the same bulges and softer flesh are paramount to the perception of femininity, there is a clash with the innate desire for health and fitness in our prospective mate. The problems begin when the body begins to move about, and the angles and flatness from less than optimal angles become more apparent. Woman who retain some feminine characteristics from multiple angles survive this test.
We want a female who is healthy and strong, able to carry the baby to term, and part of the unconcious appraisals we are guided by is the overall body fat of the woman. Part of het reason that a small trim ribcage is so appealing to me, and obviously you, is that it broadcasts "trim and fit", even if there is a contrasting swell to the breast and hip region - which broadcast their own positive breeding message. You don't often see a woman with a small trim ribcage and overly fat thighs.
These drives work to fool us when viewing a two-dimensional photograph into preferring a thinner woman, as long as she has a swoop to the overall outer line. When we actually look at the depth and contours of the entire body, as with the 'ass' shots of some of these transvestite wanna-be's, the veil is lifted and we can see how badly we were deceived.
One of the critical aspects for a thin woman to still appear feminine is the sideways waist to hip ratio. The overall measurement provides no detail for the distribution of those lovely inches as either width or depth. If the side profile of a thin woman has a depth to the butt cheeks that is significantly more than the waist, she will present a feminine silhouette. For any woman, thin or not, when the sdeways profile shows a waist that is as visually wide as the hips/butt cheeks, it looks manly and wrong. It doesn't inspire the unconcious response that the woman is a healthy breeding female. When the butt cheeks curve in at the bottom defining the cheek, that is also a telling marker tha twe unconciously, or conciously look for. If there is no definition to the bottom of the ass cheek, as with most supermodels, the message is all wrong. these are things that are not measured or represented in a ratio, or a BMI.
A good pop culture example of this is the very curvy, yet arguably butch Jessica Biel. I think she's amazing, but there are many men who think she's too angular. From the side, her ass is much deeper than her waist, with a beautiful, firm curve that screams "I CAN MAKE HEALTHY BABIES". There are other aspects of her physique that can appear masculine, again depending on the angle, pose, and overall silhouette, but since most of her shape derives from muscle and not fat, she usually looks great when in motion as well as stopped for 1/400th of a second. For example, from the front her visual waist to hip ratio - in silhouette - is not that high, as most of the swell of her ass is backwards, not sideways. This contributes to a more manly front profile depending on the angle.
This comment is getting long, but I'd like to say more. Perhaps I'll have the time and chance to post again. I hope you find that welcome.
The topic is of interest to me, having been with a very curvy, sexy woman, in great shape, for most of my adult life, and flabbergastedly watching her criticising her body time and again, wishing for the unattainable dichotomy of feminine shape and zero flab. She has a rare combination of lean, muscular femine shape, so I guess it's no surprise that I find Jessica Biel so attractive.
Thanks for putting together a thought provoking site. Some great research and ideas here.
Brian
8D: The woman looks about normal/average with respect to masculinity-femininity, i.e. neither feminine nor masculine.
Ashley: Both actual size and how it compares to other body structures go into whether the rib cage looks small. The frontal width is also related to sideways/profile width.
Danielle: Who said anything about Ekaterina doing fashion modeling? I haven’t ignored your post on Reka Ebergenyi; just replied to it after some time because I was caught up with other things.
9D: Given the resources of the fashion business, it would be very easy to find feminine women who are 5-foot-9 and up. It definitely has to do with whether they are feminine or masculine.
Brian: I haven’t concentrated on why most people prefer feminine beauty, but have cited its relation to fertility and fecundity. The appeal of a smaller ribcage does not appear to be related to it suggesting “trim and fit,” but to it making a woman look more feminine. Athletic women look fitter than feminine women but tend to have broader ribcages.
BLAH BLAH!!!!1
Who says that it is right thing to impose such rule, that for fashion model woman has to be 5'9. It is big fat lie, that they look better in clothes, I have eyes, and I can see, that clothes look just as good on smaller stature, if it is correspondingly slim with same proportions as a tall stature.It is so evident. In my life, I've seen more enviable mannequin ( mannequin etym.meaning: small man) figures in clothes among 5'3- 5'5 range than among 5'7 and up.That is such arrogance. Heightism.
Anna S has the perfect figure.
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