Did the perils of abdominal obesity affect depiction of feminine beauty in the sixteenth to eighteenth century British literature? Exploring the health and beauty link

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Volumn 274, Issue 1611, 2007, Pages 891-894

  Singh, Devendra ^a   Renn, Peter ^b   Singh, Adrian ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN   (United States)

^b HARVARD LAW SCHOOL   (United States)

Author keywords

Abdominal obesity; Attractiveness; Fecundity; Health; Literature; Waist

Indexed keywords

ESTROGEN;

CULTURAL HISTORY; FECUNDITY; GOOD GENES HYPOTHESIS; HEALTH STATUS; MATE ATTRACTION; MATE CHOICE; OBESITY; PHENOTYPE;

ABDOMINAL OBESITY; ARTICLE; CHINA; CORRELATION ANALYSIS; ESTHETICS; ESTROGEN BLOOD LEVEL; FEMALE; FERTILITY; HEALTH STATUS; HUMAN; INDIA; LITERATURE; MATE CHOICE; PRIORITY JOURNAL; RELIABILITY; RISK ASSESSMENT; THEORY; UNITED KINGDOM; WAIST CIRCUMFERENCE; BODY SIZE; HISTORY; OBESITY; WAIST HIP RATIO;

BEAUTY; BODY SIZE; CHINA; FEMALE; FERTILITY; GREAT BRITAIN; HISTORY, 16TH CENTURY; HISTORY, 17TH CENTURY; HISTORY, 18TH CENTURY; HUMANS; INDIA; LITERATURE, MODERN; OBESITY; WAIST-HIP RATIO;

EID: 34247191115     PISSN: 09628452     EISSN: 14712970     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2006.0239     Document Type: Article

References (15)

1. Carroll, J. 2004 Literary Darwinism: evolution, human nature, and literature. New York, NY: Routlege.
2. Clinical guideline in the identification, evolution, and treatment of overweight and obesity in adults. The evidence report. National Institute of health. Obes. Res. 6 (Suppl. 2), s15-209s.
3. Ganguli, K. M. 1893-1896 English translation of Mahabharata of Krishna Dwaipayana E-book. http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext05/8mkdw10.txt. Date retrieved: September 10, 2006.
4. Gottschall, J. & Wilson, D. S. (eds) 2005 The literary animal. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
5. Grammer, K., Fink, B., Moller, A. P. & Thornhill, R. 2003 Darwinian aesthetics: sexual selection and the biology of beauty. Biol. Rev. 78, 385-407. (doi:10.1017/ S1464793102006085)
6. Han, T. S., Van Leer, E. H., Seidell, J. C. & Lean, M. E. J. 1995 Waist circumference action levels predict cardiovascular risk factors: prevalence study in a random sample. Br. Med. J. 31, 1401-1405.
7. Jasienska, G., Zimokiewicz, A., Ellison, P. T., Lipson, S. F. & Thune, I. 2004 Large breasts and narrow waist indicate high reproductive potential in women. Proc. R. Soc. B 271, 1213-1217. (doi:10.1098/rspb.2004.2712)
8. Kissebah, A. H. & Krakower, G. R. 1994 Regional adiposity and mortality. Physiol. Rev. 74, 761-811.
9. Marlowe, F. & Wetsman, A. 2001 Preferred waist-to-hip ratio and ecology. Pres. Indiv. Differ. 30, 481-489. (doi:10.1016/ S0191-8869(00)00039-8)
10. Singh, D. 2002 Female mate value at a glance: relationship of waist-to-hip ratio to health, fecundity, and attractiveness. Neuroendocrinol. Lett. 23(Suppl. 4), 81-91.
11. Symons, D. 1979 The evolution of human sexuality. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
12. Thiessen, D. & Umezawa, Y. 1998 The sociobiology of everyday life: a new look at a very old novel. Hum. Nat. 9, 293-320.
13. Wu, F. 1998 The poetics of decadence: Chinese poetry of southern dynastic and Late Tang period. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
14. Yu, D. & Shepard, G. H. 1998 Is beauty in the eye of the beholder? Nature 396, 321-322. (doi:10.1038/24512)
15. Yusuf, S., Hawken, S. & Ounpun, S. 2005 Obesity and risk of myocardial infraction in 27000 participants from 52 countries: a case-control study. Lancet 360, 1640-1649. (doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(05)67663-5)