| Show 4 1 I Volqit Foguiro's 0©titi©ir Tlhan Lady Every woman has a mental picture of the perfect figure but she'd be 5 feet dimensions our subjects gave us: height 122 pounds bust 35 inches 5 Vi inches weight 35 inches 24 inches hips waist Naturally the ideal varied a little for each subject but there was surprising agreement on the ideal The above measurements picture the body almost all of them felt they should possess It's a handsome figure isn't it? But it also happens to be a freak — not one woman in a million comes by it naturally The large bosom is incompatible with the narrow waist and hips The boyish trimness of the lower torso is out of harmony with female body chemistry Flat hips usually occur only with correspondingly diminished bust The ideal calls for a firmness and sleekness all life long that is found only in the teens and early twenties In the battle with biology women just can't better off says this expert if she took a second look at her own Women's fashions — bustle hoop skirt new look — come and go but the female figure underneath goes on being beautiful forever Yet psychologists have long been aware that many women suffer emotionally from their real or imagined physical shortcomings Now a study my colleague Paul Secord and 1 have just com- plcted reveals three interesting facts 1 Every woman carries around in her mind a picture of the "ideal" female figure 2 Women's deviations from this ideal can cause them great psychological hurt S Women greatly exaggerate these deviations Nearly all are surprised and gratified when they see an actual statistical comparison between the figure they consider ideal and their own A tape measure can save many an unnecessarily wounded ego Our study measured this female dream body in the at minds of over a hundred women mostly Emory University in Atlanta After each woman told us the measurements she considered ideal for various body parts we took her own actual measurements with tape measure and calipers The difference between them was then checked against her score on a series of personality tests — in every case the closer a woman’s real figure approached her ideal the better she scored on such traits friendliness and as freedom of expression What is this ideal figure? How does it shape up in pounds and inches? Here is the average of the co-e- ds win But even more damaging to the ego than the presence of this unattainable ideal is the way women look at their real bodies A deviation from the ideal may be small but exaggeration gives it an emotional wallop far out of proportion to its real size We asked the subjects to evaluate their body parts and the way they found fault It's All In Tho Mind V Women in Dr Jourard’s study consistently exaggerated their figure faults Comments under ings at left are actual quotes from those interviewed Why are so many women unhappily One reason may be the enormous publicity accorded the figures of Hollywood stars At right: four whose images have contributed to the neurosis of the lady with the merely normal physique Their measurements the like of which Dr Jourard says occur in only one woman out of a million are as follows in the classical order of height weight bust waist hips: Marilyn Monroe — 5 feet 5V4 8 figure-consciou- s? I’ve always fait flat as a beard" "If only they knew hew ugly I am" 1 1 pounds Audrey Hepburn — 5 feet 6 pounds Anita Ekberg — 5 feet 7 pounds 37-- 23 34-21- -32 V4 115 ’ 123 39V4-23-- 36 Jane Russell— 5 feet 5 38-26- -38 D rowings My ealvee 10 are too big I’m a mesa" ‘I fsel as if I'm pulling a trailer" by foul CoHo 1 20 pounds |
