The male gaze explored: Ranking thinness and attractiveness of female body shapes.

The male gaze of the female body image in terms of thinness reveals its hierarchical structure: first torso, then legs, then arms. This is seen when in one task our male participants rank-ordered 8 composite images of a female body, derived from a Torso (thin vs. large) × Leg (thin/large vs. medium...

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Main Authors: Revital Naor-Ziv, Yaarit Amram-Veitz, Joseph Glicksohn
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Lund University Library 2025-06-01
Series:Journal for Person-Oriented Research
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.lub.lu.se/jpor/article/view/28095
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author Revital Naor-Ziv
Yaarit Amram-Veitz
Joseph Glicksohn
author_facet Revital Naor-Ziv
Yaarit Amram-Veitz
Joseph Glicksohn
author_sort Revital Naor-Ziv
collection DOAJ
description The male gaze of the female body image in terms of thinness reveals its hierarchical structure: first torso, then legs, then arms. This is seen when in one task our male participants rank-ordered 8 composite images of a female body, derived from a Torso (thin vs. large) × Leg (thin/large vs. medium) × Arm (thin vs. large) design, from thinnest to largest. This primary focus on the torso is also critical in determining to what degree the female body image conforms to a desired hourglass shape. In a second task, the participants rank-ordered the same images from least attractive to most attractive. The rank-ordering of thinness was not readily predictive of the rank-ordering of attractiveness, and we found no clear end-structure underlying the female body image in terms of attractiveness. Nevertheless, in tracing the process of rating attractiveness, we can anchor the two ends of the series. The most attractive shapes were either Image 4 or Image 3, both instantiating a low waist-to-hip ratio (WHR). The first two choices for the least attractive shape were Image 1 (very thin) and Image 6 (very large). Great variability was found, however, in ranking the other body shapes, comprising composite images displaying an incompatibility of their various body parts. This results in a large number of paths for defining what attractiveness is for a particular male participant.
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publishDate 2025-06-01
publisher Lund University Library
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series Journal for Person-Oriented Research
spelling doaj-art-cb5596232ac14167b2145e9a1eb6ff142025-08-20T02:35:04ZengLund University LibraryJournal for Person-Oriented Research2002-02442003-01772025-06-0111210.17505/jpor.2025.28095The male gaze explored: Ranking thinness and attractiveness of female body shapes.Revital Naor-Ziv0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3959-7217Yaarit Amram-Veitz1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7715-0942Joseph Glicksohn2https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5584-177XDepartment of Criminology, Bar-Ilan University, IsraelDepartment of Criminology, Bar-Ilan University, IsraelDepartment of Criminology, Bar-Ilan University, Israel The male gaze of the female body image in terms of thinness reveals its hierarchical structure: first torso, then legs, then arms. This is seen when in one task our male participants rank-ordered 8 composite images of a female body, derived from a Torso (thin vs. large) × Leg (thin/large vs. medium) × Arm (thin vs. large) design, from thinnest to largest. This primary focus on the torso is also critical in determining to what degree the female body image conforms to a desired hourglass shape. In a second task, the participants rank-ordered the same images from least attractive to most attractive. The rank-ordering of thinness was not readily predictive of the rank-ordering of attractiveness, and we found no clear end-structure underlying the female body image in terms of attractiveness. Nevertheless, in tracing the process of rating attractiveness, we can anchor the two ends of the series. The most attractive shapes were either Image 4 or Image 3, both instantiating a low waist-to-hip ratio (WHR). The first two choices for the least attractive shape were Image 1 (very thin) and Image 6 (very large). Great variability was found, however, in ranking the other body shapes, comprising composite images displaying an incompatibility of their various body parts. This results in a large number of paths for defining what attractiveness is for a particular male participant. https://journals.lub.lu.se/jpor/article/view/28095body imagerank-ordering taskPOSACmale gazethinnessattractiveness
spellingShingle Revital Naor-Ziv
Yaarit Amram-Veitz
Joseph Glicksohn
The male gaze explored: Ranking thinness and attractiveness of female body shapes.
Journal for Person-Oriented Research
body image
rank-ordering task
POSAC
male gaze
thinness
attractiveness
title The male gaze explored: Ranking thinness and attractiveness of female body shapes.
title_full The male gaze explored: Ranking thinness and attractiveness of female body shapes.
title_fullStr The male gaze explored: Ranking thinness and attractiveness of female body shapes.
title_full_unstemmed The male gaze explored: Ranking thinness and attractiveness of female body shapes.
title_short The male gaze explored: Ranking thinness and attractiveness of female body shapes.
title_sort male gaze explored ranking thinness and attractiveness of female body shapes
topic body image
rank-ordering task
POSAC
male gaze
thinness
attractiveness
url https://journals.lub.lu.se/jpor/article/view/28095
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AT revitalnaorziv malegazeexploredrankingthinnessandattractivenessoffemalebodyshapes
AT yaaritamramveitz malegazeexploredrankingthinnessandattractivenessoffemalebodyshapes
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