Millions of women ask themselves this question each and every day. Most studies show that men prefer women with an hour glass figure, and a 60 to 70% hip to waist ratio. Are women who don’t have an hour glass figure doomed to be single? What about middle aged women who used to have an hour glass figure when they were young but don’t anymore?
I am primarily writing this toward single women looking to find husbands. But at the end of the post I will address this from the perspective of married women.
First full disclosure – I am a married man around 40 as I write this post. I think far too often women read articles from other women on this subject, but they don’t get the male perspective and I will try and provide an honest perspective here.
Do men really prefer the hour glass figure on a woman?
Yes men prefer the hour glass figure to the other body types. It is hard wired into us. If a man were to look at a series of pictures with woman’s body types as shown above, with just the body and not the face or neck shown the vast majority would choose the hour glass figure.
Is it only possible for petite women to have hour glass figures?
A common myth or misconception that women believe is that it is only possible for petite women to have hour glass figures. The fact is that even large built women with a much larger amount of fat can actually be very attractive to many men. Take Kim Kardashian as a woman that is certainly not petite but is considered very attractive and she has an hour glass figure.
Can a woman with love handles and extra weight still have an hour glass figure?
Yes! Just because a woman has a belly or or some love handles does not mean she can’t still have an hour glass figure. The main point of an hour glass figure is to have that curve between the waist and the hips and between the breasts and hips. Honestly most of us a men could care less about if a woman has love handles and a belly and far more if she has that essential curve between her breasts and hips.
What are the reasons that woman don’t have the curve of the hour glass figure?
The first reason some women just don’t have that curve between their breasts and their hips is because of genetics. Some women just have a boxier figure closer to that of a man and it has nothing to do with being overweight. Some women have a “pear” shape because they have very small breasts. There are some very slender women that just have an “apple” or “banana” figure as shown in the picture above.
But there is a second type of woman that has lost the curve between the bottom of her breasts and the top of her hips for one reason and one reason only. She has gained so much weight that she has essentially lost the natural curves of her body. In essence she has either a boxy or oval shape as opposed to an hour glass shape because she over eats and does not exercise.
Will men date or marry a woman that does not have an hour glass figure?
So what if you have that apple shape, banana shape or pear shape – will men still want to date you? Absolutely! What if you have gained so much weight that you now have an oval or round shape and have lost your curves? Yep! There are still some men who will want to date you too. You can see it every day around you. Young men, middle aged men and older men walking along side women that do NOT have hour glass figures. So right now you might be scratching your head. If men prefer the hour glass figure to the other body types, then why do we see them with women who do not have hour glass figures?
The reasons men date and marry women that do NOT have an hour glass figure
The first reason is we as guys understand that just like not all of us have broad shoulders and a muscular build so too not all women have an hour glass figure. Many of us guys are smart enough to realize we are bald, or have some extra weight ourselves. Maybe we are super skinny and scrawny. But the point is that many of us as guys don’t exactly line up with all the physical features that women typically want either.
Another reason is that just because we think the hour glass shape is the most attractive figure, does not mean we can’t find women with other figures attractive.
Sometimes a woman may not have a very attractive form, but she may have something that is attractive on her, like beautiful breasts, beautiful legs or a beautiful face and for some men that is enough.
Sometimes a man will fall head over heels for a woman who would not seem very attractive to most people just because of her personality although this is rarer for men to do with women than for women to do with men(because of our visual natures).
What should women who don’t have hour glass figures do?
I think the Serenity Prayer is a good place to start:
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.
There are some things about your body that you will never be able to change. Remember that while men find the hour glass figure the most beautiful, that does not mean other figures are not beautiful too.
If you have narrow hips or no hips, you can’t change that, it is how God made you. But maybe you have narrow hips but nice breasts – then you should play to your strengths and wear clothing that accentuates your breasts.
Maybe you are like many women that have very small breasts, but you have hips or legs, again accentuate your strengths.
What if I don’t have anything to work with?
First be sure you really don’t have anything to work with, most women are far more critical of their bodies then men actually are. Let me paint a worst case scenario. Let’s say you are a woman that has flat hips(as opposed to rounded), no curve at the waste, chicken legs(bony legs), no breasts, and no pretty face.
You still have something you can work with – your personality and your inner beauty. But even then you need to make sure you wear nice clothes and keep yourself up. You may not be able to change the outside, but you can certainly change the inside. You can make yourself a radiantly beautiful woman by the way you talk to men and the way you present yourself.
Don’t come off as desperate, but be humble. Humility in a woman is very sexy to many men. In fact this is a problem many(but not all) of those hour glass women have which is a complete lack of humility.
I used to make a statement in high school over 20 years ago and I have continued to say it ever since.
“The most dangerous woman is the woman who is more beautiful than most women and knows it”
It is extremely hard to find a woman like this that still has humility. Some men still date and marry women like this because they are just as shallow as some of these women are so they make a great pair.
What if I am overweight?
While you can’t change your body type or face, weight is something you can change. You can work out, you can eat differently. Many men will overlook some extra weight on a woman depending on how she carries the weight.
But there is a certain point where as the weight increases it directly affects how many men will find you attractive. Contrary to all the statements online and elsewhere, beauty does have a weight limit, it may be different depending on height and body build, but there is a limit.
Don’t be angry at men for preferring the hour glass figure
This is perhaps the biggest thing women without hour glass figures need to realize. I have seen some visceral hatred of men for preferring women with hour glass figures both online and in real life.
After I got divorced, and before I met my current wife, I went out just as friends with a woman I went to church with. She was a nice woman to talk to and we had a lot in common because we went to the same church and had the same beliefs and life values. She taught one of my children in Sunday School.
She had been divorced for many years and my mother thought she would be a good match for me. I went out with her three times (as friends) but I simply could not get passed her figure. We had some great discussions and some good laughs.
But there simply was no physical attraction. This woman was 5ft tall and probably weighed well over 250 pounds. Since we agreed we were just “friends” she confided in me her frustration with men. She told me she would go on dating sites and put pictures of herself from her breasts up to her head.
She then would tell me she would talk to these Christian men online and they would agree to a date, then go out with her one time and see what she looked like below the waste and never go out with her again.
The majority of her extra weight was in her legs and buttocks so her photo showing only her head and breasts was in essence false advertising. I could never bring myself to share with her my belief that she needed to represent her full self honestly.
She would rail on how men were superficial for having a problem with her extra weight, while all the time I understood exactly why they did. She was unwilling to try and lose weight, men just needed to stop being so superficial or so she thought.
Can overweight women still get men?
Of course they can, they do every day. But the reality is if you as a woman are overweight it will directly affect the pool of eligible men that will come your way in direct proportion to how much overweight you are.
So if you are a really overweight woman you have two choices – you can accept that your weight will lower the pool of eligible men and be content with that. The other choice is to make a change and do something about your weight. There are many things about your body or face that you cannot change, but you can change your weight through diet and exercise, it is not easy, but most things in life that are worthwhile (like raising kids) are not easy.
But the worst thing you can do is sulk or get mad at men for preferring women that are closer to their optimal weight or have hour glass figures.
What about if I gained weight after I was married?
Most married men who love their wives can forgive some weight gain. Also if you had some extra pounds when your husband married you then that means he accepted you as your were and it would be unfair of him to expect you to radically alter your figure after marriage.
But what happens with many women if we are honest is they simply let themselves go after marriage. It is one thing to gain 20 pounds, or maybe even 40 or 50 pounds over several years of marriage and having children. But if you have gained a massive amount of weight to where you would not even recognize the woman you were when you married your husband I think you need to do some soul searching.
But he gained weight too so why do I have to be concerned about my weight?
Ladies I am going to be blunt here. This is just an excuse for you not to take any action. While men have a responsibility to care for their bodies as well – weight gain by their wives has a significantly higher effect on men and their attraction to their wives than it does for women in attraction to their husbands.
And lets be honest about another fact. We as men typically don’t care if our wives find us physically attractive. Most men don’t crave and strongly desire for their wives to call them handsome all the time. We want our wives to respect us, submit to us, be beautiful for us and enthusiastically give her body to us in the bedroom. If you do those things we are happy campers.
But you ladies want your man to think you are beautiful and to call you “pretty”, “beautiful” and “gorgeous”. And if you don’t care about this then this a major violation of what it means to be feminine, what it means to be a woman.
So if you want your man to think your beautiful then you have to earn it. You need to do your utmost best to maintain that figure that you had when you married him(being realistic of course in accounting for age and having children).