Are you saying that she's not attractive to anyone?

Nope, that is why I used the term "preference". It means just that. If you take a broad sampling of the human population most of them will find a fairly consistent set of traits preferable in the opposite sex. As with all studies of trends and large scale population preferences this will allow for dramatic variationsin individual taste.

and by certain characteristics, you mean the ype of woman we see in magazines all the time these days? the "twiggy" type?

The currently popular figure is not, and never has been, the extremes of the fashion world. "Twiggy" was an extremely thing girl - she never made it to the status of pin up or sex symbol in general and her body shape bears no resemblance to those shapes generally considered "hot".

Much better indicators are to be found in pop music, non "high fashion" advertising and the like. Hell, the easiest way to find the trend these days is to look at MTV, the Victoria's catalog and movie "babes" in comedy films.

It has been only the rare fashion model who is also conventionally attractive and recognized as such. Though this is happening more and more as the fashion embraces the trim, healthy and athletic body type that has always been the general preference.

O_o! ever seen old painting of what men in the old days thought as beautiful? she would be one.. and a magazine from today would be the perfect example on how NOT to look..

There are many other factors to consider. For instance the great painters were no more representative of the general preference in their day as a fashion photographer is today. 500 years from now someone may decide we were all simply mad for "Twiggy" when in reality she never achieved mass appeal.

Add to that the need to please their patrons, and the secondary pressures in finding corpulent women attractive because for a short period it indicated a lack of disease and an ability to provide food (wealth) and you get aberrations like that... but it is just that, an aberration in a more common trend.

In general, the preferred "classical" shape has changed little... the Greek statues (male and female) would be right at home on MTV and in advertising. They are trim, athletic and in good health.

When you feed a human body correctly, work it till it achieves a good measure of it's potential and are free of most disease the human form ON AVERAGE takes on a fairly specific shape in it's prime. This shape is the one humans have (naturally) evolved to prefer.

You people who like skinny breakable women can keep 'em

Breakable? Hell, Gabby Reece (one of the hottest properties around for modeling in general) is an athlete that would break most men in a physical contest. Ana Kournikova could out run and perform most people she will ever meet. Britney (and the other pop types) generally do more physical work to get those bodies than the people who think they are fragile will do in their whole lives :)

Again, fashion model != popularly attractive "sex symbol" :)

Over the decades, the average weights of Miss America winners and Playboy centerfolds have gone down...but their proportions have remained the same.

Actually it has fluctuated. As they have lost body fact they have generally gained muscle as a group. I you look at the numbers (I only have them for playboy from 78-94 right now) you will see that the individual playmates vary quite a bit... as the proportions are the same this is usually a measure of muscle mass.

That "hourglass" shape seems to be what men find sexy, perhaps because it's produced by estrogen, and thus signals fertility. That woman may be heavy, but she's very shapely.

It is one trigger to be certain and it is one of the things that distinguishes her from the women it he painting (further indication what an aberrant time that was) however she does lose "points" in a number of other ways common to larger women who are still shapely. For instance her skin was rippled (what they call cellulite on TV) by fluctuation of the fat depositing  and smooth skin is also a trigger. The pull in at her waist was too dramatic (she has serious "back") and that throws off the normal preference for a smooth curve as a sign of youth. Nature is not so easily fooled :)

All in all your right, she does fairly well for her size though :)

"yet shes glorified as an ideal woman"

By who? Certainly she is popular enough but she isn't the sex symbol that her co-star Drew is, and Lucy Lu has them both beat for popularity if a quick 'net search is any indication. Of course Cameron will attract a following - she (liek the large woman above) hits certain triggers pretty hard (in Cameron's case it is the long legs, wide eyes and mouth and blond hair - a fairly extreme set of feminine traits facially).

Ah well, people are funny and nature is cold! Anyway, I suppose we have drifted off topic so I'll drop it :)

 

FYI - anyone interested and since I am the kind of weirdo who has this stuff handy...

Centerfold Data Averages 78-94

BUST

WAIST

HIPS

HT

WT

Raw

35.32 23.45 34.46 66.59 113.48 Adjusted

35.32 23.44 34.46 5' 6" 113.45(the raw data for all centerfolds in that time frame is on my blog)