Sigh.

amacord, you too mix up body types with "head to body" ratios.

Yes, people have short legs, long legs, big feet, small feet, etc.

But they don´t have large heads or small heads. At least not "NORMAL" people.

The head of a (healthy) average adult MUST be of a certain size,
It´s a biological fact. If it isn´t that person is severely handicapped.

OF COURSE you can render all the microcephalic people you want. Just don´t claim that that is what MOST people look like in  reality.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcephaly

"..and what if i'd decide that the Venus von Willendorf is, because of some art-historical reasons, the only valid ideal? i start a thread telling people to scale their v3 to 1ft height. and then i am rude to those who disagree?"

First, you haven´t seen me rude yet.
I´m just fed up when people dismiss scientifical facts like human anatomy as something "optional".

You can of course decide to willfully ignore the facts, that´s everybodys artistic freedom, and I have absolutely no problem with that.
Just don´t pretend they don´t exist because they get in your way.

And no, you cannot decide that the Venus von Willendorf is an "Ideal", because it´s simply not up to a single person to decide something like that.

You can decide that you have a fetish for obese woman and that such a woman is "your" ideal, but "THE" ideal woman is a construct created by a large group of people who all share a common taste.

So open up any fashion magazine or watch a movie, and you´ll see "THE" ideal woman, and it very much will look like Loomis "ideal".

 Wether that "ideal" is healthy, good, right, wrong, or whatever, absolutely doesn´t matter.
That´s a completely different dicussion.

But, at least for the the US and Europe, it "IS".

And it´s also a fact that the majority of people (At least her in Europe), are a lot closer to that ideal than they are to the Venus of Willendorf.

Stahlratte