Are super thin women more beautiful?

Women's aesthetic judgments are basically more influenced by women than of men's preference. Men prefer a woman with wider hips and a healthier more voluptious look, minus the extra acccssories like jewellery, handbags or shoes. Ok, maybe for shoes, yes, men do care for what a pair of stilletoes can transform women's legs and derriere to :P But they don't care whether it's a pair of Manolo Blahnik's or Jimmy Choo's.

For many women, on the other hand, these are essentials to stamp their beauty status amongst other womenfolk. Women are highly competitive and critical amongst their own sex when it comes to beauty. Sad to say, even amongst friends, some women are still ridden with competitiveness and envy.

Peer pressure amongst women is a leading cause of women's tortured journey to seek beauty. Women don't mind starving themselves just so they can squeeze into the same size of their friends or of girls they see on fashion mags. Peer pressure amongst women has a much higher drive than appealing to the opposite sex. Why do women dress up and apply make up, it's more likely to appeal to the other women as a statement that they are beautiful. It's equated to marking a territory for oneself. As you can observe, when an attractive girl walks past, usually other women will be shooting daggers out of their eyes while menfolk see that as a much welcomed eye candy. There is just too much competition amongst women and women tend to enjoy competing outdoing each other in terms of beauty. Women would most likely be more embarrassed standing naked in front of other women than in front of men. That’s because other women are critical while they know men would ogle and be grateful.

But why would there be peer pressure among women to be skeletally thin? You can’t explain this with evolutionary psychology. Think of the practice of foot binding and the neck rings of women of the Kayan tribe. These practices and social constructions of desirability goes against logic or the more basic evolutionary priorities. The end result of these practices in the name of beauty is: Torture. It's the same idealogy for the race to be superthin amongst women - that in pursuit of beauty, all logic is thrown out of the window.

The Three-Layered Phenomenon? According to Rebecca Popenoe, the author of “Feeding Desire,” explains body preference as a three-layered phenomenon. According to Popenoe, "There's the evolutionary layer: the male preference for a mate who looks fertile (which ideally means a a waist-to-hip ratio of 0.7). On top of that is the environmental layer: Is this a place where food is hard to come by, or where there’s so much food it’s hard to stay thin? People admire whichever body seems harder to attain. But the upper and most important layer, is our cultural creativity and the way we define ourselves." She said, "Thinness has become prized among women, as a sign of independence, strength and achievement." And once a trait becomes prized, it gets taken to extremes, Nancy Etcoff explains in her book, “Survival of the Prettiest.” Etcoff, a Harvard psychologist, says there are two notions of beauty. “One is the idea of prettiness, which is about population averages,” “The other is about rarity.” There are evolutionary explanations for our preference for prettiness: those average, symmetrical features are a marker of good genes and health. But at the same time, humans are drawn to the unusual, and want to stand out themselves. So once thin is in, they compete to be thinner and thinner.

I wish everyone will be satisfied with what they have.