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            A Slim Waist

Slim waists have been the mark of attractive women throughout history, says a US scholar who has analysed thousands of ancient texts.

Dr Devendra Singh scoured references to fictional beauties from modern times back to early Indian literature.

He found that slimness was the most common term of praise from an author.

The study, published in a Royal Society journal, adds to evidence highlighting the role of the ratio between waist and hips in attracting a mate.

While female waist size is acknowledged as important in modern Western society and culture, it is not completely clear whether this has always been the case.

Some experts have suggested that at other points in history, men may have preferred larger waists.

The only remaining evidence is cultural, and Dr Singh, from the University of Texas, has spent years examining representations of women through history - in one study, he measured the waist-hip ratio of hundreds of statues from different eras.

Erotic poetry

In the most recent research, he looked at how 'attractive' women were depicted in literature, analysing more than 345,000 texts, mainly from the 16th to 18th centuries.

While most of the writings were British and American, there was a small selection of Indian and Chinese romantic and erotic poetry dating from the 1st to the 6th century of the Christian era.

While the most-often mentioned feature was the breasts, waistlines were mentioned 66 times, with a slim waist predominantly linked to attractiveness.

There was trend for slightly larger women in the 17th and 18th centuries - a trend typified by the paintings of Rubens - but demand for a slimmer waist was generally constant throughout the centuries.  

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