The only aspects of female biology that seem to hold up as universal,
cross-cultural male attractors are the hip-to-waist ratio described earlier
(smaller waist than hips, regardless of whether both are petite or both are
huge), and symmetry, especially facial symmetry.  Males seem to prefer women
with a smaller waist than hip, and to prefer women with symmetrical faces
(symmetry is a sign of good conditions during development).  But men only
risk a few minutes of their time and a few ounces of protein and
carbohydrate by having sex with anything that is remotely impregnable.  If
there is going to be a lot of effort involved, or any risk, and a male has a
choice among different females, theory predicts he should choose the one who
looks most healthy and most impregnable (not a child, not post-menopausal,
and not already pregnant).

Women, on the other hand, have relatively few opportunities to reproduce,
and so it behooves them to be much more picky -- to the extent that,
culturally, they have ANY choice -- and to only have sex with men who seem
to have good genes.

>well formed bossom points to being able to feed the offspring

Pretty much any-formed bosom points to being able to feed the offspring,
except for those clear exceptions of women with tubular breasts/insufficient
glandular tissue.  Except for that tiny fraction of the population, it
matters not if your breasts are A or C or GG, round or pear-shaped or flat
and flabby, pert or droopy, etc.  There is a huge range of variation in
breast shape and size around the world and even within families, and they
all are capable of feeding children.  Only those females who are
pre-pubertal and post-menopausal are not usually able to get pregnant or
lactate.  Men may still have sex with them, however, because men have sex
for reasons other than procreation.

It is one of the great biological inequalities of life that men have the
potential to have many more children than women, but that women *always*
know that their offspring are theirs genetically, while men must forever
wonder if they are rearing their own offspring.  That is why so many
cultural institutions have been developed to assure knowledge of paternity,
ranging from matrilineality (where men rear their sister's offspring, who
are known to be related through the common mother a man shares with his
sister), to female circumcision, to purdah, to double-standards of sexual
behavior for young men and women.

Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Anthropology and Nutrition
Texas A&M University

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