Tabloid newspapers take a prurient interest in women who flaunt their curves. The role of the media, and other cultural forces, in constructing notions of female beauty is often discussed. But "Curvology", a new book by David Bain-bridge, focuses on the part played by evolution in men's-and women's-understanding and appreciation of the undulations of the female form. Men's and women's bodies differ more than is necessary simply to gestate, bear and nourish children. Why? The simple answer, suggests Mr Bain-bridge, a British reproductive biologist and veterinary anatomist, is that those curvy bums and boobs, the straight "enviable pins" that newspapers salivate over, ensure the future of humankind. They are proof that a woman was well-nourished while growing up and carries good child-feeding genes. He explains in such terms the changes in women's bodies throughout their lives: it makes evolutionary sense for new couples to plump up-in comparison with when they were single-as this provides both of them with a fatty fallback for when they begin the arduous task of reproducing the species.
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