Your body size and shape can change as you grow older. You probably already knew that.
But apparently, what many women don’t realise is that age also steals their youthful hourglass figures and turns them into unsightly rectangles – according to the Daily Mail, at least.
The popular UK website reports on a new study by a shopping website, which suggests 9 out of 10 UK women are kidding themselves when it comes to their perceived body type (you know the drill – are you a Pear? Apple? Tube? etc).
While many survey participants believed they possessed the iconic hourglass frame, it turns out they were mistaken, with the majority bearing the more up-and-down “rectangle” body shape. These results could perhaps be viewed as an indication of the gradual changes in the female form from one generation to the next, but instead the information has been used to take a dig at women for no longer resembling their 20-year-old counteparts as the years pass.
"Sorry, ladies! You might think you're an hourglass but you're probably a rectangle," the headline taunts. Hourglass good, rectangle not-so-good; right, got it.
So what's to blame for all this? Surpassing the age of 35, apparently. That's when you get acquainted with those nasty processes of ageing which serve to thicken those once-youthful waists and pad out those once-dangerous curves.
To make the horror more palpable, rectangular geriatrics like Nicole Kidman, Cameron Diaz and Kim Cattrall are dragged out for illustrative purposes. Hey, at least now they're prepared for any body shape surveys that may be sent their way in future.
Not only is this age-based, female-specific body shaming pointless and far from groundbreaking, it's downright nasty. As Hayley Hoover at The Gloss rightly points out:
It’s not BRAND NEW SCIENCE! that women’s waists look less defined as they age, and giving this “phenomenon” a name to separate it from the more-desirable hourglass shape is just kind of mean and unwarranted. The names for body types exist to help women find clothes that flatter them– not so that you can call middle aged women ugly in a new way.
Can we drop this obsession with ageing and its 'ravaging effects' on the female figure and beauty already?
Sure, you might gain a new body type as you get older, and it'll probably look totally different to how you looked at 30. But that doesn't make it any less incredible. So let's ignore this inane talk of rectangles and hourglasses and shift the focus to the positives of getting older - you know, the lifetime's worth of wisdom and awesome experiences gathered along the way...
What's been the best part of growing older for you?
