scientism comments on Why Real Men Wear Pink - Less Wrong

51 Post author: Yvain 06 August 2009 07:39AM

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Comment author: Tyrrell_McAllister 08 August 2009 09:46:13PM 0 points [-]

The part about making the legs look longer is hard to fit into the "accentuate sexual dimorphism" account. But I see your point about forcing a gait that involves hip movement. I don't quite see why high-heels would do that, but that's probably just because I don't understand the body mechanics well enough.

Comment author: scientism 13 August 2009 11:03:57PM 3 points [-]

It fits. Women have long legs relative to their torso; men have short legs relative to their torso; so longer legs are more feminine.

Comment author: Tyrrell_McAllister 14 August 2009 05:11:40PM 5 points [-]

I hadn't realized this. Looking online, I see that people prefer larger leg-to-torso ratios in women than in men. But I'm having trouble finding references for the claim that women naturally have larger leg-to-torso ratios. I expect that you're right, but would you be able to point me to some documentation that this ratio disparity is natural and universal?

Comment author: crowding 15 August 2012 09:46:25PM *  5 points [-]

There basically isn't any difference.

People often don't believe this and ask for peer-reviewed studies, etc.

I also did a lot of casting about Pubmed for any article actually specifically discussing whether there's a difference in this dimension. But the result that there is no difference between sexes was so reliably reproduced (without comment, you have to look at the tables) anytime I found a study that collected that data (usually in the aim of answering a more interesting question) that I can only assume it is simply ambient knowledge for anyone doing anthropometry and thus not considered worth publishing, discussing or citing.

Which, interestingly, allows the mistake to propagate among people who don't do anthropometry.

Comment author: Tyrrell_McAllister 15 August 2012 10:05:34PM 0 points [-]

Thanks. By the way, your link sends me to a page saying that I need to join a group to view the content.