Swami et al. examined whether feminist identification in women is associated with different body weight preferences.^{(1, pdf)}

In many animals, including most mammalian species (roughly, milk-producing animals), the male looks much more spectacular than the female and is more dependent on his looks for reproductive success.  A classic example is that of peacocks and peahens, where the male looks magnificent and the female comparatively dull; another example is of lions vs. lionesses.  A general theme in such species is that the investment of the female in producing and rearing offspring is much greater, making the females largely choose the males and the males court the females, for which they need to impress the females, which they often do through their looks.  Among humans, women invest more heavily in raising children, and courtship, with a minority of exceptions, mostly comprises of males seeking to impress women, but the general theme in human societies is that physical attractiveness (henceforth attractiveness) is more important for women.  Why is this so?

Swami et al. showed line drawings of men and women that varied the length of the legs relative to height, and had the figures rated for appeal by men and women.^{(1, pdf)}

Strange study by Rebecca Puhl and Fred Boland:^{(1, pdf)}

Working for a 100-strong union, model spies supposedly assessed catwalk bullying during London Fashion Week, but this was likely a useless endeavor since Eastern European and other models from poor backgrounds wouldn’t answer truthfully.

A recent article in the NY times by Guy Trebay documents the very thin male high-fashion models seen lately.  A desirable 6-feet-tall model needs to be in the neighborhood of 150 pounds.

2006 saw the malnutrition-related deaths of two fashion models covered
all over the media, creating for the fashion industry plenty of PR trouble.
Before, the thin model issue had not much of people’s attention garnered,
but now, the fashion bigwigs were worried; this might break the bubble!!
Worse, the thinness trend could by accursed governments be smothered!
And, what if ingrate and rouge insiders leak answers in a manner subtle?