Julia Grey: Body Beautiful

Nice Voice, Nice Love Life?

Thu, 07 Oct 2004 20:41:43 GMT

From Reuters:

Sound of Voice May Predict Sexual Behavior

By Charnicia E. Huggins

New research findings suggest that the sound of a person's voice may predict his or her level of sexual activity. ...

In the study, 149 men and women listened to recorded voices of anonymous individuals and rated the voices on a five-point scale, from "very unattractive" to "very attractive." ...

When the researchers compared voice ratings with sexual histories, they found that men and women whose voices were considered more attractive by opposite sex raters reported younger ages at first sexual intercourse, more sex partners and more sexual affairs than did those with less attractive voices.

Voice attractiveness predicted promiscuity in women better than did their waist-to-hip ratio, Hughes and her colleagues report in the September issue of Evolution and Human Behavior. Among men, however, the shoulder-to-hip ratio was a better predictor of promiscuity.

That said, not all women with attractive voices are promiscuous, but "promiscuous females tend to have more attractive voices," co-author Dr. Gordon G. Gallup Jr., of the University at Albany, State University of New York, told Reuters Health. ...

During human evolutionary history, voice may have also played a role in how men and women made reproductive-related decisions, particularly at nighttime, the report indicates.

"The sound of a person's voice could have become an important indicator of other biologically relevant information," Gallup Jr. said.

(I was alerted to this by George's fascinating "backed up aggregate" listing.)

All about eyebrows

Tue, 14 Sep 2004 00:07:31 GMT

Look at how much more beautiful a nicely groomed eyebrow can make a woman look. The original (left) is an early photo of Audrey Hepburn, and the version on the right has an eyebrow from Hepburn's "Holly Golightly" days superimposed.

The eyebrow doesn't just add drama to her look, it adds elegance and emphasis.

Getting your eyebrows waxed into a nice arch by a professional (who can stand back and look at you objectively) doesn't cost much, and repeated waxings will discourage the wayward hairs from growing back as thickly and richly as was their wont. People won't quite know what it is that's different about you, but they'll notice that you look "better."

Look how hefty Hepburn's new brow is. It's the shape and relationship to her eye that make the difference, not just the plucking. You don't want the Claudette Colbert look:

Yikes!!
Claudette didn't follow the first rule of eyebrow
shaping, which is:

Start even with the inside corner of your eye.

Here's a nice little book about how to look after your eyebrows.

Beautiful Brows: The Ultimate Guide to
Styling, Shaping, and Maintaining Your Eyebrows

Giving New Meaning to "Environmental Health"

Tue, 07 Sep 2004 15:31:16 GMT

Where the Healing Touch Starts With the Hospital Design. A sprinkling of architects and designers around the world are working to greatly change hospitals by humanizing their design. By LIZETTE ALVAREZ. [The New York Times > Health]

Beautiful Bodies?

Tue, 07 Sep 2004 15:27:17 GMT

Cadavers Steal the Show in L.A.. An exhibit of dissected and flayed corpses, on display for the first time in the United States, attracts a steady stream of visitors curious to see what humans really look like under the skin. Randy Dotinga reports from Los Angeles. [Wired News]

Body Beautiful

Sun, 05 Sep 2004 20:25:54 GMT

In this new category I'll be discussing biology, health news, beauty products and physiology. Exercise, cuticle creams, plastic surgery, hair color, disease treatment...everything and anything having to do with making the most of what nature gives us. Hence the subtitle Lipstick and Living.