Across cultures a narrow waist indicates feminine beauty

The finding is not new. Theories that body indicators of health (e.g., symmetry) determine who we consider beautiful people in our species have found a lot of empirical support. (BTW, that is not restricted to visual cues. Females judge the body odor of immunocompatible men as more pleasant.)

The method was new to me. They did make a literature search in three cultures and at least as many languages some centuries back to find descriptions of female beauty. They did find some dozen positive descriptions of a narrow waist and not a single other.

Abdominal obesity, as measured by waist size, is reliably linked to decreased oestrogen, reduced fecundity and increased risk for major diseases....Even without the benefit of modern medical knowledge, both British and Asian writers knew intuitively the biological link between health and beauty.

Wolfgang