Body Proportions

Since writing my dissertation on body shape and size in comparison with culture, and how this is portrayed in the media, I have been fascinated with the different sizes and shapes of bodies.

We were watching a 'Super Nanny' special in my flat last week and there was an extremely overweight boy who was trying to lose weight. His Mum was being told to measure him at regular intervals to check how much weight he had lost, as this was more accurate then weighing himself.

Although I know a lot of older people who tell me that back in the day they had a 24 inch waist, nowadays, I think almost everyone I know goes by Dress Size and would know that they were a Size 10 for example, not not what their waist and bust measurements were. Well everyone assumes that they know what their bust measurements are, going by their bra size, but I am sure that most people (me included) are wrong.

So after watching this programme, I decided to measure various bits of me, just to see how I compared to this extremely overweight boy (thankfully I'm a lot smaller!). I'd always known, I don't know where from, that there were certain body proportions, such as your foot is the same length as your forearm, and that your arm span is your height, and then I'd always had the idea that your wrist is half the circumference of your neck, and your neck is half the circumference of your waist.

I was thinking about this as I was walking back from work last week and trying to stare at peoples necks as I walked past them..to compare to their wrists. I realised afterwards that I probably looked a little odd, and I started to think that maybe I'd been wrong. My wrists look tiny and my neck is pretty chunky. Yet I remember when we were younger making a choker that fitted perfectly around my wrist twice, and making a beaded belt that was twice as long as a necklace.

So I got my tape measure out and started work. The first thing I discovered is that my thigh circumference is only a little smaller than my waist! That's seriously worrying! I clearly have massive thighs!!

But the wrist-neck-waist thing is true (at least on me!). My wrist is just under 6" in circumference, my neck is 12" and a bit and my waist is 26" (when I haven't been eating too much at the weekends). It's mad. My wrist look tiny and so I just can't get my head around the fact that my waist is only 4 and a bit times larger? Weird.

And my chest circumference is over 4" smaller than the bra size that I wear...but I think I would be suffocated if I bought one 4" smaller - that would be ridiculous, but makes me think that it must be true when people like Trinny & Susannah say that 90% of the population wear the wrong bra size.

Strange.....now I'm off to research if there are any more strange but true proportion facts!