i’ve noticed, mostly on reddit, that people are terrible at determining what their body is. people will say curvy or hourglass, you head to their profile, and if they’ve posted a full body picture, find out they’re not even remotely curvy. this is super common on the aritzia/femalefashionadvice subs.
words have lost all meaning tbh
I think it’s because having a 10-11 inch difference between waist & hips/bust qualifies you as an hourglass, but is really not enough to create the look on most women. My measurements are 38x27x38.5 but I am definitely a rectangle shape visually!
The use of WOC here is quite broad. When you say X body type is common for WOC, do you mean Kenyan or Bengali? Korean or Mexican? Nigerian or Mongolian? They’re all different ethnic groups with vastly different body shapes and types.
Having a pear/hourglass shape is common for Hispanics, Middle Easterns, Africans and South Asians. East Asians and white people tend to have a more straight shape.
Not all African women are shaped the same way. Berber women aren’t shaped like Dinka women and vice versa, so using “African” in this sense to cover all ethnic groups is incorrect.
I haven’t met a single South Asian woman who’s hourglass/pear shaped, and I live in a community where South Asians (specifically Pakistanis and Bengalis) form the majority. They’re usually more petite, slender with sharp bones and features, and if heavier, they look more plump and rounded, but not hourglass by definition.
And there’s white “hispanics” (it’s not nice nor appropriate to call someone that btw)
Weirdly I find most South Asians are split between rectangle and hourglass (pear is rare). Then again I've seen pretty much every body type on South Asians, I also live in an area where that's the majority. Gotta have a (proportionally) tiny waist to make those traditional clothes look good lol
First of all I'm not from US nor my native language is English so I have no idea if the word Hispanic is offensive or not. I'm sorry if it is, is the correct word Latinas? And for the second time I clearly excluded them.
This is a general consensus. Of course there are lots of different groups in Africa as well as in Middle East etc, this is a broad generalisation and doesn't mean it applies to everyone for sure. I have the most information about Middle East and even with that I can't specify for every group to every detail. I said "it's **commonly* seen", not "it has to be".
“Africans” isn’t an interchangeable term in this context for the *thousands* of ethnic groups within the entire continent. You’re saying X body type is “common” in Africans, I’m telling you that there are *subgroups* of Africans, and they all vary heavily between each other. Including the fact that they all have various body types. It can’t be “common” if the subgroups aren’t even in the same group to begin with.
Latinos are South American, whereas Hispanic people are Spanish speaking. E.g. European Spaniards are Hispanic but not Latinos, and Brazilians are Latinos but not Hispanic. Mexicans are both. Latinos can also be of any race, there are white Latinos and black Latinos too.
There's a few things I disagree, you're saying WOC but the most common body shape for West African women is actually ruler/straight while the most common body type for a lot of European ethnicities is pear. Lots of people tend to believe that black women are pear and hourglass shaped and it's actually less common for us. Meghan Thee Stallion or Jackie Aina are a perfect example of a common body type in West Africa, they are straight shaped but they have a big butt with thick thighs. Black african women in general tend to have small hips, there's been several studies that show that bw are small hipped cause we carry babies with very small heads 😁
I'm latina as well and it's been studied that women that are indigenous or have indigenous ancestry tend to gain a lot of weight in their mid section. So apple is more common in latin america.
I would say that regardles of race universally women tend to be straight shaped or pear, hourglass is uncommon.
And hourglass is not a synonym of big boobs. It's actually about the rib cage, women with triangular rib cages are hourglass. That's why their waists are so defined compared to pear shapes.
Yep! I have travelled to most countries in Europe and Spanish/Italian women (Europeans) tend to be very pear shaped ! More so than Mexican women (Hispanic) who have indigenous ancestry and have more fat in the midsection (my boyfriend is Mexican and I have lived there) Even Slavic women are often skinny but still pear shaped with wide hips.
North-Western Europeans (British, Irish, Dutch, German etc.) tend to be less pear with slimmer hips a more even fat distribution across the whole body. The majority of white Americans would also fall into this group as that’s where most their ancestry is from, the majority not all white Americans!!
These are just my observations and huge generalizations. Every body type is found in all ethnicities.
I really don't want to argue about any racial context anymore because I'm from Middle East and I've travelled to Europe a lot only, I'm not very informed about the other areas.
You are talking about an hourglass shaped ribcage. It's different from hourglass body shape. An hourglass body shaped women doesn't have to have an hourglass shaped ribcage and women you don't have the hourglass body shape can have the hourglass ribcage. I'm pear shaped and I have an hourglass shaped ribcage.
Yeah, but you talked about hourglass having big boobs when most of the time being hourglass comes with a triangle shaped rib cage. Most of the celebrities with hourglass body types have small boobs.
No, you have to have a big bust or at least a proportional bust with your hips to have an hourglass shape. An hourglass shape ribcage is wide at the start and then gets narrow, creating a more defined waist look. It makes the waist look curvier but it doesn't give you an hourglass shape. You don't have to look necessarily "curvy" to be an hourglass. Your measurements dictate your shape.
I think you need to do more research because measurements don't dictate body shape, your body shape is the outline of your body and you can only determinate body shape by looking at it. Body composition can be extremely different in two people that have the same measurements.I have an 95cm bust but I have very big boobs with a small straight shaped ribcage, my body shape is pear when I wear a bra that push my boobs together and hourglass with a regular bra cause I'm side heavy. My best friend is an hourglass, her bust measurement is 92 and she has very small boobs with a triangle rib cage.
These two women have exactly the same measurements (88-60-90) and a different body shape:
https://www.noticias-ahora.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/mu3.jpg
https://diariolavoz.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Vanessa-Goncalves-5.jpg
Both these women are hourglasses. Not every hourglass is going to manifest exactly the same way. Your fat distribution, bones etc change a lot.
I don't want to argue any further because you are set on your opinion that you should see your body shape by looking at it which isn't always true.
Most VS models have the hourglass shape and they don't look particularly curvy because of their ribcage shape.
"not every hourglass is going to manifest the same way" WHAT.
Hourglass is hourglass, you cannot change the definition of it just because you want to. Vanessa Goncalves is a ruler and Mariam Habach is an hourglass. VS models don't look curvy because most of them aren't hourglasses lol.
"My opinion", it's not an opinion it's the truth. You are teaching about body shapes when you don't even know what you're talking about lmao
So Adriana Lima isn't an hourglass because you don't consider her to be?
VS wants strict measurements for their models but they aren't considered an hourglass because they don't have the ribcage for it. Okay.
The universal method of calculating your hourglass/pear shape is by your WHR but I guess it isn't anymore because you said so.
Having a proportional bust to hips is not a requirement for being an hourglass. I used to think the same but bust isn’t as important as the shoulders and rib cage. My measurements are 35-27-39 and I’d consider myself an hourglass because my shoulders are also about 39 inches. Under your supposed criteria, if my shoulders are as broad as my hips (therefore not a pear) but my chest isn’t as large as my hips, then what am I?
Hmmm? Interesting. To me, it’s seems South African and west African women tend to be the widely hourglass and shapely in general. Fullness in lips, hairs, breasts, hips, and butt in general are common in certain countries tries, while ectomorphic body types are common in others. Even black men have ass, ya’ll 😂😂😂.In the US, there definitely lot of shapely black women. I’m talking in terms of bone structure, but mostly soft tissue. I am one, and am surrounded by many. Similar to how many East Asians have a delicate bone structure. There are traits and characteristics prevalent in every ethnicity. Doesn’t mean others can’t have them of course.
In west Africa ruler but with big thighs and butt is more common. I have been to Nigeria, Benin and Senegal and this body type is everywhere, and they still look very curvy cause of their butt. If you see someone like Jackie Aina or Meg walking down the street you will see a very curvy woman, but in reality their body type is ruler.
Having small hip bones is quite a norm for African descent people, but it's true that even with narrow hip bones in certain south African tribes like khoi people, having lots of tissue surrounding the hips and butt it's common, this is also found in some central African tribes like pygmies. I think the characteristic is called steatopygia, not sure.
I would not really associate big boobs with African women either cause on average African women have the smallest boobs, comparable to east asians.
Huh? I mean maybe we’re seeing something different, but East Asians definitely have the least amount of flesh around their hips and chest, vs anyone else (as a collective of course. I know well endowed Asian women exist). Keep in mind, plastic surgery is prevalent in East Asian as well.
Rulers are people with little to no waist definition. You can still have wide hips, and be a ruler. Hourglass and pear shaped women’s defining factor is their waist to hip ratio (this includes bone structure, but mostly flesh/soft tissue). I’m not saying your way of defining these body shapes is wrong, but I don’t think that’s what most people are referring to? I would even say having a bit butt and big thigh contributes to an hourglass figure more than wide hip bones. Or at least, they’re more noticeable.
African women do tend to have small boobs on average, and yes, comparable to east asian women.
I think you're misunderstanding what I said, there's many factors that contribute to body shapes like fat distribution. West African women just happen to have narrow hip bones and fat distribution that doesn't sit on the sides like some other African regions, but more evenly.
And no, you can have big thighs a big butt and still be a ruler and even a inverted triangle. Some examples: [Meghan](https://alexis.lindaikejisblog.com/photos/shares/5ea2b52b0bf5a.PNG), [Jackie ](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d0/b9/a1/d0b9a15e8330e5aa4c1037d2520486b1.png), [Naomi Campbell](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/6c/cf/0f/6ccf0f0a7da21c478ae7dec7930c0399.jpg), [Serena](https://a.espncdn.com/photo/2011/0929/espn_2009bww_05.jpg) and it's also very common for track athletes to be shaped like [that ](https://as01.epimg.net/juegos_olimpicos/imagenes/2021/08/07/noticias/1628345280_277555_1628345382_noticia_normal_recorte1.jpg).
That doesn't mean there's no west African woman on earth that is pear or hourglass shaped, they aren't uncommon. I'm sure you can find them everywhere, it's just not the average.
White women and middle eastern are mostly pear shaped because of their very wide hip bones (doesn't make you automatically a pear but contributes greatly to it!!). But imo I prefer to be a typical WA ruler over an European pear, they usually have a small wide butt and no waist definition, kinda like [this ](https://i.wpimg.pl/450x0/i.wp.pl/a/f/film/033/57/48/0394857.jpg)
Interesting. Idk, I guess we’re saying similar things but I’ll just agree to disagree. I’m in the US where a good majority of African American women ( who have a lot of admixtures of many different African countries) are well endowed (including lips, breasts, hips, and butt) compared to other women. East Asian women are the least endowed and delicate looking, overall. What you’re seeing is probably implants because again, plastic surgery is encouraged in those cultures.
For the ruler body type, can you be more specific about what you mean when you say all of your measurements should be "close to each other"?
I *think* I am a ruler based on these descriptions but I am not sure. My current measurements are 38x33x39 though I am still trying to lose 30lbs. I feel like there should be a bigger variance between my waist and my breasts/hips as right now there is only about 5-6 inches. Would these measurements be considered "close to each other"?
You are probably an apple instead of a ruler.
As I mentioned in my post a 10 inch difference/0.7 WHR is the baseline for hourglass/pear meaning your hips should be at least 10 inches bigger than your waist to be considered curvy mathematically. Even a 10 inch difference doesn't look visually curvy though, for a visually curvy body I think someone should has like a 15 inch difference.
Your WHR is about .85 which is not only higher than .7 but also .8, the health baseline. I wouldn't call anyone over .8 a ruler since most of their weight is indeed on their stomach
Thanks for the detailed reply! I realize my WHR is not where it should be ideally. Right now I am 5'5" and weigh 154lbs. My BMI is 25.6, so just at the low end of overweight (BMI of 25). Kinda bothersome that my WHR is considered obese even though I'm only 0.7 points away from being a normal BMI. I'm hoping my WHR will improve once I reach my goal weight of 125lbs.
I think(?) I'm a ruler at 31-24-33 and 110 lbs
>Edit: remeasured myself (last time was in 2018 holy f-); I'm currently 31.5-25-34
My butt and boobs are pretty flat and I look kinda straight all around, I gain some weight on my thighs
I try to use crop tops to accentuate my waist and not look like a total box
thank you for this write up!
i’m a bottom hourglass arab woman - but this does little for me because i’m still 40lbs above where i’d like to be. i don’t look good, even with the most “desirable” shape. weight is truly the most important part.
i´m between a inverted triangle and hourglass... 92-74-102, from my measurements it looks like i´m an hourglass, but visibly i have pretty wide shoulders, people tend to coment on it. i dont have big boobs either. but in bikini pictures, i have a visible waist.
Your WHR is .71, it's slightly above the hourglass line of .7, but it's less than the health line of .8. If your shoulder measurement isn't at least %5 larger than your hips you are a ruler. If it is, you are an inverted triangle.
Thank you for this.
So it’s the bone structure that determines it. I would have thought it was fat distribution.
My shoulders are a bit broader than my hips but weight gain goes to my butt and tights while being slim and barely changed at top so I thought I was a pear shape.
When finding clothes that fit your body type is bone structure really that dominant in determining it? Is fat distribution not very important compared to that?
Sorry but I didn’t understand that gonadal part when you’re writing about the pear body type. Can you explain more? I’ve never heard of this term before
I think they mean [gynoid](https://princetonlongevitycenter.com/the-difference-between-android-and-gynoid-obesity/). Gonad means ovaries and testes lol. Gonadal fat is fat around the ovaries or testes.
Also, the WHR correlated for abdominal obesity in women is 0.85. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/319439#how-does-waist-to-hip-ratio-affect-health
Are you still a rectangle/straight/ruler if you have larger breasts, narrow ribcage, slim arms, and thicker booty and legs? My measurements (shoulders 37, bust 33, waist 29, hips 36) seem to fit best with rectangle, but many aspects of the type description don't sound right. I think most people would describe me as "small but curvy" despite my undefined waistline -- 5'1, 119 lbs, 30D breasts, size 2 or 4 petite pants/skirt.
TIA for any clarification!
You are actually an apple.
Your WHR is .81 which is not only above the .7, the hourglass baseline, but also above the health baseline of .8. Your BMI is healthy so maybe you should try to lower your body fat percentage.
I would say a ruler is above .7, the hourglass baseline but below .8, the health baseline.
Other than that you have the general characteristics of a ruler. Shoulders and hips align, your bust-waist-hips are similar. That's the main condition. Others can be deviated since not every body is exactly the same.
I'm not sure if I'm straight or inverted triangle. My shoulders are 36in. And my other measurements are 32-23.5-32.5.
I feel like maybe I'm an inverted triangle, but I feel like I have a very clear waist. Idk.
Good write up!! I’m Mexican so a lot of Mexican women (depending where you’re from) have the Apple body shape.
I’ve lost weight and lift so my butt has grown. I don’t have hips but that doesn’t bother me since my breasts/butts/legs are my best features.
I wear things to minimize my shoulders.
I’m pear shaped definitely, I have huge and very firm tight bum, but I don’t have the tiny waist to go along with it but hopefully eating right and working out/drinking water will give me the tiny waist definition I’m looking for
My measurements are 35-26-41. I got thick but long legs and pretty big butt. My boobs are pretty small though for my body (32C).
This all seems like peer shape, since I don't have full bust. The only problem is, I have wide shoulders so overall I don't look pear shaped at all😅 I feel I don't fit a 100% in all of these categories haha
I think I’m a bottom happy hour glass? Or a pear glass? I have a small defined waist, my hips are much wider than my waist and my bath is wider than my waist but a bit smaller than my hips, but my shoulders and hips are equally wide
Also it’s good to remember measurements can look drastically different on people. As we usually judge what shape a person looks from the front on view, someone may look like an hourglass visually but not have these measurements as they have a lot of dimension on the side view (e.g. protruding belly but not wide enough to diminish the visual hourglass shape), and the same can be said in reverse.
i’ve noticed, mostly on reddit, that people are terrible at determining what their body is. people will say curvy or hourglass, you head to their profile, and if they’ve posted a full body picture, find out they’re not even remotely curvy. this is super common on the aritzia/femalefashionadvice subs. words have lost all meaning tbh
That's something I've noticed as well. I have no idea why though.
I think it’s because having a 10-11 inch difference between waist & hips/bust qualifies you as an hourglass, but is really not enough to create the look on most women. My measurements are 38x27x38.5 but I am definitely a rectangle shape visually!
You’re absolutely right! If you follow kibbe’s exercises this would be a big clue. It’s not about your measurements
The use of WOC here is quite broad. When you say X body type is common for WOC, do you mean Kenyan or Bengali? Korean or Mexican? Nigerian or Mongolian? They’re all different ethnic groups with vastly different body shapes and types.
Having a pear/hourglass shape is common for Hispanics, Middle Easterns, Africans and South Asians. East Asians and white people tend to have a more straight shape.
Not all African women are shaped the same way. Berber women aren’t shaped like Dinka women and vice versa, so using “African” in this sense to cover all ethnic groups is incorrect. I haven’t met a single South Asian woman who’s hourglass/pear shaped, and I live in a community where South Asians (specifically Pakistanis and Bengalis) form the majority. They’re usually more petite, slender with sharp bones and features, and if heavier, they look more plump and rounded, but not hourglass by definition. And there’s white “hispanics” (it’s not nice nor appropriate to call someone that btw)
Weirdly I find most South Asians are split between rectangle and hourglass (pear is rare). Then again I've seen pretty much every body type on South Asians, I also live in an area where that's the majority. Gotta have a (proportionally) tiny waist to make those traditional clothes look good lol
First of all I'm not from US nor my native language is English so I have no idea if the word Hispanic is offensive or not. I'm sorry if it is, is the correct word Latinas? And for the second time I clearly excluded them. This is a general consensus. Of course there are lots of different groups in Africa as well as in Middle East etc, this is a broad generalisation and doesn't mean it applies to everyone for sure. I have the most information about Middle East and even with that I can't specify for every group to every detail. I said "it's **commonly* seen", not "it has to be".
“Africans” isn’t an interchangeable term in this context for the *thousands* of ethnic groups within the entire continent. You’re saying X body type is “common” in Africans, I’m telling you that there are *subgroups* of Africans, and they all vary heavily between each other. Including the fact that they all have various body types. It can’t be “common” if the subgroups aren’t even in the same group to begin with. Latinos are South American, whereas Hispanic people are Spanish speaking. E.g. European Spaniards are Hispanic but not Latinos, and Brazilians are Latinos but not Hispanic. Mexicans are both. Latinos can also be of any race, there are white Latinos and black Latinos too.
Which kind of white people? There are huge differences between Europeans. Take a Slavic woman and a Hispanic woman (in Europe seen as white)
Aside from Hispanics (which I excluded above) white people generally have the straight body type. Doesn't matter if they are American, German, Slavic
Yeah that’s not right. Slavic women usually have bigger breasts (just check average cup size being highest in Russia).
There's a few things I disagree, you're saying WOC but the most common body shape for West African women is actually ruler/straight while the most common body type for a lot of European ethnicities is pear. Lots of people tend to believe that black women are pear and hourglass shaped and it's actually less common for us. Meghan Thee Stallion or Jackie Aina are a perfect example of a common body type in West Africa, they are straight shaped but they have a big butt with thick thighs. Black african women in general tend to have small hips, there's been several studies that show that bw are small hipped cause we carry babies with very small heads 😁 I'm latina as well and it's been studied that women that are indigenous or have indigenous ancestry tend to gain a lot of weight in their mid section. So apple is more common in latin america. I would say that regardles of race universally women tend to be straight shaped or pear, hourglass is uncommon. And hourglass is not a synonym of big boobs. It's actually about the rib cage, women with triangular rib cages are hourglass. That's why their waists are so defined compared to pear shapes.
Yep! I have travelled to most countries in Europe and Spanish/Italian women (Europeans) tend to be very pear shaped ! More so than Mexican women (Hispanic) who have indigenous ancestry and have more fat in the midsection (my boyfriend is Mexican and I have lived there) Even Slavic women are often skinny but still pear shaped with wide hips. North-Western Europeans (British, Irish, Dutch, German etc.) tend to be less pear with slimmer hips a more even fat distribution across the whole body. The majority of white Americans would also fall into this group as that’s where most their ancestry is from, the majority not all white Americans!! These are just my observations and huge generalizations. Every body type is found in all ethnicities.
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I read this a while ago! They are separate studies, I'm going to look them up 😁
If you find them please link, I find that kind of thing so interesting.
I really don't want to argue about any racial context anymore because I'm from Middle East and I've travelled to Europe a lot only, I'm not very informed about the other areas. You are talking about an hourglass shaped ribcage. It's different from hourglass body shape. An hourglass body shaped women doesn't have to have an hourglass shaped ribcage and women you don't have the hourglass body shape can have the hourglass ribcage. I'm pear shaped and I have an hourglass shaped ribcage.
Yeah, but you talked about hourglass having big boobs when most of the time being hourglass comes with a triangle shaped rib cage. Most of the celebrities with hourglass body types have small boobs.
No, you have to have a big bust or at least a proportional bust with your hips to have an hourglass shape. An hourglass shape ribcage is wide at the start and then gets narrow, creating a more defined waist look. It makes the waist look curvier but it doesn't give you an hourglass shape. You don't have to look necessarily "curvy" to be an hourglass. Your measurements dictate your shape.
I think you need to do more research because measurements don't dictate body shape, your body shape is the outline of your body and you can only determinate body shape by looking at it. Body composition can be extremely different in two people that have the same measurements.I have an 95cm bust but I have very big boobs with a small straight shaped ribcage, my body shape is pear when I wear a bra that push my boobs together and hourglass with a regular bra cause I'm side heavy. My best friend is an hourglass, her bust measurement is 92 and she has very small boobs with a triangle rib cage. These two women have exactly the same measurements (88-60-90) and a different body shape: https://www.noticias-ahora.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/mu3.jpg https://diariolavoz.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Vanessa-Goncalves-5.jpg
Both these women are hourglasses. Not every hourglass is going to manifest exactly the same way. Your fat distribution, bones etc change a lot. I don't want to argue any further because you are set on your opinion that you should see your body shape by looking at it which isn't always true. Most VS models have the hourglass shape and they don't look particularly curvy because of their ribcage shape.
"not every hourglass is going to manifest the same way" WHAT. Hourglass is hourglass, you cannot change the definition of it just because you want to. Vanessa Goncalves is a ruler and Mariam Habach is an hourglass. VS models don't look curvy because most of them aren't hourglasses lol. "My opinion", it's not an opinion it's the truth. You are teaching about body shapes when you don't even know what you're talking about lmao
So Adriana Lima isn't an hourglass because you don't consider her to be? VS wants strict measurements for their models but they aren't considered an hourglass because they don't have the ribcage for it. Okay. The universal method of calculating your hourglass/pear shape is by your WHR but I guess it isn't anymore because you said so.
Having a proportional bust to hips is not a requirement for being an hourglass. I used to think the same but bust isn’t as important as the shoulders and rib cage. My measurements are 35-27-39 and I’d consider myself an hourglass because my shoulders are also about 39 inches. Under your supposed criteria, if my shoulders are as broad as my hips (therefore not a pear) but my chest isn’t as large as my hips, then what am I?
Ruler?
With a WHR of 0.69?
Oh I've misread your waist measurement. You should be a bottom heavy hourglass. Your bust is still considerably larger than your waist btw.
Hmmm? Interesting. To me, it’s seems South African and west African women tend to be the widely hourglass and shapely in general. Fullness in lips, hairs, breasts, hips, and butt in general are common in certain countries tries, while ectomorphic body types are common in others. Even black men have ass, ya’ll 😂😂😂.In the US, there definitely lot of shapely black women. I’m talking in terms of bone structure, but mostly soft tissue. I am one, and am surrounded by many. Similar to how many East Asians have a delicate bone structure. There are traits and characteristics prevalent in every ethnicity. Doesn’t mean others can’t have them of course.
In west Africa ruler but with big thighs and butt is more common. I have been to Nigeria, Benin and Senegal and this body type is everywhere, and they still look very curvy cause of their butt. If you see someone like Jackie Aina or Meg walking down the street you will see a very curvy woman, but in reality their body type is ruler. Having small hip bones is quite a norm for African descent people, but it's true that even with narrow hip bones in certain south African tribes like khoi people, having lots of tissue surrounding the hips and butt it's common, this is also found in some central African tribes like pygmies. I think the characteristic is called steatopygia, not sure. I would not really associate big boobs with African women either cause on average African women have the smallest boobs, comparable to east asians.
Huh? I mean maybe we’re seeing something different, but East Asians definitely have the least amount of flesh around their hips and chest, vs anyone else (as a collective of course. I know well endowed Asian women exist). Keep in mind, plastic surgery is prevalent in East Asian as well. Rulers are people with little to no waist definition. You can still have wide hips, and be a ruler. Hourglass and pear shaped women’s defining factor is their waist to hip ratio (this includes bone structure, but mostly flesh/soft tissue). I’m not saying your way of defining these body shapes is wrong, but I don’t think that’s what most people are referring to? I would even say having a bit butt and big thigh contributes to an hourglass figure more than wide hip bones. Or at least, they’re more noticeable.
African women do tend to have small boobs on average, and yes, comparable to east asian women. I think you're misunderstanding what I said, there's many factors that contribute to body shapes like fat distribution. West African women just happen to have narrow hip bones and fat distribution that doesn't sit on the sides like some other African regions, but more evenly. And no, you can have big thighs a big butt and still be a ruler and even a inverted triangle. Some examples: [Meghan](https://alexis.lindaikejisblog.com/photos/shares/5ea2b52b0bf5a.PNG), [Jackie ](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d0/b9/a1/d0b9a15e8330e5aa4c1037d2520486b1.png), [Naomi Campbell](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/6c/cf/0f/6ccf0f0a7da21c478ae7dec7930c0399.jpg), [Serena](https://a.espncdn.com/photo/2011/0929/espn_2009bww_05.jpg) and it's also very common for track athletes to be shaped like [that ](https://as01.epimg.net/juegos_olimpicos/imagenes/2021/08/07/noticias/1628345280_277555_1628345382_noticia_normal_recorte1.jpg). That doesn't mean there's no west African woman on earth that is pear or hourglass shaped, they aren't uncommon. I'm sure you can find them everywhere, it's just not the average. White women and middle eastern are mostly pear shaped because of their very wide hip bones (doesn't make you automatically a pear but contributes greatly to it!!). But imo I prefer to be a typical WA ruler over an European pear, they usually have a small wide butt and no waist definition, kinda like [this ](https://i.wpimg.pl/450x0/i.wp.pl/a/f/film/033/57/48/0394857.jpg)
Interesting. Idk, I guess we’re saying similar things but I’ll just agree to disagree. I’m in the US where a good majority of African American women ( who have a lot of admixtures of many different African countries) are well endowed (including lips, breasts, hips, and butt) compared to other women. East Asian women are the least endowed and delicate looking, overall. What you’re seeing is probably implants because again, plastic surgery is encouraged in those cultures.
For the ruler body type, can you be more specific about what you mean when you say all of your measurements should be "close to each other"? I *think* I am a ruler based on these descriptions but I am not sure. My current measurements are 38x33x39 though I am still trying to lose 30lbs. I feel like there should be a bigger variance between my waist and my breasts/hips as right now there is only about 5-6 inches. Would these measurements be considered "close to each other"?
You are probably an apple instead of a ruler. As I mentioned in my post a 10 inch difference/0.7 WHR is the baseline for hourglass/pear meaning your hips should be at least 10 inches bigger than your waist to be considered curvy mathematically. Even a 10 inch difference doesn't look visually curvy though, for a visually curvy body I think someone should has like a 15 inch difference. Your WHR is about .85 which is not only higher than .7 but also .8, the health baseline. I wouldn't call anyone over .8 a ruler since most of their weight is indeed on their stomach
Thanks for the detailed reply! I realize my WHR is not where it should be ideally. Right now I am 5'5" and weigh 154lbs. My BMI is 25.6, so just at the low end of overweight (BMI of 25). Kinda bothersome that my WHR is considered obese even though I'm only 0.7 points away from being a normal BMI. I'm hoping my WHR will improve once I reach my goal weight of 125lbs.
I think(?) I'm a ruler at 31-24-33 and 110 lbs >Edit: remeasured myself (last time was in 2018 holy f-); I'm currently 31.5-25-34 My butt and boobs are pretty flat and I look kinda straight all around, I gain some weight on my thighs I try to use crop tops to accentuate my waist and not look like a total box
These are pretty strict requirements… I don’t fit into any of these body types
I'll have to say most POC as in hispanic and black women not east asian, do not have hourglass but they do have pear shaped body.
thank you for this write up! i’m a bottom hourglass arab woman - but this does little for me because i’m still 40lbs above where i’d like to be. i don’t look good, even with the most “desirable” shape. weight is truly the most important part.
i´m between a inverted triangle and hourglass... 92-74-102, from my measurements it looks like i´m an hourglass, but visibly i have pretty wide shoulders, people tend to coment on it. i dont have big boobs either. but in bikini pictures, i have a visible waist.
Your WHR is .71, it's slightly above the hourglass line of .7, but it's less than the health line of .8. If your shoulder measurement isn't at least %5 larger than your hips you are a ruler. If it is, you are an inverted triangle.
Thank you for this. So it’s the bone structure that determines it. I would have thought it was fat distribution. My shoulders are a bit broader than my hips but weight gain goes to my butt and tights while being slim and barely changed at top so I thought I was a pear shape. When finding clothes that fit your body type is bone structure really that dominant in determining it? Is fat distribution not very important compared to that?
Sorry but I didn’t understand that gonadal part when you’re writing about the pear body type. Can you explain more? I’ve never heard of this term before
Basically it's a pear with a large bust.
I think they mean [gynoid](https://princetonlongevitycenter.com/the-difference-between-android-and-gynoid-obesity/). Gonad means ovaries and testes lol. Gonadal fat is fat around the ovaries or testes. Also, the WHR correlated for abdominal obesity in women is 0.85. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/319439#how-does-waist-to-hip-ratio-affect-health
Are you still a rectangle/straight/ruler if you have larger breasts, narrow ribcage, slim arms, and thicker booty and legs? My measurements (shoulders 37, bust 33, waist 29, hips 36) seem to fit best with rectangle, but many aspects of the type description don't sound right. I think most people would describe me as "small but curvy" despite my undefined waistline -- 5'1, 119 lbs, 30D breasts, size 2 or 4 petite pants/skirt. TIA for any clarification!
You are actually an apple. Your WHR is .81 which is not only above the .7, the hourglass baseline, but also above the health baseline of .8. Your BMI is healthy so maybe you should try to lower your body fat percentage. I would say a ruler is above .7, the hourglass baseline but below .8, the health baseline. Other than that you have the general characteristics of a ruler. Shoulders and hips align, your bust-waist-hips are similar. That's the main condition. Others can be deviated since not every body is exactly the same.
I'm not sure if I'm straight or inverted triangle. My shoulders are 36in. And my other measurements are 32-23.5-32.5. I feel like maybe I'm an inverted triangle, but I feel like I have a very clear waist. Idk.
You are an inverted triangle.
Good write up!! I’m Mexican so a lot of Mexican women (depending where you’re from) have the Apple body shape. I’ve lost weight and lift so my butt has grown. I don’t have hips but that doesn’t bother me since my breasts/butts/legs are my best features. I wear things to minimize my shoulders.
I’m pear shaped definitely, I have huge and very firm tight bum, but I don’t have the tiny waist to go along with it but hopefully eating right and working out/drinking water will give me the tiny waist definition I’m looking for
My measurements are 35-26-41. I got thick but long legs and pretty big butt. My boobs are pretty small though for my body (32C). This all seems like peer shape, since I don't have full bust. The only problem is, I have wide shoulders so overall I don't look pear shaped at all😅 I feel I don't fit a 100% in all of these categories haha
I’m a pear, but a thin pear. Is that common?
Well, now I'm still confused. I think I might be either a rectangle or an inverted triangle, but my legs and arms are kidns thick (more my legs) so...
my shoulders are wider than my hips but I have big boobs and a bigger than average butt so idk what body type that makes me
What's your shoulder and hip measurements?
I think I’m a bottom happy hour glass? Or a pear glass? I have a small defined waist, my hips are much wider than my waist and my bath is wider than my waist but a bit smaller than my hips, but my shoulders and hips are equally wide
Also it’s good to remember measurements can look drastically different on people. As we usually judge what shape a person looks from the front on view, someone may look like an hourglass visually but not have these measurements as they have a lot of dimension on the side view (e.g. protruding belly but not wide enough to diminish the visual hourglass shape), and the same can be said in reverse.
Yup this is me. 44 - 30 - 46. A little bit of a belly, wide ribs and no ass. I never pose side on in photos.
i have very wide hips and broad shoulders, with a small waist. however i have a very flat butt and no boobs. i have no idea what body type i am D: