The "skinny" on body size requests in personal ads

The message that women should be thin comes from many sources; some of whic h may be using the terminology loosely. To test this, the Figure Rating Sca le was mailed to 547 personal ad writers to examine the actual preferences of those seeking a thin partner, those seeking a physically fit partner, an d those giving no weight preference. Respondents indicated ideal and accept able body sizes for partners. The ethnicity of respondents was 85.1% White, 7.5% Hispanic, 1.4% African American, 0.7% American Indian, and 4.1% other . The mean education level was 16.6 years and the average annual income was about $40,000. Although males in the three ad categories had statistically significant differences in their choice of an ideal figure, the actual fig ure size differences appeared negligible, and men did not differ in the num ber of figures they found acceptable. Females chose the same figure as idea l despite different weight requests. The implications of males accepting a wide range of body sizes for a partner despite specifically requesting a th in one are discussed.