Bottom Line: Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder
A Sociodemographic Morphometric Evaluation
Plast Reconstr Surg. 2017;140(1):20e-32e. © 2017 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Regarding buttock size, in the total survey population, size preferences differed significantly across participants’ ethnicity, showing that non-Caucasians prefer larger buttocks compared with Caucasians. After regression analysis, the results showed that regardless of profession (surgeon or lay people) and region, sex, age, and ethnicity impacted their attractiveness perceptions of buttock size. Specifically, men prefer larger buttocks controlling for other covariates (profession, age, ethnicity, region), younger people perceived larger buttocks to be more attractive, and non-Caucasians perceived larger buttocks to be more attractive compared with Caucasians. Hispanics love the fullest rears!
Conclusions
Aesthetic perception is influenced by a wide range of factors. This study illustrated that intercultural and ethnic differences, in addition to the ethnic and geographic background of surgeons and the general public, play major roles in this regard. Particularly in the field of plastic and reconstructive surgery, globalization suggests more and more unified surgical goals, and, with respect to buttock aesthetics, apparently a waist-to-hip ratio of 0.7 is rated to be attractive by a wide range of people. However, the authors of this study urge all plastic surgeons to take all compounding factors into consideration when defining surgical goals with their patients, which will ultimately aid in achieving optimal aesthetic outcomes, satisfying both surgeon and patient alike.
