Women just can't win. While for years we've heard that the hourglass figure — that is, a waist-to-hip ratio of 0.7 or lower — was the Western ideal of fertility and beauty, now Elizabeth Cashdan of the University of Utah claims that a "more cylindrical" shape indicates a body is "physically stronger, more competitive and better able to deal with stress." Androgen hormones, which result in increased visceral fat around the waist, are also responsible for the strength that may make this more common body type an evolutionary boon. Of course, since we can't change our body types, we prefer to think of it this way: anthropology's fascinating, but if it gets you from A to B, you're good. [LiveScience]

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