Yay I’m a Sexy Rectangle, Said No Women Ever

Women have hourglass figures. Sounds pretty simple huh? Maybe, but that simple statement causes such harm that I feel the need to expand upon it.

Harm you say? Yes harm.

How about we attack it from my perspective first, that of a trans woman. The information floating around out there about transgender women and hips basically says that trans women will never acquire hips. Sorry but no, it’s not happening. Why? Well the no trans women will ever naturally get hips theory goes that women develop hips because of spreading of the pelvis during puberty. Once puberty is done then your bones are fused and they will never spread again. Thus, for those trans women who transition after the end of puberty, sorry but no hips for you, ever. Well unless you want to complete a BBL surgical procedure, and maybe have some ribs removed, you know, no big deal, you will never have hips.

However that really isn’t the full story about women’s hips. Yes hips can be formed by bones spreading, that is true, it’s just not the only way to gain hips. Estrogen as well has an influence over hips. It has the tendency to cause women to gain more wait in the lower portions of our bodies. Meaning larger hips, butts, and thighs, in general. Oh as well, humans once believed that bones stopped growing after a certain point in development and no that is false also. Our hips do keep getting bigger, our bones will get thicker just not longer.

Okay, so how about now attacking the “women have an hourglass figure” statement from just the generic female perspective? Okay, ready? Only about 8 percent of women actually have the famed hourglass figure. Wait, what? Yup, sorry only 8%. The most common female shape is…….. rectangle. Wait rectangle? Yes rectangle. Wow, SO flattering! Yay, I’m a sexy rectangle! And in fact that is what body shape I technically have. Which is actually very lovely for me that personally I have the most common type of female body shape that exists. Cool.

But I don’t think that most of us are truly very flattered by being told we have a rectangle for a body. Nope. We are told as women, that we have curves. That in fact a defining characteristic of being female is that we have curves. I’m sorry but does a rectangle actually have any curves? No, I as an official math teacher can for a fact tell you, if you were in any way unclear about it, a rectangle does not have any curves. Well, okay, big deal. Whatever. We all know that rectangles don’t have curves, but women do have curves, and women have hourglass figures. Except that the generic “they” just like the blanket statement word use of “women,” don’t have hourglass figures.

Approximately 46 percent of women were classified as rectangular, in which the bust and the hips are generally the same size, and the waist is less than nine inches smaller than the hips or the bust.

A little more than 20 percent of women possessed the spoon or pear shape, which is marked by a hip measurement that is at least two inches larger than the bust.

Nearly 14 percent were inverted triangles, meaning their busts were three or more inches larger than their hips.

The hourglass shape, which features bust and hip measurements that are nearly equal along with a narrow waist, comprised 8 percent of those body shapes analyzed.

https://www.newswise.com/articles/fashion-designers-ignoring-shapes-of-womens-bodies

Okay, what is the big deal? This is not all that and a bag of chips. Who really cares?

Women have an hourglass figure.

I think that the problem is the subtlety of the statement. It is a very common thing to describe women as having an hourglass figure and not common at all to say that woman have rectangular figures. In fact it is so common to describe women this way, it has in fact become a defining characteristic of being a woman. But what if you don’t have that figure? What if every other single factor about you has always defined you as a woman. You have all of the traditional female parts and such, but what do you not have? An hourglass figure, just like 92% of all women on the planet. So now, by simple things like definitions and the loose colloquial nature of the English language we have subtly defined 92% of the female population as not being female.

No? Too much? Okay well we have at least defined them as not being as female as the 8% of women who do have an hourglass figure. How? Remember back to the statement……. women have an hourglass figure? The statement is not “some” women have an hourglass figure, which would be accurate. But it would be completely wrong to even say “typically” women have an hourglass figure. Because it is actually not typical for a woman to have an hourglass shape. If you want to talk about women and hourglass figures, the best way to say it would be, very few women have an hourglass figure. There. I fixed it. Ready?

Very few women have an hourglass shape.

Do you notice the subtlety of what happened there? By changing around a few words I made it feel as though it is an unusual characteristic for a female to have an hourglass shape. Not a defining thing but more like an abnormal thing. Because if you really want to get down to it, a female having an hourglass figure is actually an abnormal thing. So ready for another shift?

It is abnormal for a woman to have an hourglass figure.

See how it feels now? Understand a little better what our language and thus our society subtly does to women? We have defined an abnormal characteristic, 8% of women having an hourglass figure, as an overall defining characteristic of what is required for society to consider you to be female.

These sorts of things are very hurtful to our overall society, to women in general, and typically very devastating for transgender women. During the first year of my transition I was talking to a fellow teacher at work. I was explaining that my transition was lovely but difficult as many people were having a tough time in switching what they thought they knew about me. She said to me, yeah well, I think that students have a difficult time because they can tell the shape of bodies and how yours doesn’t quite match up. Okay, that was 3 years ago, I’m totally making up what she said, but that was the essence of it. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I was talking about other teachers and the students were actually my top supporters.

But whatever, because what my point is, is that I was told by another woman that according to her, she thought maybe others didn’t see me as female because of my body shape. She told me that my body shaped essentially defined me as male. Okay, so, that was horrible for a trans girl I mean we already totally and fully doubt ourselves and our bodies, but hey whatever. But what also is evident is that attitude makes any woman that is not an hourglass figure essentially feel as though her body is wrong. Which means that approximately 92% of us are told that our bodies are wrong by the simple use of language.

Women have an hourglass figure.

Women have a rectangular figure.

Which statement really is more accurate?