The debate of whether body-mass index (BMI) or waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) is the primary visual cue to female physical attractiveness
(FPA) has generated considerable interest. However, experiments addressing this question typically have limited ecological
validity and do not capture the ultimate goal of FPA, which is to elicit male sexual arousal. Hence, using an unobtrusive
measures design, we retrieved movie and magazine starring frequencies of 125 adult media actresses from a company's database,
operationalized starring frequencies as FPA measures, and tested their relationship to actresses' anthropometric data. Low
BMI was related to frequent movie starring, while WHR, waist-to-bust ratio (WBR), and bust size were not. Conversely, low
WHR, low WBR, and larger bust size were related to frequent magazine starring, while BMI was not. Visual cues to FPA might
be domain-specific, with androgenousness cues salient for attractiveness evaluation of moving bodies and curvaceousness cues
salient for posing bodies.
KEY WORDS: female attractiveness - waist-to-hip ratio - body-mass index - pornography.