Do skinny wives make for happy marriages?

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(CBS) Does a thin wife make for a happy marriage? A new study shows that marital satisfaction is higher for husbands when their wives are skinnier than they are.

What about wives? Are they happier when hubby is thinner? Actually, no. Wives are also more satisfied when they're thinner than their husbands, the study showed.

But the study's lead author says women don't have to be thin in absolute terms to have a happy marriage - just thinner than their hubbies.

"There's a lot of pressure on women in our society to achieve an often unreachably small weight," study author Andrea Meltzer, a doctoral candidate at the University of Tennessee, told ABC News. "The great take-home message from our study is that women of any size can be happy in their relationships with the right partner. It's relative weight that matters, not absolute weight."

For the four-year study, Meltzer and her colleagues studied 169 newlywed couples, mostly Caucasian and all age 35 or younger. The researchers found that husbands were more satisfied initially when their wives had a lower body mass index (BMI). The wives who had a lower BMI became more satisfied over time.

Meltzer told CBS News that there is likely an evolutionary basis to men's initial satisfaction with a relatively thin partner - because women with a lower BMI may be more likely to be fertile than women with higher BMIs.

But why would wives be more satisfied when their husbands' BMIs are higher? Meltzer hypothesizes they're more satisfied because their husbands are.

The study was published in the July issue of Social Psychological and Personality Science.

[cleoking1305]

I think this study is a load of crock. I also noticed that the study involved mostly Caucasians. What does that really say about the personality of a white woman? Anyone who thinks this study speaks for all women of every color should go pop themselves on the head.

[mgunn89512]

I think this article is ultimately saying... men marry for beauty (and women marry for money, would be an excellent follow-up study) but instead of being so blunt they use "thinness".

So when a woman becomes relatively fatter, she's then become on average uglier than he is, he gets cheated for what he married for.

It would be like a woman married a high-income earner and then after many years his income goes down and hers is higher than his. She's probably going to feel cheated and their marriage won't be as happy.

[dorian_modra]

Yes. Yes, they do. Any other questions?

http://forpoorer.blogspot.com/

[mercury3424]

A skinny woman is preferble to a hog woman.

[NinthSt78]

NO! NO! NO! Why marry snacks and nibbles when you could have married a banquet and buffet instead.

[thinkingonetoo]

Really!? Who wants a FAT wife? Fat people are lazy, with little self control, hence they are fat!

You'll never see a fat person that exercises several times a week, eats healthy, and practices self control.

[amerilatino]

No but heck no, boney hens are only good for soup, give me a stacked, hourglass girl to keep me warm at night and I'll be EXTREEEEMELY happy...

[bobnjersey]

[ It's relative weight that matters, not absolute weight."]
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not if you're the one who has to carry the weight.

[billpl-2009]

no

...but "fat" ones could wreak a marriage a lot quicker

[mecury69]

'Skinny' is a derogatory term; it's the opposite of 'fat'.

And since we do not call people 'fat' in public or in articles, nor should the term 'skinny' be used.

To support this point, the word 'thin' was used throughout the article while 'skinny' was not. It was only used on the attention getting headline.

And to address the article, women are vain and prefer a heavier men because it makes them feel better about themselves.

To support this point, Oprah (the spokeswomen for all) dumped a guy who wore a MEDIUM sized sweater because she could not deal with that. Case closed.