Death of the waist: Once hourglass figures were coveted. But today's obsession with fitness is leaving stars such as Davina McCall and Gwyneth Paltrow with androgynous physiques

Fitness guru Davina McCall's (centre right) decision to ditch womankind's customary shapely middle in favour of rock-hard abdominals is part of a worrying trend among today's female icons. 


She has strong arms, powerful thighs, a stomach that is the epitome of muscle definition. Yet what is most striking is that Davina - like so many of our super-fit heroines today - has no waist. She is joined by Pippa Middleton (second from right), surf fan Cameron Diaz (second from right), tennis ace Maria Sharapova (far left) and former It Girl Tamara Beckwith (centre left). But the hourglass shape that has dominated cultural imaginations since the prehistoric age is being traded in for a lean, fatless, linear look, leaving its owners resembling, in many cases, slender, pert-bottomed little boys and not the curvaceous, in-and-out figure that was once held to be sexually attractive.