Woman Awarded for Proving Stripes Make You Look Fat

F

rom the time they are young, women are told that stripes are a tricky beast when it comes to clothing. If you wear horizontal stripes, you'll look wider, and if you wear vertical stripes, you'll look thinner. Now, Val Watham has won an award for scientifically proving just that.

Watham's study proved that horizonal stripes do indeed make women look wider.

She set out to prove this after reading a study done in 2008 that claimed horizontal stripes had a slimming effect, not a widening one. She was unconvinced and set out to prove her theory.

She took to the streets with models dressed wearing both kinds of stripes and asked passersby to rate their figures. Ouch—we're glad we weren't those models.

Her results were presented to a judging panel at the Cheltenham Science Festival this weekend, and her study proved that horizontal stripes do indeed make women look wider, while vertical stripes make them look taller.

Her findings, though everyone knew it already, impressed the judges so much that they awarded her the BBC Amateur Scientist of the Year award over 1,000 other entrants.

It seems kind of silly to us that a) someone would spend the time proving something we already know is true and that b) she'd be rewarded for it. Thanks, Val. Now we can get onto other pressing issues, like whether the sky is blue, whether water is wet, and whether ice actually does cool off your drinks.

photo courtesy of The Daily Mail.