Devlog

What an MRI study sees that a photograph cannot

A 2023 MRI study of gluteal anatomy, read against the site's own regional profiles, with fifteen group pages linked from the article.

  • Research
  • AI
  • Design

Our article "Butt shape by ethnicity" sets a 2023 MRI study of gluteal anatomy next to the site's own regional profiles and links fifteen group pages. The study combined magnetic resonance imaging, direct measurement and photography, and found the same amount of subcutaneous fat in both of its groups. The difference sat in frame and muscle: the waist, the iliac crest, the hips and the gluteus maximus.

The article reads that finding against what the catalog records. People pages carry a butt profile set over a pelvic profile, frame first, then what sits on it. The piece shows where the study and the catalog agree, where they part ways, and why a photograph cannot separate bone, muscle and fat.

Article heroes are rendered as full-length figures in a tall frame and then cropped to the banner. Illustrations for trait articles are rendered as photographs of real objects.

Under the hood

  • The regional profiles cover 23 world regions, each a butt profile (size, set and projection) over a pelvic profile (iliac crest width and how the hips carry fat). The article quotes seven regions in a table and links fifteen group pages, each checked against the profile quoted for it.
  • The atlas's butt taxonomy defines seven photo-assessable dimensions, including shape on the Mendieta four-class system, projection in lateral view and lateral hip concavity. The article uses the MRI result to show what a photographic scale records and what lies beneath the silhouette.
  • Hero framing: the image model is asked for a full-length figure in a 9:16 frame so the subject lands mid-image, then a 16:9 band is cut at a chosen vertical center and sized to 1600 by 900. The full image is kept, so the band can be re-cut without a new render, and candidates can be previewed before one is promoted.
  • Illustration rule: trait-article art is composed as photographs of real objects rather than as charts or diagrams, because the image model invents lettering on anything it reads as a chart, while a photograph of real objects comes back clean. The skin-tone article, for example, opens on a still life of mineral pigment powders.
group pages linked
15
regions compared
7
world regions profiled
23

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Sources and open data

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