Betty has curves in all the right places, even if she does say so herself.
"She had curves in places other women don't even have places."
— Cybill Shepherd, referring to Marilyn Monroe
A Stock Phrase for narrators describing an attractive female character, and for Fan Fic writers trying to make a female character inexplicably more attractive than she is in canon.
It probably describes an Impossible Hourglass Figure — that is to say, large breasts, round hips, and a small waist connecting the two — but exactly what it means is vague and highly subjective, since readers' ideas of what "all the right places" are and how much they should curve will vary.
Compare Sexy Figure Gesture, where someone says this with their hands.
Examples:
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Fan Works
- Child of the Storm has Harry Dresden inwardly note this about Wanda Maximoff in the two-shot side story Chaos Reigns, while simultaneously noting the hackneyed nature of the phrase.
- Blatantly stated in One Less Lonely Gurl when C'ren arrived at Bikini Bottom and someone says that she has "curves in all the right places". Given that this is a Troll Fic, that line is a Shout-Out to this.
- Rocketship Voyager. As befits a 1950's sci-fi tale, Captain Janeway's introduction has the reader assured that her "space-black uniform failed to conceal the feminine curvature underneath."
- In the Parody Fic The Last Kiss Goodbye
, the Private Eye Monologue notes that:
She was a hot-looking blonde with more curves than a Major League playoff and lips that were oral sex waiting to happen.
Film — Live-Action
- Angel on My Shoulder: When first meeting Barbara, Eddie does a thorough Male Gaze inspection, even turning her around. After he's done looking over the very snug business dress the costume designers squeezed Anne Baxter into, he says "You got a lot of curves...in all the right places."
- Blood Harvest has a Rare Male Example. Jill describes Scott as having "muscles in all the right places."
- Bridget Jones' Diary: Mark Darcy's father is rather gleeful about him dating Bridget Jones (played by a curvy and bustier Renée Zellweger) who he describes as "a nice well-built girl" with a bottom that can balance a pint glass.
- In Go West (1940), Chico Marx asked Harpo what he had spent $60 on, and Harpo made an "hourglass" figure with his hands. Chico replied "Oh, you bought a snake." (The gag also appears in A Day at the Races (1937), in which Harpo's attempts to tell Chico about The Vamp who plans to seduce and frame Groucho are interpreted as, "A snake! A big, big snake!" After Harpo's gestures and whistles get more and more exaggerated, "That's-a no snake.")
- The plot of Julia Misbehaves follows Julia, who was ousted out of her marriage over a decade ago to a wealthy American, William, because of his classist mother. When she arrives back in America to be at her daughter's wedding, she and William reunite. In a rare male example, Julie says that William is not so gangly as he used to be and that he's grown to be a well-built and good-looking man. William hesitates to return the compliment, considering that he sneakily watched her vaudeville performance a few days earlier, in which her long gown ripped on stage, leaving her dancing in a leotard.
- Murder On Vine
Gina Babs: She was a swell girl, and swollen in all the right places.
- North By Northwest
Eve Kendall: I'm a big girl.
Roger Thornhill: Yeah, and in all the right places, too. - Played with in Osmosis Jones.
Osmosis: [looking at a centerfold in DNA Monthly] Nice genes. You got the chromosomes in all the right places.
Literature
- In the Haruhi Suzumiya series, Kyon uses this description when Haruhi and Mikuru debut their bunny girl costumes in the first light novel.
Kyon (narrating): The combination of Haruhi, who has a slender build yet with curves, and Asahina, who looks small yet sticks out in all the right places, was too much for my eyes.
- Rebuild World: In-Universe, when Sheryl says that she only ordered coffee because she’s on a diet (to hide that she’s poor and it’s the cheapest thing on the menu), Katsuya says something similar to this, which gets him criticized by the girls around him for calling Sheryl fat.
- One Shadowrun novel describes an attractive woman as having 'more curves than a box of snakes'.
- Stalking the Unicorn by Mike Resnick describes a Cat Girl as having "curves in places other girls don't have places."
- The Sun Also Rises has a rather bizarre variation when it describes Brett Ashley as having "curves like the hull of a racing yacht". However striking that line may be as a description, a boat does not exactly have a shape comparable to a conventionally attractive woman. Note that the description is not intended to be a Stealth Insult or suggest the narrator has a fetish for unusual body shapes, as Brett is considered beautiful by everyone.
- In This Alien Shore, Venturous Smuggler Sumi thinks that protagonist Jamisia is "slender, but not without a curve or two in just the right place."
- Xanth: Used in Man from Mundania when Ivy tells Grey that she and Nada will be riding on the same winged centaur, and Grey protests, thinking it isn't smart to ride double (he turns out to be wrong, since Nada can shrink into a small snake):
"But Nada weighs as much as you do!" he protested. Indeed, Nada weighed more, and in all the right places.
- In Wicked Fem, this is Pix's first impression of Lois - generic enough to let the reader fill in the blanks, and self-aware enough to showcase Pix's relentless snark.
She has the cutest figure, like all the things you want, in the exact amounts you want them.
Live Action TV
- Played with in a Harpo Marx TV appearance. When the host of the program asks why Harpo is late coming out Harpo makes an hourglass figure with his hands. Unlike Chico (see Film above) the host gets it immediately, and asks Harpo if he has one for him (the host) too. Harpo nods, walks offscreen, and comes back with two bottles of Coke.
- Rhoda: When Rhoda (Valerie Harper) sees Mary (Mary Tyler Moore) after a long absence, she comments on how great she looks.
Mary: Yeah, I gained ten pounds.Rhoda: And all in erogenous zones!
- Brenda: They sure look better on you than they did on me.
Music
- Mika's "Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)" is a tribute to Big Beautiful Women:
No need to fantasize
Since I was in my braces
A watering hole with the girls around
And curves in all the right places - Meghan Trainor's "All About That Bass"
I got that boom-boom that all the boys chase,
All the right junk in all the right places.
Theatre
- Ghosts: Regina Engstrand, a young, apparently good looking girl, complimented on by all the other cast members.
- Played for Laughs in The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals during the inverse-"I Want" Song "What do you want, Paul?". As an example of what Paul might want, mr. Davidson suggests "Someone to keep you lusted" and makes the hourglass-shape with his hands... and keeps going until he has made five bumps.
- Lola's song "A Little Brains—A Little Talent" in Damn Yankees:
You gotta stack those decks with a couple-a extra aces,
And this queen has her aces
In all the right places! - "Honey Bun" from South Pacific:
Where she's narrow, she's narrow as an arrow
And she's broad where a broad should be broad!
Web Original
- Paired with Squick in the exploration log of SCP-2264:
Agent Alexander Papadopoulos: Okay. If you say so. I remember having to pull Agent Maher away from some woman; wasn't attacking him, quite the opposite. Couldn't blame him. She had curves in all the right places - made it easy to ignore the tentacles.
- Survival of the Fittest characters Charlene Norris and Kallie Majors, from versions four and three respectively, are described this way.
- Discussed and parodied by the Twitter blog Worst Muse in the following tweet: