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Masks the bulge: Peplum-style jacket nips waist and hides hips. If Meryl had lost the belt here, she would have looked even thinner!

What's the quickest way to pick out a 20-year-old woman from a 50-year-old woman at 100 paces?

Check out her waist.

Specifically: Does she have one?

Or does she have a "frump hump" - a roll of pudge that rises like a Bundt cake between her belly button and her hip bone?

The dread frump hump separates the women from the girls.

Meryl Streep has a frump hump. Marie Osmond used to have one - until Dancing with the Stars and NutriSystem. Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush have one. Sarah Palin has one.

Who's doesn't? Michelle Obama, who has an enviably long waist. And Cindy McCain, who appears to be a size zero.

Staying Cindy thin is tough for most women of her age (54), and here's why: As estrogen ekes from the body, stored fat shifts - from butt to waist. Even women who have managed to keep a flat stomach after childbirth often can't exercise away that tummy bulge after 40.

This is why Chico's sells belts that drape and not belts that cinch: Attempts to belt a frump hump will backfire as surely as back fat will bulge around a too-tight bra.

This is why designers for middle-aged women, such as QVC in-house designer Susan Graver, talk about ways to "disguise the high hip area."

This is why Oprah recently went gaga over a T-shirt with tummy control called a Yummie Tummie. This shirt feels like a regular T-shirt at the top and the bottom, but the middle is a firming microfiber fabric that flattens pooch - and, miraculously, it won't roll up. (Yummie Tummie even comes in a long length with an extra-long middle control panel that can be pulled down to grab and hold down the top of the butt.)

The sheer number of Baby Boomers seems to have fueled an industry devoted to stopping the scourge of "muffin top."

Only her stylist knows for sure, but Michelle Obama probably had a shaping garment under the blue wool dress she wore to give her speech at the Democratic National Convention. No visible pantylines there - and the V-shaped neckline is one of the oldest fashion tricks in the book: The wider the neckline, the smaller the hips look.

Magnifies the bulge: Tight, wide belt on stiff fabric emphasizes the bottom. Meryl Streep is a lady in red arriving for the world premiere of 'Mamma Mia' in London's Leicester Square in June.

As Elizabeth Snead wrote in her Los Angeles Times blog, The Dish Rag: "First off, the dress, thankfully not a skirt suit, was sleek and minimal. The hem length was appropriate, but not dumpy. It had a flattering V-neck with three quarter-length sleeves that made Michelle's broad shoulders and strong arms look less threatening. And the teal blue color coordinated nicely with the blue/violet hues of her daughters' outfits."

So, what if you're not tall like Michelle or stick-skinny like Cindy?

Head to any department store and check out the Spanx counter, next to the stockings.

Or, shop the Internet or TV retailers, where it seems every other sales host promises a gimmick to suck in your gut.

One popular informercial stars the Kymaro body shaper - a contraption that promises to reduce inches around the middle.

On HSN, celebrity plastic surgeon Dr. Robert Rey hawks his new line of shapewear. (At $40, his "high-waist diamond G-string" shaper - which looks nothing like a G-string and everything like a firm-control panty that spans the rocky terrain of bikini line to bra - is a customer favorite.)

And Lifetime TV's talk show The Balancing Act recently featured the ultimate shapewear for ladies with flabby upper arms: Slimpressions, a new line of upper-body garments that compress arm waddle.

Really. A girdle for the arms.

Just in time for all that campaign waving.

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