A Short History of The “Ideal” Female Body
December 27, 2006 by Liz Lewis
Filed under Diets and Dieting, Media, Your Mind
1639 – The Three Graces; Pieter Pauwel Rubens
1887 – Pierre Auguste Renoir, The Bathers
1920 – Thin, short haired flapper.
1950 – Marylin Monroe (Size 14)
Update: MAM885 says
I’ve read in a couple very reliable sources (women’s fitness magazines) that Monroe’s “size 14″ is comparable to a size 8 today, due to vanity sizing and such.
1960 – Twiggy Lawson (Aka the beginning of the end.) This was the first time in history that an under weight woman became the standard for the ideal body image.
1970’s – Karen Carpenter (Died in 1983 from heart failure as a complication of Anorexia Nervosa)
1988 – Cosmopolitan
2002 – Harper’s Bazaar
Modern day Fashion Model
Quick point of reference for that last one:
1944 – Nazi Holocaust Victim
Further reading:
Underweight Models Banned From Madrid’s Fashion Week
This is What an Eating Disorder Looks Like
Bulimia Nervosa Illustrated Perfectly on Film
Sources:
Holocaust photo – Olam
Dissastifaction with our bodies/eating disorders – Lillith Gallery
Corporate America? Gimme a break. We all want to blame someone else for our problems–our weight, our health, whatever.
So here’s point one: “Corporate America” is just a crux for people who aren’t able to look at themselves honestly and work with their own problems. Do businesses want to SELL makeup, clothes, etc? Heck yeah! But you know what? Businesses always HAVE been. For CENTURIES.
Since advertising began companies have been using gorgeous models–either the prettiest people they can find or, failing that, illustrations of even more unnaturally beautiful women (the art nouveau genius Mucha was an illustrator–hello!!!). Hm. Using beautiful people since print advertising started, wanting to sell since whenever… gee, but anorexia and bulimia and obesity have really just become problems in the past few decades? What does THAT mean?
Face it–today’s “rail thin model” and “corporate america” aren’t the ISSUE, since Anorexia, Bulimia, and Obesity certainly aren’t as old as even American advertising! Businesses want to survive, they pick what sells, if society as a whole responds to a skinny girl, why should the business hurt itself? So point one is simple: it isn’t the business’s responsibility to advertise using the images of girls that society, for whatever reason, isn’t as fond of.
But wait! Let’s not stop at blaming businesses and advertisements, let’s blame the media as a whole! “OH But we are BOMBARDED BY THESE ADVERTISEMENTS FROM EBBILL CORPRIT AMURCA!!!” Here’s point two: if the AMOUNT of imagery we’re seeing (the sheer number of shows, the vast quantities of magazines, the slew of ads) is what’s killing us, what we consume “from the media” is a decision ***we each make.*** No one forces your head up against the TV and tells you to watch it when you get home from work. No one makes you buy Allure magazine. So you can’t blame “The Media” if you insist on consuming it.
I will be frank: ANY body image problem I have, ANY body image problem my friends have, is almost always easy to trace back to one source: OTHER. WOMEN.
My mom? Crash diets, a new one, every week, for years, growing up. My best friend’s mom? 98 pounds at her highschool graduation. Got old. Didn’t like the additional 15 pounds (apparently). My gay friend? Hates his weight and frequently skips meals (despite being skinny) because everyone around him at the clubs hates their weight!
Hearing this stuff every day–that’s how insecurities are formed. How about the pressure you put on your daughters and sons to be perfect–to excel, in sports, in academics and socially? Anorexia and bulimia, from what little I remember from my psych classes in high school, has nothing to do with “wanting to be thin,” and almost everything to do with the feeling that everything is spinning out of control. If you feel mom and dad hate you, or your significant other doesn’t love you, or whatever, you can at least control whatever your body does. Some people will believe it makes them pretty, but the deepest feeling is one of control. Don’t believe me? Really examine what you’re thinking the next time you automatically reach for cake while you’re in your PJs. Eating and exercising are things we use both to help ourselves and destroy ourselves.
Finally–I always find it painful when people look at old art and delude themselves into thinking that that’s “what people looked like then”–the standards of beauty are ALWAYS idealized. Those women? Artists DO reference a “real woman’s form,” but it is idealized–so yes, even the happily cavorting women in Reuben’s paintings would have represented (like our modern day models) maybe 1% of the population. In fact, his models probably were less likely to look like that than our models look like… well, our models (hey, our designers aren’t making illustrations, just photoshopping an existing model). It is difficult enough for even a good artist to faithfully recreate a living subject (I remember a beautiful photo of about 10 fantastic artists drawing from the same model; he looked like a completely different person in each drawing, even though he was recognizeably a realistically rendered human being). And when you have the powerful imagination of most artists, why WOULD you go ahead and render only what you see? Why wouldn’t you idealize it?
Sorry, but all those things just HAD to be said.
Where do you think “other women,” “your mom,” your “gay friend” get their idealized notions of beauty?
No one lives outside of culture. And our culture is advertising – the public relations voice of corporate American. Saying you have control over the things that corporations spend hundreds of billions of dollars a year on to shove in front of you is naive, to say the least.
To continue: While businesses always have wanted to sell, the widespread use of images to sell only began a short period of time ago. The paintings of royalty weren’t meant for the masses, and certainly weren’t used to set a standard of body beauty for the masses to aspire to. The difference between then and now is that back then, the commoners weren’t expected to meet a socially acceptable body type. Now, everyone, from wealthy to the modest, knows what the standard is, and is judged on their adherence to it or deviation from it.
It’s interesting that you point out that our concern about eating disorders is a recent phenomenon. You are absolutely correct. If you think carefully, society’s concerns about eating disorders became an issue almost precisely at the time that our media environment began to emphasize the ultra-thin body type – the type that the vast majority of women cannot achieve without surgery or radical dieting.
Look, some people are indeed going to blame the media, the gubbmint, corporations, low-flying traffic helicopters, etc., for everything and say “It’s not my fault.” That’s not what I’m talking about here.
Corporate America spends, depending on who’s doing the estimating, between $161 and $172 billion dollars a year on advertising. That’s twice what the war in Iraq costs. To say that it has no affect on us, either individually or as a society, is insane. That’s why they’re spending that money – because it has an impact. And our ads – and the programming supported by those advertising dollars – have a remarkably consistent message to women about what type of body is acceptable.
Thanks for posting this guys.
I’ve had bulimia and anorexia for years now. Half of my life. I didn’t even realize I had an eating disorder until my hair started falling out and my period stopped for months. I got online, looked up my symptoms, and, “Oh. That makes sense,” continued to live off of 200 c/day.
I’ve been fighting the damn thing ever since the day that I got all dressed up feeling good about how pretty I looked and some boy, who I never met, hit on my friend and then stared at me like I’m a scab intruding on his life. I don’t know exactly why I’ve had to live like this, but the media definitely does not and never has helped me (or the majority of Americans) accept myself whether I’m fat or skinny.
Frankly, I have tried to cut media from my life. I dropped the internet connection, got rid of the TV, stopped watching movies, refused to buy magazines, and yet, I still get to fight this thing everyday.
And finally, while both of you provide interesting viewpoints, eating disorders did not just recently come to fruition in the last 50 years. In fact, they’ve been around for hundreds of years. In the 1700’s there is a record of a woman who, despite repeated attempts to stop, would eat 60 apples in one sitting. Then move on to 40+ oranges in one sitting. Then move on to something else and devour it, afterwards she would induce vomiting.
Like most people with eating disorders, I’ve read plenty of books, articles, watched plenty of youtube vids, documentaries.. wrote endless journals, kept tight stock of my feelings when I eat, how much I eat, went to countless therapy sessions and met with countless therapists.. For years I’ve been frantically searching for why I’m living with this and why I can’t get away from it. And in my findings, corporate america does have an effect on our idealogy of beauty. Whether it’s a sole contributor or not, I don’t know, but I’d rather them dish out multiple ideal images: all shapes, all sizes, because honestly, everyone, EVERYONE, deserves to be the face of beauty.
I am so happy I came across this article.I just wrote an article myself dealing with the pressures on teens from advertising.
I am bookmarking this !!!!
While I agree that the ideal body size as appealing to women is quite small today, and that perhaps men like their women bustier and hippier, little clothing is truly tailored to an ‘hourglass’ figure. I’m in the healthy range for weight and body fat, and have pretty close to the hourglass figure, but for the life of me finding any clothing that looks remotely decent is impossible. I have to keep getting XL clothes that only fit my hips and bust, while leaving my waist lost in the massive folds of clothing. However, it may be interesting to note that for all that women purport wanting the ideal to be back to ‘curves’ statistically only 8% of women have an hourglass figure – it all comes down to how our bodies distribute weight. It may be disheartening, but far far more women are pretty straight up and down, or at least have little waist to bust and hip ratios, than those with curvy figures. :-/ Depressing, huh?
omgsh.. look i’m 16 & i feel soooooooooo uncomfortable in my body. i have Marlyn Monroe bodyshape and i feel sooo fat. i think this is not fair. nobody notices me when i’m with my bestfriend, which has a bodyshape like women in 2002 – Harper’s Bazaar. sometime i just wanna scream and beat all the guys around me cuz its just so not fair!!!!
i know that the 2002 – Harper’s Bazaar women is very pretty but… i just can’t have body like her, and that means i can’t be “hawtie” or “popular” in my school, or something like that. life just isn’t fair…
I’m 18 but i completely understand. I have an hourglass figure, like Marilyn Monroe. Hourglass DOES NOT mean “fat” or “ugly”. It’s actually beautiful. There is a big difference between “fat” and hourglass-shaped. Fat is just what it says, FAT. Hourglass is the best shape to have according to ALOT of people. Even girls that are super skinny or thin and straight wish they had that body type. Losing or gaining weight usually distributes through the body evenly, so there’s a plus side. Everyone has their preferences, some guys like stick skinny girls. They aren’t “jerks” because of it, that’s just what they like and you can’t blame someone for having an opinion or liking what they like. Some guys like hourglass shaped, some like really super chunky girls, some like big booties with small boobs, some like big boobs with small booties, some like big boobs and bog booties, some like small boobs with small booties. EVERYONE has a different perference. Just like pizza, everyone has their own favourite topping. some like pepperoni and cheese, some like meat-lovers, some like just cheese, some like pinapple pizza, some like taco pizza, fish pizza, spicy pizza, sausage pizza. Just like pizza, there are MANY different types of body types. Not all guys like just stick skinny girls. You may feel like that because guys always like your friend. But maybe that’s because you don’t seem confident. In a study, 94% of guys would date a girl that didn’t fit in with their preference if she had good confidence. Confidence makes a huge difference in how people see you. HUGE difference. I didn’t really believe it when i had low self-esteem but when i gained confidence, everything else just felt better, happier, and guys noticed it too. Guys liked me way better because I liked myself and just radiated confidence and positiveness. Instead of being “crushed” by a crush, I’m actually doing the heartbreaking, lol. it’s not fun but it’s better than being the one with the broken heart. When i was 16 i HATED my body and just felt ugly. I wasn’t fat, but because i wasn’t a stick-skinny girl like my friends I just thought no guy would like me. But that is SO not true and i wish i had known that back then. If you present yourself in a way that says “Yeah, I got curves….SO WHAT?” or “Yeah i’m gorgeous, i already know” (lol) then others will accept you. But how can you expect others to accept you when you don’t accept yourself? understand what i mean? There are guys that like you, and if you don’t know it or they don’t show it, it could be because they sense you aren’t comfortable with yourself, they see that you aren’t confident, or they just think that you are so beautiful they are nervous and feel inferior to you! Whatever reason it is, here is a quick fix: Make a move. I don’t mean running to a guy and jumping in his arms and shoving your tongue down his throat like in the movies. But showing interest in him, or ask to hang out with him sometime, eat lunch with him, get his number and text him. Just walk around like “Dang, I look so good, i look SO hottt. ANy guy would be lucky to have me.” because that is so true. Guys liking you has absolutely NO relation to your body. Like i said, many guys like your body type. You just have to have confidence and believe in yourself. Now when you read this message you can say, “this crazy chick DOES NOT know what she is talking about, i don’t believe a word of this.” Or you could take all of this advice and believe it. I used to be extremely shy and have no self esteem, but it wook time and i worked up the nerve to get out my comfort zone and talk to people i hardly talk to, complimenting people is a very great conversation starter. If you have a speech class, TAKE IT. I HAD to take it the begining of the school year actually the first semester this year and I dreaded it at first. But i loved it, and that also helped me become more social and more confident. Anyway, best wishes and I hope you learned something from this.
I really appreciated these comments, and this subject is a hard one to chose a side for (if there are sides, really). Self esteem is what we need here, instead of placing blames wherever we can, family, school, corporations…
And that last comment ruined this discussion for me. How often do you have interesting debates over these issues with out someone complaining about not being a “haawtie”. If you want to be popular, how ’bout some work on the personality, learn a skill. Work on your grammar.
That is all…
look… i’m really sorry about ruining discussion.i’m really sorry for posting my opinion, i’m just a stupid kid who shouldn’t even think to write here… blabla… BUT i’m really pis*ed off about thing you said about my grammar. Look, i’m 15, i’m from a small european country and i’m learning english only for a couple of years. I’m wondering how you’d speak my language then! :/
I just want to say you’re not ruining the discussion – you’re contributing to it. I appreciate your honesty and openness. We are all struggling to accept ourselves, whatever our appearance or abilities. We live in a culture where we are encouraged to be constantly dissatisfied with ourselves; advertising is constantly sending us messages that we need something outside ourselves (clothing, boyfriend, jewellery, etc.) to be “good enough”. Don’t believe the hype!
@Ayrlyn- That’s because women hear men say they like curves (an hourglass) and interpret it to mean they like fat women. It’s just the kind of rhetoric that overweight woman use to try and make themselves feel more attractive than they are.
As far as a cosmetic standpoint goes, there is a simple logic behind the idealized standard of thinness. For most of our existence on the earth it was hard to get food. First, we had to catch or grow it individually, which made it scarce, and later the vast majority fell into a poor, working class which kept them in poverty where they couldn’t afford much. Larger women were a sign of someone being upper class. With the creation of the middle class about 50 years ago that began to change as more people had access to luxuries like an abundance of cheap food. This meant that the larger shape was no longer idealized, because everyone started to look that way. The coveted shape is generally the one that is rare and hard to obtain. It’s not rocket science.
As far as health is concerned, the fat apologists talk endlessly about how unhealthy it is to be thin. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The bottom line is that people who are underweight live longer and are healthier than people who eat average diets. It basically keeps your body in sustained survival mode which makes you more immune to diseases and keeps your body degenerating at a much slower rate, meaning a much longer life. So as long as you are not malnourished, and eating a balanced but small diet, it is very healthy to be underweight. Here is a recent study, but there are many.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/10/science/10aging.html
Now that is just compared to someone of average weight. An overweight person not only misses out on those benefits but has an even shorter lifespan because of strain on the organs, higher blood pressure, and pressure on the bones and joints.
So as much as the apologists would love for the world to think that it is both attractive and healthy to be unable to keep a healthy weight, it is just simply not.
I love you! this person is completely right. Last year I read about micro diets( which mean small, but balanced food intake) and the studies I read suggested that this is in fact the healthiest way to live because everytime you eat the break down of that food causes free radicals to release into your body, and damage your cells, much like the sun does to you skin. If one gets adequate nutrition which requires far less calories than most Americans would like to believe, then they would be healthier and live longer.
I’m 5′6″, 95 pounds, very very healthy.
Just throwing that out there.
come on, thats bit easy to put Twigy next to a holocost victim…
and I’m very sorry, but this brazilian Model looks quit healthy to me.
This article is sad. Female anorexia is a serious problem but to compare models today with victims of the holocaust is discussing. I would hope that the person posting this would get a grip with reality and realize most women/models eat more healthy than 99% of America. Seriously, what would you prefer to see a healthy women or a 200 pound cow?
Beauties like Paulina Poriskova (Cosmo cover) and Giselle Bundchen (Harper’s cover) are healthy, for their height and frame. These are not women with collarbones you could use in the deli for slicing salami. THOSE women are scary, and it would take a pronouncement from the Mayo Clinic to convince me that they’re healthy. I don’t believe that obesity is beautiful, don’t get me wrong, but the POW look is just as scary to me.
Marilyn Monroe had a fabulous body, and as another small woman with an hourglass figure that shape is actually something I have some hope of achieving.
There is a beautiful size for all shapes, and I’m betting that “healthy” is really the key. Somehow we need to instill in the young people today the idea that there is not a one-size-fits-all for beauty (or sex appeal, for that matter).
marylin was a beautiful example of a woman. not stick thin but not fat. every time I see a super thin model I think of her size and how absolutely gorgeous she was. even if she wasn’t a size zero.
I dont think anyone could be 5′6″ and 95lbs without clearly having a disorder. I’m 5′5″ and 112lbs and I’m really thin naturally. People think I have an eating disorder at that weight. :S If I was 95lbs I think I’d be dead….
People like to put out that the Monroe was a size 14 or something. That is not at all correct. She wasn’t even an 8 like this story claims.
Her dress maker says she was between 35-22-35 and 37-23-36. Going from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_standard_clothing_size and removing the bust size (because those dress sizes assume an average bust) Moore would be a size 2 or 4 at most.
Her BMI was 19.3 which puts her at the low end of normal. She was 5′ 5.5″ and 118 pounds. That’s a slim women by any messure.
if you look at the model on the Bazaar magazine and the model on right below her, the only real difference is the top model is standing confidently and she’s oiled up. that’s sick. It’s freakish how they can make someone who’s actually much too skinny to be attractive, look like someone desirable.
Um, don’t compare fashion models to pictures of Holocaust victims. Inappropriate, insensitive, immature and offensive, kthx.