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
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