The History of Body Image
In today's generation, women are living in a time period when "ultra thin" bodies are in. Women read and hear through the media, the latest diet and exercise tips with models and celebrities, who swear by this diet and/or exercise. However, there was a time where "ultra thin" women weren't considered the ideal body image. In fact, history itself shows the changes throughout time.
Renaissance Era
During the Renaissance period (from the early 1400s to the early 16th century), the ideal body image for women was more coluptuous than any other time in history. Many paintings depict women who likely would be considered overweight by today's standards. Furthermore, the term "Blondes have more fun," was believed that the lighter the hair color, the better. As far as makeup goes, pale ivory skin was considered to be sexy and vermillion was used to tint their lips to a deep red color. The love of larger women soon disappeared during the Victorian Era, who paid attention to the danity, femenine look.
Victorian Era (1800s)
At this point of time, Victorian women were highly body conscious. Their definition of sexiness was having the smallest waistline, and in order to achieve this look, women wore corsets. The problem was women wound their corsets so tight that women could hardly breathe; to the point where sitting down was completely out of the question (HINT: some women broke ribs). Layered petticoats, hoops, and bustles also became popular as they emphasized the derriere. Victorians wanted to define the daintiness of women, while the 1920s showed women as strong individuals with more fashion sense and defied to normal social norm as women.
Roaring 20s (1920s)
A new breed of women came to light: Flappers. Women aimed to hide their curves. They would bind their chest with strips of cloth to achieve a boyish look, wear clothes that had a loose silhouette, and eventually replaced the corsets with the webbed girdles that gave off the look of a flat abdomen. Makeup also played a major role (lipstick, blush and mascara became popular) in the self conscious body image. After the Wall Street Crash followed by the Great Depression the look and behavior of the Flapper was looked down upon.
Hollywood's Golden Age (1930s & 1940s)
After WWII, technology started changing the way beauty was perceived: bathrooms with electric lights and mirrors highlighted concerns about acne and formerly overlooked details (So now we can see every wrinkle and blemishes on our faces) (Eco, 2004). At this point, women start to pay attention to what they eat and start exercising to bulid muscle tone. With fashion desigeners such as Chanel (the originator of the "little black dress") they focused on well-defined arms and legs. Soft curls, soft skin, and elegant pearls shaped the Hollywood's Golden Age and continues to this day.
Conservative Fifties (1950s)
The soft curls and pearls still stayed trendy in the fifties, but now women's body shape that was most desired was the hourglass. The fifties wanted the delicate waist of the Victorian woman and the voluptuous bust and derriere of Renaissance woman. Who wouldn't want to be like Marylin Monroe or Grace Kelly? Women were told that their primary goal was to catch a man and have a family, so they were taught to dress to allure, but rarely showed a great deal of skin. Rule number one was that women were never supposed to leave the house looking sloppy.
It is at this point of time that the role of women was identified. By this statement it is not implied that the role of women was never identified, but that the role of women was more vibrantly noticeable and the world paid attention. After the fifties, the women wanted to break out of their shell of conservatory and change dramatically.
Hippies & Mod (1960s)
Hip, short for hippies, was a subculture that was more of a youth movement. The ideal image of the ‘60s was slenderness. If you were a slim woman, you were viewed as attractive. Underweight women became the ideal image for models and actresses after skinny British model Twiggy was introduced in America. Now, the media is adding influence to women and their body image. Women were advertised as sex objects to appeal to the interest of men in advertisements for products such as beer (Eco, 2004). Playboy also began to objectify skinnier women; their standards changed with what became popular for the time to maintain interest of buyers. Fake eyelashes, high boots and pixie haircuts were beauty accessories that were traded for an era that would never die.
Disco Era (1970s)
Maintaining the 60s ideal of women's body, the disco fever spread to the fashion trends. Some women began to embrace a more natural look and also taking control of their own bodies to become skinnier and healthier. In addition to being thin, there is a greater emphasis on toning the body to look fit. Black women were taught to embrace their curly hair and curvier bodies, in contrast to the ideal image of a white woman.
The second-wave feminist movement, women began joining the work force (Eco, 2004). Most women were hard to picture out of the kitchen or being the domestic housewife that society stereotyped as the normative way of acting. The image of women began changing along with their always-changing body images and idealistic views. It is interesting to see how much women will go through to fit in and be accepted in society.
Material Girl (1980s)
Big hair, hairspray, football player sized shoulder pads, bushy eyebrows, and the song, She's a Maniac were the newest trends. An important criteria of a material girl was to exercise. Women were expected to maintain a certain weight without looking to muscular. With all these body stipulations, it’s no wonder that the prevalence of eating disorders skyrocketed throughout the decade. A famous singer, Karen Carpenter, died of heart failure due to complications of anorexia nervosa. Little was known about the disease, but her death led to the awareness of eating disorders. Over the top make-up, neon color clothing, and spandex were considered the essentials for the sexy toned material girl
Grungy Minimalist (1990s)
Thinness was taken to the extreme. In fact, the ideal body was called, heroin chic. Now, comparing a look to a drug that can have disaterous effects on an individual is absolutely ridiculous! The effects of heroin includes: Bad teeth, inflammation of the gums, weakening of the immune system, muscular weakness, partial paralysis, reduced sexual capacity and long-term impotence in men, menstrual disturbance in women, pustules on the face, loss of appetite, and insomnia, but yet, this was look that some women wanted. This body image was look upkept, but sexy, like Cindy Crawford. Still, clothing took a dramatic change, particularly, tops. The fact that it took less material, they were called mid-driff top. Exposing the tone stomach and possible belly piercing made the real idea of grungy minimislist.
Please note an interesting fact, the most popular haircut of the 90s was Rachel from the hit TV show, Friends. Don't know why, but it was.
The New Millennium (2000s) to the Present
The fashion color was silver and women have more choices than they did before. The only problem with this new millennium beauty was that it cost a lot of money. Now, before women had tools to help them maintain their body shape (i.e.: corsets and gridles). We come across a problem called change. Not changing women's personality, but their bodies. In this age, women can spend money to have a plastic surgeon take a black marker and point out their "flaws" and find out what they can do to change it. Women are still expected to live up to an impossibly thin body shape; especially with the media playing a HUGE role in women lives. We’re also seeing a re-emergence of almost every major fashion trend of decades past, from shoulder pads to cinched waists. We aren’t all copy-cats though, the emergence of super-low-rise jeans, Juicy sweatsuits, and trucker hats is unique to the early Aughts (and, thankfully, faded out soon after).
Flipping through the pages of a woman's magazine, there are entire sections devoted to diet and exercise tips as well as pictures of extremely thin models. Overall, the history of beauty has changed dramatically over the past hundreds of years. Society was able to accept larger women with a bust, hips, and bum, but it dwindle away by the time beauty got to today's generation. Ironically enough, women still try to take the idea of beauty from other time periods and try to make it their own. No matter what some women still have the hardest time trying to perceive their positive body image.