The circumstances and influences that helped English evolve
Ancient Greek thinkers pondered a lot on beauty, but more so regarding the athletic male physique—to the point where men faced a much higher standard of beauty than women. Ancient statues, however, show us artists' idealized form for women, which featured significant hips, full breasts, and a tummy.
The Chinese idealization of things like a slim waist, pale skin, large eyes, and small feet are lasting man-made ideals of beauty that have origins in the Han dynasty (202 BCE–220 CE). This idea of ultra-femininity has also been linked with long black hair, white teeth, and red lips.
The medieval era was strangely specific with its ideals for women. It reportedly favored a high, bulbous forehead; thin, plucked eyebrows; small teeth; a long neck; narrow chest; low, sloping shoulders; a high small waist; and a prominent belly that protruded slightly.
When Queen Elizabeth was crowned in 1558, she brought with her an emphasis on women’s faces. Though makeup had previously been seen as "an incarnation of Satan," reports one Harvard study, the 25-year-old queen’s thick coat of white lead-based powder and her signature red lip soon became a symbol of class. The paler, the better—which was also convenient because poor people were the ones who had to work outside while the wealthy could flaunt their privileged paleness from staying inside.
From 1400-1700 especially, it was regarded as a wife’s duty to reflect her husband’s status in both behavior and appearance. A full body with an ample bosom, rounded stomach, full hips, and light hair and skin were seen as the feminine ideal of the upper class.
But the ideal body shape paradoxically remained full-figured, and cinch-waisted. How did these weak women manage? The emphasis fell on understructure, with bell-shaped skirts growing wider, and tight-fitting undergarments to give the impression of an hourglass figure. Corsets became very popular from the Renaissance into the 20th century to help accentuate, and sometimes even create, a woman’s curves by bringing her waist in and supporting her bosom.
Things really started to change in this era, as women’s positions in society also changed. After joining the workforce during WWI, they started expressing a new agency and ultimately ditched the piled-up hair and corsets. The curvy image of fertility and lust fell out of fashion, and instead a more androgynous look was introduced.
Paleness still had its grip on the standard of beauty when Queen Victoria was crowned in 1837, but it now included frailty and weakness—akin to heroin-chic, but more tuberculosis-chic. According to researcher Alexis Karl, "Consumptives were thought to be very beautiful." It helped that the makeup of the time contained incredibly dangerous materials that were poisoning women and thus helped them look weak.
A large bust was preferred, and though softness and roundness were still evident, the trend towards being thin was already beginning. Though the Gibson girl wasn't real, Evelyn Nesbit, considered to be the world's first supermodel, was the closest match. Like the Renaissance, this supposed feminine ideal was yet another case of a standard of beauty invented by a man's drawing as opposed to a real woman.
In the 1890s, illustrator Charles Gibson’s drawings of what a beautiful woman looked like featured in popular magazines and posters, and soon became sought-after in real life. The “Gibson Girl” was a tall, slim-waisted, yet voluptuous woman who was pale but not powdered. She wore a tight corset, but her dresses showed off her figure, though with a bustle adding volume at the back.
Flappers introduced a total change in both fashion and body type. Along with a taste of men’s power, they had more boyish bodies—being thin with a flat chest and a downplayed waist became the rage instead. Women went so far as to wear bras that flattened their chests and dresses that fell straight to hide their curves, and they started chopping off their hair to cropped, short cuts.
The '20s ended poorly and in the Great Depression most women weren’t able to worry about being skinny or having the right clothes. Due to rationing for WWII, women often reworked men’s suits and thus adopted padded shoulders and a sharp hourglass silhouette. The boyish figure also didn’t last, since no one wanted to look like they were starving. But a voluptuous figure remained unrealistic in a time of food rations.
Marilyn Monroe became the image of the ideal woman’s body: with curves, an hourglass figure, sizeable breasts, and a slim waist. It’s interesting to note that many people of today view the sex symbols of the ‘50s and ‘60s as “plus-sized,” but while they might be heavier than today’s models, those Golden Girls of Hollywood were still very thin—they just had breasts and hips.
The curves went back out again as young people started rebelling against older ideas of womanhood. British fashion model Twiggy became one of the first international supermodels and an icon of the ‘60s, glamorizing yet again the long, thin, willowy, adolescent physique for women. While it was a symbolic shift away from corsets and pin-up girls, it was yet another fallacy of freedom for women’s bodies.
During the noughties, the harmful effects of the past century’s increasing fixation on weight and thinness began to take its toll on younger demographics. Children as young as four or five reportedly began showing lack of confidence, and adolescents became the peak demographic for eating disorders. The media also began discussing and vilifying obesity, so attention was hyper-focused on weight.
But when it seemed like the ideal body was as thin as it could get, the ‘90s brought with it British model Kate Moss. The “heroin chic" look became popular, glamorizing extremely thin, waifish bodies with pale skin. It was by far the thinnest feminine ideal in history. In this decade, anorexia nervosa was associated with the highest rate of mortality among all mental disorders, CNN found in a study in Current Psychiatry Reports.
There’s also an enormous emphasis on face, which has been growing since the Golden Age of Hollywood. Today, it typically includes a small, straight nose, big cat eyes, prominent cheekbones, huge lips, and a “no-makeup makeup” look, which tries to give the contouring effect one might have achieved on Photoshop in the 2000s, but now without Photoshop. The makeup and plastic surgery industries have never been as lucrative as they are today, with top models like Bella Hadid even admitting to plastic surgery.
While it seemed like a new era for freedom, what with hemlines going up to allow women to move and have fun, there was a dark side that came with it. It was during this time that full-length mirrors and bathroom scales became available to the general public at affordable prices for the first time, which kicked off a new level of women’s scrutiny against their own bodies. The roaring ‘20s ignited a roaring obsession with women's bodies, and studies say that this was the era when eating disorders started taking over, CNN reports.
Wanting to move away from the strict modesty and religion of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance artists in 1300-1500 started painting women with naked breasts, symbolizing a mixture of fertility and sensuality. Botticelli’s ‘The Birth of Venus’ depicts the goddess of love and beauty—the 'ideal' woman—looking natural, curvy, pale but with slightly flushed cheeks, and with a soft, round face. Many artists of the time, notably Raphael, admitted they painted their imaginings of a beautiful woman instead of an actual woman, and women thus became not only objects of fertility, but also lust and beauty.
Some of the earliest known representations of a woman’s body are the “Venus figurines,” dating back 23,000 to 25,000 years ago in Europe. The Venus of Willendorf is thought to represent fertility or attractiveness, and she’s round, pear-shaped, with large breasts, and zero emphasis on what her face looks like.
Makeup, which had been worn by both men and women, fell out of fashion after the French rebelled against the aristocracy and its artifice. After the revolution, however, the art of applying makeup was adopted by coquettes as a kind of performance for men, and that kicked off the association of a woman’s looks and sexiness as her greatest virtue, and also designated makeup as something only women wore.
Post-war society brought with it celebration and new wealth, and this era of indulgence led to a slightly fuller figure gaining popularity. The hourglass figure, including a large bust, became highly sought-after.
The revolutionary spirit still in the air, the ‘70s saw greater freedom for women, but skinny remained the ideal. Farrah Fawcett may have had a larger bust than Twiggy, but she was still petite. Long hair also became more desirable again, and makeup leaned toward creating a more “natural” look.
With the '80s came the Supermodel era, where the 'perfect' woman was still tall and thin, but she was also now tan and athletic. Ideal hip size got smaller, though large breasts remained lusted after, so there was some mixture of curvy, long, thin, and toned.
Women’s trends became more influenced by models like Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell than actors, and it brought on a huge exercise craze including many workout videos. It’s also when medical studies note there was a drastic increase in eating disorders again.
Brazilian butt lifts, nose jobs, shapewear, social media face filters, Botox, photo-editing apps, contour kits, waist trainers, and so much more have become the norm to 'help' women achieve the perfect body and stay young-looking. At the same time, we’re seeing the body positivity movement grow to unprecedented heights, making room for both modified and natural bodies. But the fact remains: no one body has ever or will ever be 'ideal' forever.
Sources: (CNN) (The List) (Enchanted Living Magazine) (Science of People)
Beginning in the 2010s alongside the rise of social media, there has been a shift toward celebrating diverse body types in the media and in fashion. Many experts believe that social media gave diverse body types a platform for user-generated representation, and while social media has of course also been the cause for many eating disorders, it’s certainly where the body positivity movement flourished. Model Ashley Graham was reportedly the first "plus-size" model to ever appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in 2016, and then Vogue in 2017.
While the skinny obsession hasn’t loosened its grip on women, it began to morph with other, newer body standards (often taking from Black communities as things like hip hop became the dominant pop culture). Main features include big breasts, a flat stomach, a tiny waist, a large butt, and, most confoundingly, a thigh gap. The Kardashians, people with access to numerous procedures, trainers, and professionals, have become the poster women of postmodern beauty standards (and cultural appropriation).
With the immense amount of pressure people face in terms of achieving the 'perfect body,' it’s easy to forget that these seemingly concrete standards of beauty are actually anything but.
While diet culture, plastic surgeons, and celebrities are busy trying to convince you that your body is anything less than perfect, they also miss the fact that our ideas of beauty are completely ephemeral, and have changed not only within our own personal timelines, but also massively across the history of humanity.
Intrigued? Click through to see for yourself how women’s 'ideal' body type has changed throughout history.
The era when your body was the ideal shape
Proof that the "ideal body" does not actually exist
LIFESTYLE Body positivity
With the immense amount of pressure people face in terms of achieving the 'perfect body,' it’s easy to forget that these seemingly concrete standards of beauty are actually anything but.
While diet culture, plastic surgeons, and celebrities are busy trying to convince you that your body is anything less than perfect, they also miss the fact that our ideas of beauty are completely ephemeral, and have changed not only within our own personal timelines, but also massively across the history of humanity.
Intrigued? Click through to see for yourself how women’s 'ideal' body type has changed throughout history.