Renaissance Woman: Having some meat on your bones was a sign of wealth and beauty.
Lucienne D'Armoy: A famous European beauty in the late 1800's. Notice the well placed flowers.
Lillian Russell: One of the most famous actresses of the late 19th century - early 20th century. Known for her beauty and style as much as her acting and singing.
Here are some of Charles Gibson's creations going for a swim. Gibson girls were all the rage in the early 1900's. These girls put Lillian Russell out of business.
Camille Clifford: A stage actress who was considered the closest living version of the Gibson girl. She is modeling a style called the wasp waist which is a silhouette created by a corset and girdle, producing the much sought after 18 inch waist. This style was also famous for it's ability to cause deformed ribs, weakened abdominal muscles, deformed and dislocated organs, and respiratory aliments, not to mention ruined reproductive organs that resulted in miscarriages and maternal deaths. Good thing we don't have to wear corsets anymore. Now we just have to somehow achieve an 18 inch waist without them.
Theda Bara: First "vamp" of the silver screen during the early 1900's. Isn't she scandalise?
A typical flapper of the 1920's.
Clara Bow: A famous actress of the silver screen in the 1920's. Getting thinner.
Mae West : Screen star and sex symbol of the 1930's. So curvaceous!
And then came Marilyn Monroe.....need I say more?
Sophia Loren: The Italian Siren.
Twiggy: Famous model of the 70's who is very appropriately named. Next to this girl, every one's fat!
Now for our contemporaries........
Jennifer Aniston: Title character of Chapter 3
Nicole Kidman: Chanel No. 5 model
Kate Bosworth: New face for Calvin Klein
Kiera Knightly: One of our highest paid actresses and always being accused of being anorexic.
Jennifer, Nicole, Kate and Kiera. These are the women who's photos are in all the magazines as the standard of ultimate beauty today. No wonder everybody hates their bodies. Almost no one can look like these women.
SO....
The Dove girls: Part of a much needed campaign to show what real women look like. Love these girls!
Personally?? I'd rather be a Dove girl anyday of the week compared to the others. Others being the last 4 pictures we saw. Kiera Knightly? Gross!
ReplyDeleteYou know, Marilyn was a size 14. Look at her. We're used to what she looks like, and at first glance you think, "There's Marylin, she's beautiful." But then I looked at that swimsuit shot with a "contemporary" eye. Her thighs and stomach would be considered "fat," right? They look a lot like mine do in a swimsuit. (That's about my size!)
ReplyDeleteWhy do I think that I want to look like Nicole. Really? It is gross to look at. And since I've seen her heavier...I bet it's not her "ideal" weight, by any stretch of the imagination.
And it's not that being rail thin is bad. I just want to see a famous person that looks like me, as well as the thinner ones.
Unfortunately, since the media isn't likely to change...and a "Marilyn-esque" lady isn't likely to emerge...I must change my own perception...that's easier said than done!!
(PS: Is is just me....or is Mae West's dress kinda...wah hoo? Thank goodness for strategically placed dense lace sections!)
I find it very odd that girls seem to think it's ok to be rude and insulting about thin women but not about bigger ones. Why is it fine to say that Keira or Nicole are 'gross' even though you clearly don't think it's fine to say Lucienne Darmoy looks fat? As The Garners says, being rail thin is not somehow bad.
ReplyDeleteAs a girl who is naturally thin, to be honest I find it rather offensive and irritating that many girls seem to think that it's perfectly fine to be insulting about thin girls. It's not as if we constantly go round preening and smug in our thinness, I certainly feel insecure about my body at times. One girl told me without blinking an eyelid that men 'preferred women who aren't really thin' to my face without seemingly realising she was being grossly offensive. The same girl would probably not dream of telling some girl that she was too fat to be attractive to any man.
I can see the wish to denigrate thinness to counteract the pressure to be thin but it would be a lot healthier to say that many different sizes can be beautiful and this should be embraced. (Within reason - of course if one is dangerously thin or dangerously obese, this should not be "embraced" but something ought to be done about it.)