Where did the 'ideal' body image for women even come from?

Hello everyone!

Welcome to the first official post on this blog! Today I am going to be discussing what does it mean for society to have an ideal body image for women and how it began.

Surprisingly, the female body has always been displayed as supposed to be looking a certain way- dating all the way back to 1908 when there was a statue called, "Venus of Willendorf" was created and deemed as a masterpiece and thus became the idealized body type for women during this time. The statue was created around the idea of women having a larger chest and a pear shaped body, this was seemingly to be more attractive to symbolize fertility in women. The statue is pictured here:

During the early 1900s and even pre-1900s women were supposed to be 'curvy' thus the creation of the corset kept their curves in place and would even change according to how society deciphered where the curves were 'supposed to be' on a woman.

DEA /G. DAGLI ORTI/De Agostini/Getty Images

There was then a shift from the 1920s-1950s - the change in ratio and shape to women's body types. This was a period of time where the idealized body image for a women was the thinnest its ever been. Women were supposed to be as slim as they could be to be seen attractive to a male. With the pressure of women feeling like they had to be thin there was a rise in eating disorders.

The image here portrays the slim stature of a flapper- and this is what women in this time felt they were supposed to look like.

Library of Congress "Where there's smoke there's fire" by American artist Russell Patterson dates to the 1920s. The full-length illustration depicts a fashionably dressed flapper with a slender body.

The body image ideal that women were supposed to be slim and slender went through the 1970s. During the 1960s-1970s there was word that the female body was 'freed' because birth control pills became approved and corsets were not apart of the fashion trends during the time but women were still being pressured to fit into the thin description the media portrayed a woman should look like. The most famous celebrities during this time were those who were very thin and slender- pressuring women to also look like that if they wanted any sort of fame or male attention.

This is an image of Lesley Lawson. She became a popular image for fashion magazines during this time- her nickname was 'twiggy'.

Ron Burton/Mirrorpix/Getty Images

During the 1980s-1990s the thin body image of women started to change into an athletic, toned body, versus a slender body image. There was still an emphasis on the thin body but it was okay to be seen as more athletic and toned. This originated from popular models of the time- Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell.

This was a popular image of supermodel Naomi Campbell during the year 1989, modeling that thin but toned ideal body image that women were starting to feel pressured to have.

Clive Limpkin/Daily Mail/REX/Shutterstock Supermodel Naomi Campbell walks the runway in 1989.

The early 2000s became a time where most self-confidence in women and their body was gone. A study came out that by the age of 7 young females were pressured into starting a diet just to ensure that they would fit the ideal slim body image that women were continuously supposed to have during this time.

From 2010-present there has been a shift in the ideal body image of a women. This change mostly occurred when Kim Kardashian was on her rise to fame and was in a way known for her large backside. This is when curves came back in and there was a more diverse range of the ideal body image women can have. This also has a lot to do with the rise of social media and a more diverse group of bodies are being displayed for everyone to see.

Source:

Howard, J. (2018, March 9). The ever-changing 'ideal' of female beauty. CNN. Retrieved March 10, 2022, from https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/07/health/body-image-history-of-beauty-explainer-intl/index.html