Beauty: Female aesthetics through the years 7 February 2007
Posted by pcNielsen in Aesthetics, Beauty, Feminine aesthetics, Modern culture.trackback
While paging through old issues of Azusa Pacific’s student newspaper, The Clause, I found an article titled Beauty Uncovered: The price women pay to look good. The piece — which doesn’t appear to be available in the paper’s archives — talks about the changing idea of the feminine ideal through the years. It includes this timeline:
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1700s: The pear
- Necessity of field work makes a large, muscular physique ideal.
- Eyebrows are shaven and replaced with press-on mouse-skin brows.
- The average woman is a mother of eight; large hips are sign of fertility.
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Early 1800s: The rectangle
- “Corset Mecaniques” make corsets more user-friendly.
- Indoor lifestyle makes women pale and frail.
- Small feet and rosebud lips accompany prim and reserved personality.
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Mid 1800s: The bell
- Ideal woman is curvy with big hips.
- Corset becomes controversial because of restrictiveness.
- Clothing sizes are developed.
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Late 1800s: The hourglass
- Beauty culture develops in the U.S.; first notions of mass-produced beauty.
- Through early 1900s women have small waists and large updos.
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Early 1900’s: The thin rectangle
- The average woman is 5′ 2″ tall and weighs 129 pounds.
- The brassiere is patented in 1913.
- In the 1920s women bind their breasts to gain more boyish figure.
- “Flappers” show skin and women become more self-conscious.
- Shaven armpits become popular.
- Comfort and freedom are priorities; bobbed hairstyle popular.
- First Miss America pageant is held in 1921.
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Mid 1900s: The hourglass
- Marilyn Monroe embodies the ideal figure.
- Pin-up girls make large breasts popular.
- Large hips come back in style with the baby boom of the 1950s.
- Shaven legs become popular, sometimes by use of sandpaper.
- First official weight-loss drug approved by FDA in 1959.
- The ideal thins out again in the 1970s, repeating trend of the 1920s.
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1980s: Muscular and toned
- Death of Karen Carpenter raises awareness of eating disorders.
- Excercise tapes become the new trend.
- Muscular woman is prominent but boyish figure is popular and voluptuous curves gain popularity.
The article was written by Jennifer Miller.
THANK YOU. THANK YOU! I was writing a paper on womens shapes and sizes throughout the years and you have NO IDEA how helpful this was. thank you again for taking the time to write such a thing!
xoxo
Morgan
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Great! Writing an aritcle on beauty throughout the ages, wonderful info to include.
woopee!!!! I have found an excellent source of information thanks to you guys! I am creating a game for me and my boyfriend to play involving facts about the popular shapes of women’s bodies!!! Now I can beat the stupid idiot!
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thanks so much for this, helped a lot when i was doing some work on the topic
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