Imaging of Body

In reaction to a comment that was made on my last post I wanted to address the idea of the body and the image of them through the ages.

It does not matter who you are there is some part of your body that you rather give back to your parents than keep. For me, its my tummy. I know I've heard some weird ones before like eyebrows, finger nails and once I even heard someone complain about the skin on their elbows. This need to criticize who we are is a socially constructed problem that we will forever have to face. However, when it comes to bodies what makes us attractive?

When it comes to women we look towards the skinny, well endowed women of the time that are plastered and plastic all over the place. When did this change and why?  Before a certain point in time women who had more meat were seen as more beautiful due to the fact that they could afford to eat more. We didn't have this instant thought of anyone being obese. That word wasn't even in our vocabulary. Yes, times have changed, fast food has become dominant and there are people who need to put down the fries and pick up the salad but! anyone who doesn't look like a pencil is not instantly fat.
 I came across this book called, Fat History: Bodies and Beauty in the Modern West written by Peter  Stearns. He has decided that the shift in wanting plump women to thin was in the twenty years of 1890 to 1910. In the article that was talking about this book there was a collection of images of exotic dancers that were at the beginning of this time shift. Exotic dancer meaning "

Noun

1.

exotic dancer - a performer who provides erotic entertainment by undressing to music"

According to Dictionary.com. The picture and all...I just thought that was funny.
So these women were found gorgeous, desirable and sexy. Want to know what they looked like?

 

Exotic Dancer Article 

 

They look average! If not even "overweight" by our standards of today. Writing this blog has made me come to the realization that I was simply just born in the wrong era. These women are plump, voluptuous, curvy, and hour glass to the max. This was seen as gorgeous, if not stunning to have this shape that just happened to be associated with being healthy and ready to reproduce.

My mother would say that they have baby-bearing hips.

I remember being told that I had them when I was younger and was completely ashamed at that and honestly, I still am. I take it as an insult but why is that?

So I went searching and came across this article from the Telegraph that found articles that looked into the question of what shape was desired. The thing is, breasts, waist and thighs are the body parts that men look at the most. This is where the beauty aspect comes from.

(I'm about to get descriptive here just to make a point)

The article expresses that breast size was not what was wanted. The round shape was what turned guys on, or made them see them as beautiful. Round=Young, healthy, and ready to have babies. Al Green's 'Let's get it on' played in my head as a read this. Waists were all described over the ages and in different cultures as desired as small. Again, this is because they were healthy. The need for men to want to pass their genes on to healthy bouncing babies is what makes this figure even more desirable.

"An hourglass shape in women is associated with relatively high levels of the hormone oestrogen."

"The author William Shenstone (1714–1763) put it more poetically: "Health is beauty, and the most perfect health is the most perfect beauty.""
-By Roger Highfield Science Editor < Here is the link.


This doesn't answer my question in the least. So healthy women, who look as if they are capable of having healthy babies is what has been seen as beautiful for ages all over the world. HEALTHY! If you take care of yourself you should be seen as beautiful. The idea that we have to starve ourselves, workout every and still wear spanks is not what we should see as gorgeous. You are beautiful because you are taking care of yourself. From skin, to hair, to your body. Who cares if you have a little stomach?

I remember walking through museums and art galleries and seeing Aphrodite for the first time. The goddess of beauty and how she was portrayed.

In every single image she has a little tummy, larger thighs and different sizes of breasts in all different periods and cultures. She was still seen as beautiful because she was healthy. She is the god of freaking beauty. SO! I went on to look at the body ratio that most sculptures have to compare.

The Golden ratio.

Then I decided to keep that for my next post. Numbers usually hate me until now.
You will find out why next time!

However,the next time you look in the mirror just smile and say," Daaaaaaaang! I look healthy today." Then walk out that door and show off what your Momma gave ya because you are beautiful.