I’m constantly
hearing women talk in depth about the parts of their bodies they don’t
like.
I’ve heard women criticize themselves
over things that I didn’t even know you could be insecure about, like the shape
of their nail beds, or having “asymmetrical lips”, or the dimples on the small
of their backs (or lack thereof). The things some people consider to be
beautiful, others see as mere flaws, and this is nothing new. Humankind’s
beauty standards have always changed from decade to decade and from country to
country.
Some of us are convinced that we are
just objectively unattractive when in reality, beauty is completely relative.
Just because we were born into a time where our physical traits weren’t in
fashion doesn’t mean that we are any less beautiful than those women who were
lucky enough to be born during a time where their appearance is in favor.
Almost every woman alive today would have fit the mold of the “ideal” woman
during one era or another.
As I wrote this post, I had each and
every woman I’ve ever worked with in mind; not only do I truly think all women
are beautiful in their own unique ways, but I also think that the things we
dislike about ourselves are often the things that make us beautiful in someone
else’s eyes.
1550 BCE
Women and men in ancient
Egypt were in many ways seen as equals, but not when it came to beauty. While
men were expected to have a reddish-brown skin tone, a woman’s complexion would
ideally be more of a light golden tan. Men were expected to have angular bodies
with broad shoulders, and a desirable woman’s body was more soft and rounded. A
pronounced stomach and a plump, slightly sagging butt were nothing to be
ashamed of, in fact, they were greatly admired
300 BCE
800 AD
Vikings sometimes get a bad
wrap, being labeled as brutal savages who did nothing but pillage, murder, and
rape. But, when you compare their way of life with the cultural norms of the
rest of the Western world at the time, they were actually much more civilized
than people realize. Unlike the other settlements and countries throughout the
rest of Europe, women in Scandinavia had many rights; the right to own land,
the right to request a divorce, and the right to join the men on raids.
Additionally, the Vikings valued personal care more than most peoples of the
time. While most Europeans of the era never bathed a day in their lives, Viking
women often bathed as frequently as once a week, taking exceptional pride in
maintaining long, shiny hair. Women were admired for having bright white arms,
which, again, may have been due to their “obsession” with appearing to be as
clean as possible, since most cultures at the time viewed dark skin as a sign
of poverty or poor hygiene.
1400
During the Renaissance,
large foreheads were thought to be a sign of great beauty, and although blonde
hair was all the rage, women would often pluck their hairlines back and thin
their eyebrows in order to make their foreheads appear larger. Pear-shaped
women were thought to be the most beautiful; women were proud of their curvy
hips and thighs, but would flatten their chests with tightly bound corsets.
1790
Queen Louise of Prussia,
pictured above, was widely considered to be the most beautiful woman in Europe
during the Georgian era. During the 1700’s and early 1800’s, “beauty” was
synonymous with “proportion”. A conventionally beautiful woman was neither too
tall nor too short, neither “too thin” nor “too plump”, with a long neck, large
breasts, and a tapered waist. Much like in ancient Greece, a prominent nose and
small lips were considered to be very beautiful, as was a round face with a
slight double chin.
1880
During the Victorian Era,
men wanted women who fit the role of the “damsel in distress”; women who needed
to rely on strong men to protect them. Because of this, women were expected to
be feminine, delicate, and even sickly. During the 1880s, women desired an
“s-shaped” silhouette, and in addition to tight corsets that accentuated the
waist and lifted the breasts, women wore dresses with layers upon layers of
ruffles that gave the illusion of a larger, more exaggerated butt. Due to their
incredibly tight corsets, it was often difficult for women to breathe, which
made fainting spells a common occurrence. This contributed to the perpetuation
of the idea that frailty was a trait of beautiful women. Few women wore makeup,
and those who did usually only wore rouge and eyeliner, which also contributed
to that look of emaciation and illness that was considered to be attractive.
1920
In
contrast with the femininity that was expected of women in the Victorian era,
androgeny was all the rage during the 1920s. For the first time in hundreds of
years, women were ditching their corsets, which were too restrictive for the
active lifestyle of this new generation of wild, rule-breaking women. Curves
were no longer in vogue; women aimed to maintain a slender figure and wore loose,
shapeless dresses that understated and hid any natural curves. Some “radical”
women began wearing pants (several of whom were arrested for “cross-dressing”).
In another act of rebellion, women began cutting their hair short, which was
shocking and offensive to both men and women of older generations. Keep in
mind, despite the fact that women had just won the right to vote, many people
still felt that women were the inferior sex and that they could never be seen
as equals to men. Because of this, there was an underlying societal pressure
for women to prove that they were just as capable and intelligent as men, often
by downplaying the qualities that made them conventionally feminine, and this
heavily influenced the beauty standards of the time.
1950
By the 1950s, the world had
changed in very dramatic ways. The Great Depression and World War Two had taken
a toll on the economy, forcing women in the 1940s to make due with
what they had. Because of rationing, women would use eyebrow pencils to draw
“seams” up the backs of their legs to make it look like they were wearing
nylons, and they began making alterations on men’s suits to repurpose them into
dresses (which led to the very popular trend of wearing padded shoulders). But
by the 50s, the economy was booming for the first time in decades. The beauty
industry took off like never before, providing fashionable dresses and
cosmetics at affordable prices to women of every class. The availability of
these products, amongst other factors, created a societal expectation for women
to “keep up appearances”, and always look their best. Full lips with bright red
lipstick were the new trend, as well as voluminous hairstyles. As women began
gaining a little more weight (due to the fact that food was no longer being rationed,
as it had been in the previous decade), the hourglass figure became the most
desirable shape, which brought about the repopularization of corsets.
Contrary to popular belief, “plus-sized” women were not the ideal of the time,
at least, not what we could consider today to be “plus-sized”. Women still
wanted thin arms and legs, as well as a tiny waist, but they also wanted large
breasts and round hips. By today’s standards, the ideal women in the 1950s were
still quite thin.
In recent years, we’ve made
leaps and bounds when it comes to expanding our ideas of what we consider to be
“beautiful”. For the first time ever, the media has begun representing women of
many different sizes, shapes, complexions, sexual orientations, etc. in their
advertising. We still have preconceptions that have been ingrained into our
cultural consciousness about who the most beautiful women are,
and we still have a long way to go when it comes to accepting that beauty comes
in many forms, but I’m optimistic about the coming years.
So, what
can we learn from this? When it comes to beauty, there is no set of rules. In
100, 200, 300 years from now, the physical qualities that our society glorifies
will fall out of fashion and traits that we typically think of as
“unattractive” will become the new gold standard. Our perception of beauty is
not based in fact, but rather, an ever-changing set of societal opinions that
ultimately mean nothing.
Whether
you feel that our culture affirms or denies this, you are beautiful. I
encourage you to show yourself a little love this week, whether it’s booking a
boudoir session, buying a new dress that makes you feel great about your body,
meditating, or whatever makes you feel like the best version of yourself.
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