Tyler Jansma
11/28/2012
Human Communications
Dierberg
Feminism vs. Media: Who Decided Thin was In?
It has always been a man’s world. But man’s power over women has greatly diminished
in the past centuries. Women have earned the right to go to college, get a high paying job and
vote since the late 1800s, so the explicit sexism no longer exists, but now more than ever, women
are feeling extreme pressure to be perfect. But where is this pressure coming from? For
instance, men tend to prefer woman’s natural body type. “One cross-cultural survey comparing
body-mass preferences among 300 of the most thoroughly studied cultures in the world showed
that 81% of cultures preferred a female body size that in English would be described as
"plump",” (Brown, Peter J.). Media’s presence is so strong that since the 1960’s, women have
believed when they see fictional shows displaying extremely thin women, or advertisements that
they know are photo shopped, that that is the all-round perfect person they want to be, not the
naturally curvier, hourglass woman that most men prefer. Implied in this is the idea that what
women previously wanted most was to be what men wanted them to be. "Surmised is that
thinness is prized among women as a "sign of independence, strength and achievement,”
(Tierney, John). But what if women are no longer interested in what men consider aesthetically
pleasing and want to proclaim their own definition of beauty? Or, is media’s opinion is so
strongly embedded in our culture that whatever it pastes on billboards and across magazine
spreads women take without questioning as the most beautiful way to be, instead of looking right
in front of them at what the actual people around them consider beautiful. “Men and women
don't currently agree on the most attractive female body shape,” (Lassek, Will). Starting slowly
in the 1920’s, media and women have succumbed to one another’s ideals in in their quest for the
perfect female body and left men out of it; media takes a general sample of what society likes,
makes it more defined and extreme and declares it the best and only way to be.
Women have always had starring roles in media. But before and during the tender rise of
feminism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, men were the only benefactors of these
advertisements. Not only did men get to see beautiful women on posters, but these posters told
women what men wanted of them. They ate it right up. After all, women were born to be
housewives: to be seen and not heard. America’s businesses were booming and life was easy for
the wealthy; it was all about appearance, not substance. Media portrayal of women reflected as
well as aided this lifestyle. A prime example of this is an advertisement displayed in America in
1921 for Palmolive Soap that featured a good looking, wealthy couple, a bar of Palmolive Soap
and the words, “Would your husband marry you again?” The words reflect the mindset of
society of the time: marriage was of the utmost importance. This advertisement is directed at
women by basically telling them that they won’t be able to marry if they don’t have beautiful
skin while explicitly showing them what they should want to look like by having the visual
image of a beautiful married woman who obviously uses the product. However even though
both of these messages are directed at women, men are the ones profiting from the advertisement
because more women better their appearance for their sake. Women were completely dependent
on their families and then their husbands, but to get married, she needed be beautiful enough to
be proposed to. The more beautiful the woman, the wealthier a man that could be court her, the
ultimate goal.
Weight has been the most important aspect of beauty for women in the spotlight,
especially recently, although it has gone through major changes in terms of what society prefers
from the beginning of recorded history to now. In Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice, which was
published in 1813 and reflected the opinions of the time, Elizabeth Bennet was often told by her
four other sisters that she would be so beautiful if only she wasn’t so thin and boy-like. They
worried she wouldn’t be able to find a husband for herself because of her looks and low social
status. Caroline Bingley, a fellow albeit wealthier bachelorette, once described Elizabeth as, "Her
face is too thin; her complexion has no brilliancy; and her features are not at all handsome.” In a
time when men and women were on completely different levels of society, not only were they
expected to act differently, but look completely opposite as well. The women swooned over the
soldiers with their strong, broad shoulders while the men’s eyes wandered over the full figured
women.
These feminine, hourglass bodies are a woman’s natural body type. “Physical
attractiveness is a characteristic that suggests fertility and health. These factors contribute to the
probability of survival and reproduction for continuing life on Earth,” (Glassenberg, Aaron).
Men are naturally attracted to women with these bodies because of natural selection; more filled
out bodies meant they were well fed and therefore more likely to have a healthy pregnancy and
baby than a thinner, hungrier woman. The Venus de Milo, sculpted by Alexandros of Antioch
around 130-100 BC is believed to depict Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty, and
she is certainly more plump than the sex icons Megan Fox or Miranda Kerr that many women
are jealous of today. In fact, The Venus de Milo has a very similar body type to that of Marilyn
Monroe, the sex symbol of the 1950’s, one of the last widely sexualized ‘bigger’ women. “Up
until the late 1800's, the rubenesque woman dominated the ideal female body image. Until the
early 1900's, for a woman to have extra weight on her body and look voluptuous was a sign of
good health and wealth,” (Dissatisfaction with our Bodies and Eating Disorders, 2000). It is
much like the past idea that the paler one’s skin, the wealthier they were because it meant they
had more leisure time to spend inside because they did not have to spend it working outside in
the fields; darker skin was associated with the lower, working class. And like tan now connotes
leisure time to travel to exotic beaches and pale skin means stuck in a building working all day,
thin implies strong motivation and enough time not spent working to work out. The flip flop of
tanned versus white skin implications makes sense; there is much less agriculture in 1st world
countries now-a-days, which is seen as a blue collar, low hourly paying job, than there are white
collar, higher salaried jobs in the city, which allow for more spending on normal goods over
inferior goods.
So why is thin in? The main difference between what the media portrayed as beautiful
then versus now is a woman’s size; it also caters less to men and much more to women.
In the early 1900's, our culture saw a shift from this plump, voluptuous female
form to a thinner frame with less curves. The new female ideal of the 1920's was the thin,
short haired flapper. According to Featherstone (1982) consumer culture began to shape
the female body image through cosmetics, fashion, Hollywood, and advertisements.
People started dieting and sports became popular pastimes as exercise began to be viewed
as a healthy activity to enhance the body. According to Kendall (1999), "Thinness was
the new sign of wealth. (Dissatisfaction with our Bodies and Eating Disorders, 2000).
Free time, and therefore sports and exercise, can account for thinner women… to an
extent. When working out, one will notice immediately a bigger appetite because of the
increases in calorie use and consequent faster metabolism. So naturally one will eat more. This
will not normally result in significant weight loss. A more toned body, yes, but as long as the
body is being fed as it should it will maintain a normal amount of essential fats and a healthy
Body Mass Index (BMI, which for adult women should be between 18.5 to 24.9).
The slightly thinner flapper of the 1920’s was the beginning of women rebelling against
men’s ideals with their short hair, dresses and overall fashion becoming bit by bit more
masculine. Women’s fight for better working conditions and education reflected their fashion
changes towards sex equality. These flappers were entrepreneurs for women, and since the
media has always had a flair for the dramatic, it jumped on the band wagon. Knee length,
tasseled dresses and bobbed haircuts popped up everywhere on posters and on the streets.
Rebellion became trendy with the alcohol prohibition and flappers fit right in. They flaunted
their contempt for acceptable behavior of the time by indulging in and initiating casual sex,
drinking, smoking and driving cars, breaking sexual stereotypes like it was their job. In a way
they were like today’s hipsters; promoting a counter-culture mindset that is often considered
“Too ‘edgy’ for the culturally-sheltered mainstream consumer,” (Parasuco, Trey). Eventually
flappers, like the hipsters, became mainstream themselves. In Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s 2012
release, 21 Jumpstreet, Schmidt and Jenko (Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum’s characters,
respectively) enroll in the Police Academy after graduating high school. While in high school,
Jenko was considered one of the ‘popular kids’ by not caring and putting forth the minimum
effort, while Schmidt was an outcast for caring about his future and the others around him. They
become partners on the force and go on a case together posing as high school students. They are
surprised to find that the types of kids who were previously considered ‘nerds,’ are now the
majority and considered ‘cool.’ This new generation of kids were environmentally friendly and
cared about grades, qualities that would have made them outcasts years ago. This is a result of
the media’s influence. It takes what is edgy or unusual, twists it and then portrays it in a new
light that makes the broader consumer culture want it. The few original hipsters were scouring
second hand shops years ago. Today the hipster is mainstream. And so begins the cycle again of
deconstructing the newer cultural norms.
In 1939 World War II catapulted women’s independence forward. An abundance of men
were drafted leaving only women to go to school and take over in the factories. There was no
other option but for women to step up and adopt what were previously considered roles only men
could complete. Fashion as well as society’s mindset was forced to suddenly change to a much
less sexist form as it realized that women had no problem achieving what formerly men thought
were exclusive to themselves. Women were still not permitted to fight directly in the war,
although this may have been too large of a leap at the time anyway. Propaganda advertised the
idea that women were fighting their own war at home, being alone, as well as overseas as nurses.
In 1943, mid-war, J. Miller Howard’s famous “We Can Do It!” poster was published in America,
featuring a woman with her hair tied back, in a blue collared work-man’s shirt with the sleeves
rolled up flexing her muscles. This incredibly masculinized woman prompted women all over
America to stay strong while the war was being fought. Once again, the advertisements were for
a woman audience, but the benefactors were still the male populace.
After the war ended in 1945, life somewhat returned to normal. Men went back to work
and many women returned home. But life in America had altered more during the war than it
could return to. Women had had a taste of sexual equality and wanted to keep that. The media
pursued this idea because now the women of society, having been on their own, were strong
minded and savvy enough to make it happen. It was in 1966 when the first woman
unconsciously dropped the pin for what would become the new feminine ideal of a grenade that
would take over the world. Had this happened previously, it may not have spread so far and so
quickly but because by now the media was in so many forms, most of which were fast moving,
women all over the world saw something they had never thought to consider beautiful. Thin. At
age 17, Lesley Hornby was declared “The Face of 1966,” by the Daily Express. She had short
hair, was 5’6” and weighed 91lbs, putting her BMI at 14.7, drastically underweight (The World
Health Organization believes a BMI of 16 to be starvation). She was so unnaturally thin that she
was renamed by the media as ‘Twiggy.’ “"I wanted a fairy godmother to make me look like
Marilyn Monroe. I had no boobs, no hips, and I wanted it desperately,” Twiggy said in an
interview for The Associated Press in 2010 (The Associated Press, 2010). She was still in the
mindset that had forever been society’s, that curves were sexy. But it was quickly becoming the
past. Thin was the new edgy look that so few had, so what other choice did the media have but
to exploit that fact? It is the typical riddle of the chicken and the egg; which came first? Was
thin in because the media saw Twiggy and proclaimed her the new prototype? Or was this just
the next natural step women took after the flappers of the 1920’s? Twiggy was often referred to
as ‘waif-like,’ which has synonyms such as ‘castaway,’ ‘ragamuffin,’ or ‘stray,’ yet it became a
compliment. The trend that we still have today hit hard and fast. The Slumber Party Barbie was
released in 1965, as Twiggy’s fame and image were quickly rising.
Don't Eat," was the diet advice delivered in a mini-book bearing the fascinating
title How To Lose Weight, included with the Slumber Party Barbie released in 1965. As a
matter of fact, it was the only advice offered in the book… The doll was indeed available
across America from '65 to '66. Packaged with the book, this Barbie included PJs, curlers,
bobby pins, a brush, and a scale that was permanently set to 110 lbs, (Bell, Gabriel).
This puts Barbie at an unhealthy BMI of 16. From then on thin was the new beautiful.
Marilyn Monroe still held the eyes of men everywhere, but women started to turn away in
disgust of her ‘extra weight’ and consequently, themselves. The only difference between
Twiggy then and models now is that she was naturally that thin. The urge to be thin today is
now a disease, an epidemic. “In the United States, as many as 10 million females and 1 million
males are suffering from Anorexia or Bulimia Nervosa,” (ANRED). Now 63, Twiggy
acknowledges the thin trend, "Much too thin," she says emphatically. "I had a look – I can see
that now – but I don't think I was beautiful,” (Cartner-Morely, Jess). Having her own line of
fashion, Twiggy makes an important distinction between a look and beauty, emphasizing that
just because one is thin, does not make her beautiful. It is not the only time a look for women
has ignored what many men think looks good, for instance full eyebrows and UGG boots. But
they were just that, looks; they were and are not long-lived standards of beauty. What happened
that made thin become so much more than just a look? Before thin was a nearly universal
standard of beauty, by the time new generations came along, they had their own ideas that were
spinoffs of past ideals. But that was when media was not so dynamic and accessible. The
mindset of western culture has not been allowed to change now that media is around 24/7. “The
average US child sees more than 30,000 TV commercials every year (21 hours a week),”
(Glassenberg, Aaron N.). It starts from a very young age, coming even from the seemingly most
innocent of media outputs: Disney. The Disney Princesses come from a variety of ethnic
backgrounds, from under the sea (Ariel) to Agrabah, Asia (Jasmine). However, they all have one
thing in common; they are all incredibly thin with tiny waists, as does Barbie. They are
portrayed as the perfect girl who gets princes to fall in love with her at first sight. The ‘bad guy’
is always either fat (Ursula), or has some other incredible physical flaw (Captain Hook). New
generations never get a chance to come up with a new idea of beauty because before they can
form their own thoughts they are essentially brainwashed. This just means the only way to keep
the standard fresh is to take it even further to the extreme.
Men and women in both cultures reported negative stereotypes if fat people.
Although, fat people were seen as warmer and friendlier, confirming the traditional
stereotype of the fat jolly person, they were also viewed as less happy, more selfindulgent, less self-confident, less self-disciplined, lazier and less attractive than thin
people. These judgments were marked of fat women than fat men… Even those who
were overweight had negative stereotypes of fat people, (The Way People Percieve,
2012).
Nobody wants to be that, and even though these are only stereotypes, this is how humans
learn. Structuralism is a form of learning, which states “[Experiences] always consist in the
creation of pairs of opposites, which are balanced against one another and built up in various
ways,” (Berger, Arthur Asa, p20). As a result, it only makes sense that “excess flesh started to
become linked with low morality, reflecting personal inadequacy or lack of willpower,” (Bordo,
Susan). Designers are aware of this and this is why runway models are so thin. “They make just
one size so only skinny girls will wear it and it will look good,” Park said. “They think, ‘We
don’t want fatty girls wearing our clothes because it will look bad and our image will go down,”
(Wong, Amy). But in order to keep women buying, they have to constantly be reminded that
they are not quite good enough. Advertising has created a new normal that women cannot help
but compare themselves to. “There is a great deal of profit for organizations and corporations to
make in advertising. The individuals that make these advertisements are not stupid and are aware
that many women feel self-conscious about their bodies,” (Dissatisfaction with Our Bodies and
Eating Disorders, 2000). These advertisements present an ideal fantasy that women will always
be chasing after because it is literally unattainable. Even the celebrities on People Magazine’s
cover that are proclaimed ‘World’s Most Beautiful’ – another instance of the media telling
society what to think – are photo shopped. “According to Health Magazine, April 2002, 32% of
female TV network characters are underweight,” (ANRED). “The societal pressure hypothesis
states that, the thin standard of beauty seen in the mass media encourages women to strive for
unrealistically thin figures, Silverstein (1986),” (The Way People Perceive, 2012). But many
women still want at least something to call breasts, which is nearly impossible to do with an
unhealthy BMI. This is why plastic surgery has become more common as well; it is physically
impossible to naturally have the body media says is perfect. “In 2007, there were about 11.7
million cosmetic procedures performed in the US. 91% of those performed (10,010,000) were
performed on women,” (Dissatisfaction with Our Bodies and Eating Disorders, 2000).
Because of how deeply ingrained media is in our lives, is it even possible to find a society
with an untainted view of feminine beauty, one purely from their own opinion? “In 1995, before
television came to their island, the people of Fiji thought the ideal body was round, plump and
soft.
Then, after 38 months of Melrose Place, Beverly Hills 90210 and similar western shows,
Fijian teenage girls showed serious signs of eating disorders,” (Shuriquie, N). This shows just
how powerful media is in a culture that did not even have one television per household. Said
justly by Clare Boothe Luce, an American author and diplomat (1903-1987), “advertising has
done more to cause the social unrest of the 20th century than any other single factor.”
When thin was first in, women wore tight clothes to show it off; now they wear oversized
sweaters and flowing clothing that swamps their frame, making them look like they are frail,
weak and lost in their clothes. Women are appearing weaker than before but are stronger than
ever in the business world. There is something so provocative about this paradox of such a
fragile person having so much power. With society becoming more accepting of sexual equality
and looser sex stereotypes, the lines of sexual limitations are being blurred, with the help of
wider acceptance of homosexuality. This has been the goal of feminism from its modest
beginnings; perhaps this has been the hidden agenda of the media as well.