 Do Now:
What do you think the ideal female & male body
images are in the United
States today?
Describe in detail.

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What do you consider beautiful or attractive for men and/or women? Where do your ideas come from?
What does it mean to be ‘beautiful’ in our society?
Are there differing standards for men and women in terms of being ‘attractive’ in our society? How so?

Foot Binding: A custom begun during the Tang dynasty and lasting until the 20th century
 "Because I bound my own feet, I could manipulate them more gently until the bones were broken.
Young bones are soft, and break more easily," she says.

A bound foot
A bandaged bound foot

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The Price of looking good???

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Members of the Kayan tribe
At just 5 years old, girls start wearing brass rings around their necks
As they grow older, more rings are added
Ultimate sign of female elegance and status. Some neck pieces can weigh up to 22 pounds.
"If I take the rings off now, I won't look nice anymore," one woman says. "They really are a part of my life."

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/cha nnel/taboo/videos/long-neck-women/

 The Maori people of New Zealand practice a sacred beauty ritual — tattooing. Believe women are more attractive when their lips and chins are tattooed. A woman with full, blue lips is considered the most beautiful and desirable.
 Women of Karo tribe in southern
Ethiopia. During childhood, girls allow their elders to cut scars onto their stomachs. Once a Karo girl has received the last of her scars, she's allowed to marry and have children.
"The main reason for my scars is to attract a male that will give me joy, because I will be beautiful and hopefully get a husband," says one girl during her Taboo interview.

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Where does our concept of body image come from?
Why do you think it’s changed over time?
To what extent does the media standard affect opinion of ideal body image?
your
What are some sanctions for deviating from the ideal body image?
To what extent does culture play a role?
In what ways are physical standards different for men/women?
To what extent is body image created/upheld by the opposite gender (i.e. – men generating the ideal female body image …)

http://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=Xpa
OjMXyJGk
Dove Sketches
Commercial (3 minutes)

 A picture in our mind’s eye
 Belief about how others perceive us
 How we feel living in our bodies

 Different standards for male and female
 Different for various ethnic and cultural groups
 Defined by society, community, family . . .
What is “Ideal” has changed over time . . .

Body Image Throughout History
 Prehistoric
 Fertility goddess
Wide hips highly desirable

Body Image Throughout History
120 BC
 Venus de Milo
Greek goddess
1400’s Botticelli’s
Birth of Venus
Art depicted beauty – soft and curvaceous

Body Image Throughout History

1500’s
Leonardo da Vinci’s
Mona Lisa

1600’s
Rubens’
Garden of Love

Body Image Throughout History

1880’s
 Plump body, pale complexion
 Representing wealth, abundance of food & refined lifestyle
Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon

Body Image Throughout History
 Early 1900’s
 Corseted, hour-glass look

Body Image Throughout History
 1920’s
 Era of the flat-chested, slim-hipped flapper

Body Image Throughout History

1950’s
 Full-figured shapes of
Marilyn Monroe and
Jayne Mansfield
 Typical models
 Height  5’8”
 Weight  132 lbs.

 Women found sexuality a new source of power. Clothing became skimpier in the 1940's, until World War II broke out.
Feeling the "American tradition" threatened, families reverted to more conservative values, but the pin-up remained a staple of popular culture.The 1960's saw civil rights campaigns, as well as a new wave of feminism, throwing off the domesticity of the 50's. As women sought to distance themselves from the role of wife and mother, the androgynous ideal once again surfaced in Twiggy, a stick-thin model made popular overnight by a single photo shoot.

Body Image Throughout History

1960’s
 The gaunt
Twiggy look
Height: 5’7”
Weight: 98 pounds

Body Image Throughout History
Miss America was normal weight in the
1920’s through early 60’s
Underweight since the mid 60’s

Body Image Throughout History

1970’s and 1980’s
 Taller, thinner look
 No visible body fat
 Muscles highly toned from hours of working out
 Typical models
 Height  5’8”
 Weight  117 lbs.

Body Image Throughout History

Early 1990’s
 Waif-like figure of
Kate Moss
 Pre-teen look in adult women
< 4% of women have this tall, very thin look naturally
Typical models
 Height  5’10”
 Weight  110 lbs

Body Image Throughout History

Late 1990’s
 Narrow hips yet large breasts
 Rare combination without breast implants
 Typical models
 Height  5’10”
 Weight  110 lbs.

Body Image Throughout History

2000’s
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
Most girls and women do
NOT look like this!
Average model:
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Height  5’8” – 5’11”
Weight  <120 lbs.
% body fat  <18%
The average North
American woman:
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Height  5’4”
Weight  152 lbs.
% body fat  > 32%

Body Image – Culture matters
Women of color generally have a very positive body image and a broader definition of beauty than white women.

Body Image
 African-
American models and actresses often portray unrealistic thinness

 The “Ideal” Male
Tall 
6’

Broad shoulders/large muscles
Narrow waist 
30”
Average male model: weighs 145#
15% body fat
Average Man:
5”10”
3436” weighs 170#
23% body fat

Body Image
Historical Male Body
Image
Michelangelo's David looks more realistic than the muscle men of today.
Impact of the Media

 Do Now: What is your reaction to the picture to the left? Do you find it beautiful or ugly?

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Members of the Kayan tribe
At just 5 years old, girls start wearing brass rings around their necks
As they grow older, more rings are added
Ultimate sign of female elegance and status.
Some neck pieces can weigh up to 22 pounds.
"If I take the rings off now, I won't look nice anymore," one woman says. "They really are a part of my life."

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Homemade remedies include a mixture of turmeric, lemon and honey on her skin to achieve a glowing complexion.
Brides also wear special clothing and jewelry, including a forehead chain, on their special days. A dot of red powder on the face —known as a kumkum —is also thought to make a woman more attractive.

 Each year, more than 1,000 tons of human hair are imported into the United States and used to create extensions and weaves. Some of the best quality and most desirable hair comes from
India.
Where do they get all these long locks? Some of it originates at the Venkateswara Temple in southern India, one of Hinduism's holiest sites. Many of the worshipers who visit this temple leave a special offering for Lord Venkateswara —their hair. It's part of a ritual called tonsuring, the cutting of hair for religious reasons. Every day, thousands of Hindus sit before the temple barbers to offer their hair and please the God."
Annually, the temple earns about $18 million selling this hair to exporters. As soon as the hair leaves the devotee's head, it starts the journey to someone else's.
New York City stylist Jay Ferrara uses "temple hair" in his extensions. "When this hair comes from India, it's beautiful," he says. For short extensions, Jay says he charges clients $2,000, and if you want longer hair, it will cost you as much as $4,000.
Temple hair accounts for just 25 percent of the Indian hair market. The rest comes from women who collect the hair that comes out naturally and sell it. It's called the dead hair market. You may have 60 women in one village who pool their hair together, and they'll sell it for $2. So they're getting pennies for this.

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The Maori people of
New Zealand practice a sacred beauty ritual — tattooing.
Believe women are more attractive when their lips and chins are tattooed.
A woman with full, blue lips is considered the most beautiful and desirable.



Women of Karo tribe in southern Ethiopia
During childhood, girls allow their elders to cut scars onto their stomachs.
"The main reason for my scars is to attract a male that will give me joy, because I will be beautiful and hopefully get a husband," says one girl during her Taboo interview.
Once a Karo girl has received the last of her scars, she's allowed to marry and have children.

 Biggest consumer of diet pills
 Emphasis on fitness
 Average weight of women = 110-125 pounds
 Plastic surgery becoming common
(especially breast implants) Even favelas
(slums) have beauty salons
 New trend is blonde, straight hair

 Stagen used after women give birth
 65 foot long cloth wrapped tightly around abdomen
 "It is a bit painful, but I think what it does is to give the pressure to our womb to get back into the normal size"

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60,000 nose jobs a year
Status symbol
"I had a friend who had a nose job, and she kept the bandage, if I'm not wrong, after two years on her nose just to show everybody that she had nose job“
Pharmacists say nose jobs are so desirable that even people who haven’t had one buy bandages to put on their nose to pretend they had one

Before airbrushing
After airbrushing a - tidied and highlighted hair b - reduced shine from skin c - cleaned up eyebrows d - changed eye color from brown to blue/applied "makeup" and whitened eyes e - lessened bags/shadows under eyes f - made lips fuller g - tidied jumper

"Even I don't wake up looking like
Cindy Crawford."
-
Cindy Crawford

 Men have a more positive body image and overlook flaws in appearance more than women.
 Do you agree . . .
Women are judged more on appearance than men?
Society’s standard of female beauty is higher and more inflexible?

If Barbie were real . . .
1971
1959
2003
She would stand 6’ tall, weigh 101 lbs, wear a size 4, and her measurements would be
39-19-33.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZtcW6
MKNz4

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu-
2FC8e8yw

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMBAT vlEYFc

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nIXUjz yMe0