WHY DO WE GET THINNER?
A perspective of Women and Beauty
Close your eyes and think of a beautiful woman.
Keep this woman in your mind while reading this article. Observe the reactions of
that beautiful woman carefully because in the following lines she will compare
herself with other women. Maybe she won’t be happy or perhaps she will be proud
of herself, but I am sure that she - just like you - will realize how beauty is a relative
and tough concept.
I will talk about the beautiful women through the ages; the different beautiful
women of different ages and cultures.
It is year 5500 BC. No script has been
invented yet. There is fire, there is
water and there are men and women.
Furthermore, the women are accepted
as goddesses; the symbol of fertility.
When we see the women statues of that
age, in other words the ideal figures of
women of that age, we see very unusual
figures. We simply think, “they are
obese,” but we forget that the concept of
“fatness” is something that goddesses
have.
From the Antique Age till the next centuries, we can see that the concept of
“beautiful woman” didn’t change through the woman portraits of that time. The
painting of Bianca Cappello in 16th century displays a
contradicting concept of beauty we perceive today.
Bianca Cappello, an Italian noble woman, is famous for
her beauty but she doesn’t look like the models of
Victoria’s Secret. She has a fat body, round face and
even a double chin. A similar depiction of a “beautiful”
woman of that age can be seen in the poem of “Venus
and Adonis” by William Shakespeare. The two
conflicting concepts of “beauty” and “plump” are in the
top and bottom lines of the poem by the English poet.
It’s clear that being “plump” is considered to be
beautiful. Classical paintings and depictions show her
as a “voluptuous” woman.i
‘’Bianca Cappello’’/Alessandro
Allori
Two centuries later when we see the works of Spanish
artist Francisco Goya, we can observe that the concept
of plump is with the concept of beauty. The painting of
La Tirana of Goya from the years of 1700 and Maja
Vestida in 1803 are examples of such plump and
beautiful women. However, on the picture of Maja
Vestida, we can see that the waist of an ideal woman
figure is getting thin. It is only the waist that is getting
thin; the rest of her body is still plump and fat. In the
book “Little Women,” written by Louisa May Alcott
between 1868-69 , he depicts the character of
Margaret as “very pretty, being plump and fairii”.
These characteristics are not only seen in some
specific works, but they were criteria of beauty that
women had to follow. Today’s society classifies these
women as “fat,” but the society of that age was
defining the thin women as “skinny.” Not only were the thin women separated from
the criteria for beauty, they were also accepted as “unfortunate.”
In 19th century, the ideal woman’s body had an hourglass shape. In other words,
women should have extremely thin waist, but wide hips and plump breast. Since it is
anatomically impossible to have
such body with extreme sizes, they
had to use corsets. The corsets were
making the waists very thin, but
squeezing the organs causing health
problems, such as respiratory
disorder and blood pressure and
sometimes breaking the bones. In
the
beginning of the 19th century, Camille Clifford was a
popular model of that time who had an hourglass body,
an extremely thin waist caused by a corset..iii It was later
understood that the reason for women fainting during
the Victorian period was because of these corsets.
In Western culture, the concept of beauty meant to
become thinner, but in other cultures it was seen in a
different way. In Thailand and Burma, it was believed
that long necks were the symbol of beauty so women
wore neck rings since their childhood to have long
necks. These rings were increasing when their ages
increase. They were putting pressure on the shoulders
and caused some disorders in the structure of their
bones. It has been told that this tradition still continues
among some tribes. Another torture that women endured
for beauty is the custom of binding the feet. The criteria
for beauty in China were to have tiny feet just like thin
waists in Wets and long necks in Burma. Women would
bind their feet tight since they were a child to prevent
further growth. In this way, the feet were not growing
properly and becoming tiny which was accepted as
beautiful. This custom was known as lotus feet tradition
and it was torture for women. A tattoo called “Ta Moko”
made on the face in New Zealand was a symbol of beauty
and social status for women. The women whose faces
were covered with this tattoo were accepted as
beautiful.
While beauty was seen in different ways in the
world, it was also changing in the West.
Fortunately, corsets were no longer used
because they were accepted as “harmful” after
noticing that they
were the cause of
too many health problems. In the 1950s, the new beauty
standard was to have a curvaceous body like Marilyn
Monroe. Although we can still see the traces of hourglass
shaped bodies, the waists are no longer as thin and
women have healthier body sizes. However due to the
fast growing technology, media and fashion culture, not
only the waists but the hips, legs and even arms began to
get thinner. In the 21st century,
women like actress Keira
Knightly would be accepted as
skinny two centuries before,
but are now seen as “beautiful.”
Due to this slimming fashion, the diet industry reached a
peak; now the diet industry in the USA has an income
varying from $40bn to $100bn.iv
Today, women of the modern world are either on a diet or
“are careful” with what they eat so not to gain weight. The
modern working women are spending half of their
salaries on diet products to lose weight. They are doing
this to become “healthy.” They lose weight by taking in
half of the calories they need and, as a result, decrease their
Actress Keira Knightley
body mass index below the average just to have a “healthy”
body. Modern women strengthen their muscles to be as strong as men, become fit
and thin. While they are protesting the second-class treatment of women, they
adopt this criteria for beauty that sees women as objects of
beauty and even try to follow it. Modern women are
defending that they need to have equal chances as men, but
on the other hand they just eat a salad while her male
colleagues are eating meat and then they hold forth about
“the equality of men and women.” The torture that Chinese
women had with binding their feet, Tai woman putting rings
around their necks and Victorian women using corsets still
continues in the body of modern women and even in a tough
and desperate way. In previous centuries, women were
overwhelmed with the standards of beauty. Now we are in a
modern civilization, but what has changed? Women are still
seen as the objects of beauty. Actually is it wrong to say “it is
seen” because women still continue to show themselves as
objects of beauty, which reinforces the torture they do to
themselves to be “beautiful” to men.
Thus, why do we as women of the modern world get thinner? Because we judge
each other by how we look, not by what we think. We praise thin and we believe
that the thinner they are, the more beautiful they become. If we continue like this,
and appreciate thin women then we will not come closer to the equality of
opportunities.
Today in the world, 66% of the work is carried out by women, but they contribute
10% of the total income and only % 1 of property ownership in the world. If modern
women get rid of the “beauty” etiquette and stop feeding the formalism of the
society, these numbers will change. If women focus on their ideas rather than their
appearances then they will have their real freedom. Otherwise they will be deemed
to wear the shackles of criteria for beauty.
Sevde Kaldıroğlu
19.03.12
http://www.dietblog.com/08/celebrating_women_with_curves_a_historical_perspective.php
ii http://www.dietblog.com/08/celebrating_women_with_curves_a_historical_perspective.php
iii http://www.diet-blog.com/07/female_body_shape_in_the_20th_century.php
iv http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2725943.stm
http://www.mediaawareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/women_and_girls/women_beauty.
cfm
i