Trends are an integral part of fashion—they determine what is popular and when. Consumers look to trends as a guide for what is stylish and fashionable for the time. Usually, when you hear the word “trend”, you think of clothing, shoes, accessories, maybe hair and beauty. But with trendy fashion also comes the everchanging (yet predictable) eb and flow of trending silhouettes.
Women’s body types have gone in and out of style for centuries. There is always an ideal woman, and with that comes the ideal figure.
For hundreds of years, the ideal woman was curvy and voluptuous. The term “Rubenesque” (plump or rounded) was coined during the 14th century as many women depicted in Renaissance paintings and sculptures embodied that silhouette.
But just like in today’s world, it was impossible for every woman to achieve the ideal figure. Hence the corset rose in popularity during the late Renaissance Era and lasted into the 20th century (until the traditional bra took over).
Perhaps the original shapewear, the corset accentuated a woman’s curves by cinching her waist and supporting her breasts, mainly for aesthetic purposes. The popular undergarment was essentially designed to morph a woman’s body into a more idealized form over time. Sometimes women suffered breathing problems, broken ribs, and even organ damage from the extreme tightness of their corsets.
For literal centuries, women have altered, contorted, and twisted themselves to fit whatever beauty standard is popular for the time, oftentimes at the expense of their own health and wellbeing. And what does it do to a woman’s psyche to constantly work to fit an idealized yet unrealistic standard of beauty?
In the 1890s, American artist Charles Dana Gibson illustrated images of tall, slim yet curvy women for popular magazines—the birth of a new aspiration called the “Gibson Girl”. And at the beginning of the 20th century came a distinct shift to a thin body being the acceptable one.
Throughout the 20st century, the ideal silhouette continued to change. There was the 1920s flapper girl who sported a narrow almost prepubescent frame with little to no curves, which then faded out of style as the Golden Age of Hollywood ushered in a new era of the curvy and voluptuous woman. Think Marilyn Monroe, who set the standard for the idealized hourglass figure.
After Marilyn came model Lesley Lawson (“Twiggy”) in the 1970s, who popularized an ultrathin figure. And in the 1980s, the thin standard more or less remained as supermodels sported athletic, toned figures.
Essentially, the corset was just replaced by diet and exercise. But the message was the same: women must physically alter their bodies to fit the beauty standard.
Supermodels of the 1990s like Kate “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” Moss popularized “heroin chic,” similar to Twiggy in that an extremely skinny, almost emaciated body was the ideal.
Toxic diet culture of the 2000s followed as thin continued to stay in. Magazines flooded the shelves advertising the newest fad diets while tabloids exploited paparazzi pictures of female celebrities, paying close attention to their size, body shaming them on the front page if they were deemed too big by society’s standards.
Finally, in the 2010s, the “thick” woman grew in popularity. To have curves and a big butt (“slim thick”) was praised in mainstream media. That coupled with the rise of the body positivity movement on social media seemingly put thinness o
n the back burner for a while.
But recently there is a resurgence of “thinspo” on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram. Content creators share videos with titles like How I Stay Skinny and What I Eat In a Day–all of which indicate yet another shift in the ever changing definition of the ideal woman.
Throughout decades of changes on what it means to be beautiful, it seems that thinness, a traditionally Eurocentric beauty standard, remains at the center. Fatphobia and size discrimination run rampant through every facet of society.
Even when heavier women are praised for their bodies in the media, there is still an underlying tone of what an acceptable big girl should look like–usually, she has a flat tummy and an hourglass shape. And it is physically impossible for every woman to fit that model, regardless of her size.
Why is it that, like fashion, the ideal female figure trends in and out of style? With this comes the persistent pressure to change oneself in order to fit yet another unrealistic standard of beauty.
Will these standards always exist? Is it even possible to undo these beliefs that are so ingrained in Western society? How does one undo these deeply rooted psychological biases?
A world in which every woman feels comfortable in her body regardless of her size, shape, or figure may seem far away–even impossible. It will take thoughtful conversations to start the drive towards change. That’s one of many steps needed to change public opinion and group thought. Getting rid of unrealistic expectations on women and embracing all body types is the goal, but first we need to dissect our unconscious biases that have been thrust upon us through years of media. Communication leads to change.
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