Images of Beauty

As a woman growing up in the 1990s and 2000s I have been subjected to today’s concepts of beauty. Of course I have heard that thinner, taller, blonder, tanner, and facial symmetry added up to this ideal of beauty; every popular culture medium has spouted these perceptions throughout my entire life. During my undergraduate career I sought answers regarding our culture’s concepts of beauty, a topic that was often discussed in my sociology courses. Why is body weight, dieting, and exercising such an issue today when it was unheard of only a few generations ago?

            Abra Fortune Chernik believes our society’s culture is to blame. She claims that society prefers women “starving, self-obsessed, and powerless.” While I agree that our culture is not helping the situation, it is certainly not to blame. The concept of beauty in Western society has changed in many ways throughout past generations. To assume our current society wants women skinny and weak now would suggest that society has always wanted women this way. That is not the case. In fact, women did not start altering their bodies to be skinnier until they began gaining power for themselves during the feminist revolution. This website helps illustrate the revolution in body image over the past 600 years.

            I believe we can go back even further to get a complete picture of beauty. This painting of Venus depicts a round, soft woman as the ideal image of beauty. These characteristics then meant wealth, health, and the ability to bear children.  It is my belief that these characteristics have remained important. It wasn’t until the 1960s, during the second-wave feminist revolution, that this image began to shift to a thinner ideal. Even then, the thinness was not sickly. I argue it was a way to shed the image that a woman’s sole purpose was to bear and nurture children. For a while, this was a healthy trend, leading to a fitness craze where muscles ruled in the 1980s. To be a woman was to be strong. As Linda M. Scott points out, “beauty through health and exercise” was advocated by feminism during this time. However, the past two decades have witnessed an unhealthy trend as women have begun to think “the thinner, the better.” Arguably, this image still reflects the “beautiful ideals” from ancient Greece. Today, being thin means wealth. Thin women can afford the time to exercise and cook a well-balanced meal. Being thin means health. In a society that breeds obesity, thinness indicates a lack of succumbing to our supersized culture. And while a thin woman does not automatically imply “child bearing,” with today’s technology and medicine it is becoming less and less of a needed attractive quality.

It must also be considered how women are viewing themselves today. We are no longer viewed only as child bearers. However, we no longer completely reject the idea in the name of feminism either. Women today are struggling with finding the balance after centuries of not having the power to decide for themselves. As Chernik implies, perhaps it is a reflection of women grasping for control in a world where men still have the majority of the power. It is unfortunate the unhealthy turn our body image has taken as a result. Although if history is any indication, we can be certain that this trend, too, will pass.