I'm an 1887 kind of boy

[andrewducker]

Go here to see images of female beauty from the 17th century to the present.

Let's just say I'm definitely tending towards the past in this case.

Comments

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

I agree with some of the comments about the images chosen being less than representative, and representative of very different things.

[pseudomonas.livejournal.com]

I'm not really sure that page makes a case for anything. One could easily use other examples to make other points.

[andrewducker]

Of course, that person clearly has more stomach and thighs than any of the models past the 1960s.

[alcippe.livejournal.com]

I guess I'm more of a "Marylin" kind of girl

har har har

[sterlingspider.livejournal.com]

Commercial depictions of "beauty" have nothing to do with what people in general want to have sex with and everything to do with symbols of wealth.

There is an inverse correlation between a nation's wealth and the average BMI of the women used in advertising (and a direct correlation between national wealth and anorexia rates).

[andrewducker]

But surely the women used in advertising are there because they're supposed to be sexy/beautiful?

[sterlingspider.livejournal.com]

Newp. They're supposed to represent an ideal. They represent shape we would be able to attain if we had constant access to personal trainers and nutritionists and were wealthy enough not to care that we don't actually have the strength to take out or garbage or pick up our children.

The only place you really see women in advertising that are supposed to be sexy/beautiful is when their sex appeal is being used to sell directly to men. Look at the average woman on a beer commercial vs the average woman in a fashion magazine/perfume ad/clothing advertisement, it's a VERY different appearance.

[andrewducker]

An ideal of _what_? Surely it's an ideal of beauty? And why would we want to attain any particular ideal unless that ideal was beautiful (or some other attribute)?

[sterlingspider.livejournal.com]

An ideal of wealth, affluance leasure.

In societies where resources are scarce the woman that can afford to be overweight is the Venus, in societies of plenty it is the women that can afford to starve.