Changing Women Body Standards According to Culture - Research Paper Example

The image of women has experienced an evolution for the past century with most of the images becoming harder and harder to be attained naturally. It is evident from this revolution that the media has been on the forefront to apply pressure to the women to look a certain way. The other evidence from this image changes is the fact that it requires and has led to unhealthy habits of attaining these figures (Eco, 2010). Many women are resorting to weight diets, weight loss pills and plastic surgeries to correct their looks and appearances while having to add other unnatural implants to maintain the look and move with the ideal body image flow (Eco, 2010). There are negative consequences to all these ideal body image for the women, as many have become unhealthy, other developed serious medical conditions like anorexia nervosa leading to death in some cases. The other is the destruction of a woman’s body not to mention their personality and self-esteem as they feel unromantic, ugly and some remain loveless (BBC News, 2012). The body image alterations are becoming much more possible with the technology but it is even more expensive as another negative effect. This essay is going to indicate the changes throughout the century and the effects it has had on the people. The 1910s saw the ideal woman’s body depicted from the creation of Charles Gibson with the body type being referred to as “Gibson girl.” The ideal body in this case was tall and slender with a thin waist (London, 2015). The girl had to have a large bust and wide hips. They had to fit perfectly in a super cinched corset, which brought the big bust and narrow waist effect upon the women at this era. “Her physique was tall and slender but with a buxom bosom and large hips; essentially an S shaped body achieved by wearing a super-cinched corset” (London, 2015). The women at this point were in physically good shape as they were physically active. The 1920s saw the ideal woman’s body referred to as “flapper.” With the rejection of the Victorian style, the women had minimal breasts (those with large breasts wore tight bras to flatten them some more), appeared more boyish and revealed uncovered arms (Eco, 2010). Their behavior of rebellion saw them become scandalous, irresponsible and even undisciplined. The 1930s saw the return of the “curves” and the femininity figure and behavior. The women became more voluptuous with bare shoulders (Bahadur, 2014). The women during this era were much more nourished and this contributed largely to their increase in size. The celebrities were also not slender and they in turn embraced the curves giving the regular women reasons to maintain their increasingly curvy figures. At this point, there was no pressure on the looks which some attribute to the ongoing World War II war, which had contributed to the simplicity even in the women’s fashion. Despite them adding more weight, they were still not considered over the top fat as they still kept their energetic lifestyle of dancing and walking with them to keep fit (London, 2015). The 1950s is one of the iconic eras for the curvy women led by Marilyn Monroe. The era emphasized that a fuller figure was much more beautiful than being thin. The women had long legs, were bustier and had what was described as the hourglass figure. Being curvier was the ideal height of sexiness with skinnier women being shamed as unromantic and hopeless to fall in love (Bahadur, 2014). The era saw the introduction of tablets to increase the curves for the women with advertisements of these pills everywhere. The 1960s saw the introduction of thin women with petite frame being favored above the curvy shape in the 1950s. The women at this age were slender to a point they seemed to be emaciated. Women aimed at attaining waists that were tinier, breasts that were smaller and narrow hips. The women Body Mass Index that had increased even for celebrities dropped drastically (Copeland & Jones, 2014). In order to attain this body image, weight pills to reduce the weight were developed. There was also an influx of diet programs and even clubs to encourage women to watch their weight were formed. All this was in a bid to attain the rail-thin figure prominent at this era. This decade saw even much more emphasis on the weight and being thin. Women became even thinner with more diets and weight loss pills flooding the market. It was at this era that anorexia nervosa started showing up in women’s bodies and received coverage. Most women were practically living on diet pills and not food despite the health risks they posed (Vliet, 2001). Slimness combined with strength marked the 1980s. Rather than the pills and the weight diets being on the market what was being sold in plenty at this point were exercise programs such as aerobics exercise videos as a way to attain the tones and an athletic body (Cowlin, 2002). This body image proved even harder for some women to achieve. This was the beginning of the differences in the body images, which put pressure to the women. Other women still had to combine the exercise with the diets and pills to maintain the slender figure as well as become athletic with the current trend. The 1990s trend was popularly known as the “heroin chic waif” looks as the thin boyish look returned. The women looked gaunt and their eyes were very hollow. The pale skin, bony look and limbs that were extremely thin were the norm of this era. Their look was that of drugged individuals, they were unnaturally slender and were obsessed with thinness not even the athletic toned bodies. This unnatural and unhealthy look became even impossible for many women in America to attain and this increased even further the gap between the thin and plus sized women (Kornblum, 2011). The media continued to objectify the thin women all over the west as women tried to achieve the young adolescent look and ended up with more cases of anorexia nervosa affecting them. The supermodels were tall and with long slender legs, long hair and thin waists and hips. This era saw many women start plastic surgery as a way to attain the super model look and size that was becoming more and more impossible to attain naturally. Extreme weight loss programs, diet pills, and other appetite suppressants were back to the market to make the women appear satisfied with their unnaturally thin appearance (Vliet, 2001). Women took to extreme measures to try to attain this weight and many only end up hurting themselves. The 2010 is seeing a clash between two ideal women body image. On the one hand, the slender look is still in fashion and being perpetrated by the media. On the other hand, the pear-shaped woman with large hips and bottom, or what is referred to as a “bootylicious” woman who is not too thin but very curvy is returning (London, 2015). The “bootylicious” look is being seen in several celebrities, who are not naturally thin, but neither is they plus-sized, but they have a comfortable figure and look. This look is making more women look towards more plastic surgery to have their bottoms enlarged as well as their breast sizes increased. Others are aiming at these changes but still ensure that they have slender waists and narrow hips. Each of the eras changed the women’s perception about their bodies as well as about what body was beautiful and how to do attain this beauty. The standards for women’s body kept on increasing which led to women seeking different unconventional ways to be healthy and to attain the perfect slender body. They went to the extent of even using drugs as a way to lose weight, tying their bodies tightly with corsets to attain the perfect slender figure. All these are unhealthy way for women to be slender. They need to only focus on eating healthy and exercising regularly, as a way to lose weight, be healthy and be happy in the end. What was established with the changes in women body perceptions is that even with the effort made to be thin and attain the perfect body portrayed by the media, most were unhappy. “More than half of the public have a negative body image, driven by the proliferation of media imagery portraying a so-called perfected ideal that is entirely unattainable for the vast majority of people” (BBC News, 2012). This is the reason they had anorexia nervosa as they starved themselves. There are many different women who are also celebrities that do not have the thin model-looking bodies but they are healthy and happy. They eat well, healthy and exercise several times in a week without overdoing it. All that the media should be emphasizing is for women to lose weight that makes them obese and sick and just attain a healthy body. The standards for what size a woman should be in terms of body size should not be the issue. The issues in this case should focus rather on how healthy they are, and how happy their bodies make them feel. All these can be attained with the media campaign as well as with support from celebrities. “Organizations like The Representation Project are working to educate women and girls about media literacy and how to handle the sexualized images of women we see on television, billboards and the Internet” (Bahadur, 2014). The women body image has changed over the years with the media emphasizing on then being as slim as possible. The women have moved from using corsets to using weight loss drugs and even exercises to obtain the perfect body image. With all the above-mentioned changes taking place throughout the decades, what is evident is the fact that the body image of women has remained largely that of being slender with small waist and hips. This is a trend that keeps returning and which tends to disadvantage the plus sized women who have to work extra hard to just attain the look (Eco, 2010). The media has been seen to be on the forefront of advocating these changes adding the pressure of women to conform. With the technology being used, plastic surgery has increased even more to alter the body image. References Bahadur, N. (2014, February 2nd). Its amazing how much the perfect body has changed in 100 Years. The HuffingtonPost. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/05/perfect-body-change-beauty- ideals_n_4733378.html BBC News. (2012, December 3rd). Five things about women in the press. BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-20554942 Copeland, M.,& Jones, C. (2014). Life in motion: An unlikely ballerina. New York: Simon and Schuster. Cowlin, A. (2002). Womens fitness program development. California: Human Kinetics. Eco, U. (2010). History of beauty. Massachusetts: Random House Incorporated. Kornblum, W. (2011). Sociology in a changing world. New York: Cengage Learning. London, B. (2015, January 19th). Sex siren, flapper, waif or bootylicious, how the shape of the ‘perfect’ body has changed over the last 100 years. DailyMail. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2913285/How-shape-perfect-body-changed- 100-years.html Vliet, E. (2001). Women, weight, and hormones: A weight-loss plan for women over 35. New York: Rowman & Littlefield. Read More