From Curvy to Thin: Perceptions of a Woman's Body in Popular Culture
From Curvy to Thin
Andrea Higgins
LIM College
What defines the ideal body for a woman? Throughout time, a woman’s body has been perceived in so many different ways, but today the most popular image for a woman’s body is one that is thin and lacks curves. Many things have influenced this ideal, but one of the biggest influences is popular culture. In earlier centuries, popular culture’s preference for voluptuous female bodies is depicted in early Western art. Today’s popular culture contributes to the ideal that being thin is not only one of the requirements for a modeling career in high fashion, but also one of the requirements for acceptance in society. This paper will review how a woman’s body was perceived in earlier centuries as represented in Western art and how it is represented today in popular culture.
In earlier centuries, you were not considered a woman unless you had curves. Evidence of this body image can be dated back to prehistoric times with the miniature statue of Venus of Willendorf. Venus of Willendorf was discovered in the Danube River, located in Austria. This statue is said to have dated back 25,000 years ago (Venus, n.d.). Christopher Whitcombe (2000) describes Venus of Willendorf as:
A sculpture that shows a woman with a large stomach that overhangs but does not hide her pubic area. A roll of fat extends around her middle, joining with large but rather flat buttocks. Her thighs are also large and pressed together down to the knees. Her breasts are full and appear soft, but they are not sagging and pendulous. Her genital area would appear to have been deliberately emphasized with the labia of the vulva carefully detailed and made clearly visible, perhaps unnaturally so, and as if she had no pubic hair. This, combined with her large breasts and the roundness of her stomach, suggests that the "subject" of the sculpture is female procreativity and nurture and the piece has long been identified as some sort of fertility idol. (p. 3)
The
Andrea Higgins
LIM College
What defines the ideal body for a woman? Throughout time, a woman’s body has been perceived in so many different ways, but today the most popular image for a woman’s body is one that is thin and lacks curves. Many things have influenced this ideal, but one of the biggest influences is popular culture. In earlier centuries, popular culture’s preference for voluptuous female bodies is depicted in early Western art. Today’s popular culture contributes to the ideal that being thin is not only one of the requirements for a modeling career in high fashion, but also one of the requirements for acceptance in society. This paper will review how a woman’s body was perceived in earlier centuries as represented in Western art and how it is represented today in popular culture.
In earlier centuries, you were not considered a woman unless you had curves. Evidence of this body image can be dated back to prehistoric times with the miniature statue of Venus of Willendorf. Venus of Willendorf was discovered in the Danube River, located in Austria. This statue is said to have dated back 25,000 years ago (Venus, n.d.). Christopher Whitcombe (2000) describes Venus of Willendorf as:
A sculpture that shows a woman with a large stomach that overhangs but does not hide her pubic area. A roll of fat extends around her middle, joining with large but rather flat buttocks. Her thighs are also large and pressed together down to the knees. Her breasts are full and appear soft, but they are not sagging and pendulous. Her genital area would appear to have been deliberately emphasized with the labia of the vulva carefully detailed and made clearly visible, perhaps unnaturally so, and as if she had no pubic hair. This, combined with her large breasts and the roundness of her stomach, suggests that the "subject" of the sculpture is female procreativity and nurture and the piece has long been identified as some sort of fertility idol. (p. 3)
The
References: Ellis-Christensen, T. (2011, August). Why are fashion models so thin? In Wise Geek. Retrieved September 2011, from http://www.wisegeek.com/why-are-fashion-models-so-thin.htm Grogan, S Hale, A. (2011, September 6). Celebrating women with curves: a historical perspective. In Diet Blog. Retrieved September 11, 2011, from http://www.diet-blog.com/08/celebrating_women_with_curves_a_historical_perspective.php Hellmich, N Kay, Karen. (2006). Are size zero too thin for the catwalk. Retrieved September 11, 2011, from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-405600/Are-size-zero-models-catwalk. Klonik, K. (2006, September 15). New message to models: eat! In ABC News. Retrieved September 11, 2011, from http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/story?id=2450069&page=1 Peter Paul Rubeuns McPhee, L. (Writer, Producer, and Director). (2000). Dying to be thin [Documentary]. United States: NOVA Production. Ruud, M. (n.d.). Western standards of beauty: an illustrated timeline. In Hub Pages. Retrieved September 11, 2011, from http://maddieruud.hubpages.com/hub/Standards_of_Beauty_An_Illustrated_Timeline Saner, E Venus Anadyomene (Titian). (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved October 17, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_Anadyomene_(Titian) Venus of Willendorf: Exaggerated beauty Whitcombe, C. (2000). The Venus of Willendorf. In Art history resources. Retrieved October 11, 2011, from http://arthistoryresources.net/willendorf/willendorfwoman.html Wilson, E