Dr. Feelgood
intellectual nerd
This is an attempt to springboard off a thread Les Toil started in Hyde Park a couple of days ago. He was commenting on a weight-loss ad that featured "before and after" pictures. "Before" was a mid-sized BBW with an hourglass shape; "after" was much slimmer, with what I would call a "boyish" figure (because I looked a lot like that in junior high). After considerable discussion, Fascinita wrote: "One solution to the problem... might be to look at the deeper causes for the constant scrutiny of women's bodies and the culture's hyper-focus on defining "perfect female body." Let's do that.
My $.02 worth: Different body shapes have gone in and out of fashion. In the 1920's, flappers bound their breasts to achieve a boyish figure; that was, perhaps coincidentally, about the time women began to enter the work force in large numbers. Ever since the 1960's, I have observed the "perfect female body" growing progressively thinner as women's participation and leadership in many areas has increased. I remember once when I was dating a woman who was taller than I, one of my male friends asked, "Aren't you afraid she will dominate you?" I thought it was a silly question, but I wonder if this fear might not be a contributing factor to an increased identification of slenderness (fragility?) with beauty. Are thinner women in demand partly because they are seen as weaker or easier to dominate? Conversely,is it commoner for FA's to value strength and independence in women than for non-FA's? Or is it too much of an individual matter to tell? What do you think?
My $.02 worth: Different body shapes have gone in and out of fashion. In the 1920's, flappers bound their breasts to achieve a boyish figure; that was, perhaps coincidentally, about the time women began to enter the work force in large numbers. Ever since the 1960's, I have observed the "perfect female body" growing progressively thinner as women's participation and leadership in many areas has increased. I remember once when I was dating a woman who was taller than I, one of my male friends asked, "Aren't you afraid she will dominate you?" I thought it was a silly question, but I wonder if this fear might not be a contributing factor to an increased identification of slenderness (fragility?) with beauty. Are thinner women in demand partly because they are seen as weaker or easier to dominate? Conversely,is it commoner for FA's to value strength and independence in women than for non-FA's? Or is it too much of an individual matter to tell? What do you think?
