Over the past few decades, it seems that wherever you turn, you’re seeing things about losing weight or being skinny. Billboards, advertisements, even supplements in stores promote thinness, but how did we get to this point? Why has skinny come back around to being the ideal body type in recent society?
It wasn’t always that the ideal women’s body type was skinny. For instance, in ancient Greece and Rome, women in most paintings and sculptures are depicted as full-figured and curvy. Venus of Willendorf is a classic example of this. The statuette is named as being one of the earliest examples of the ideal female body type at the time, portraying a thick-set woman with curves and large breasts. According to an article by CNN, this statue is believed to have been made as far back as 25000 years ago.
In later years, Venus was still portrayed as a voluptuous woman. This is seen in paintings from the late 1400s such as the “Birth of Venus” and “Mars and Venus,” both by Sandro Botticelli. Paintings of other women were also depicted this way, as seen in many paintings across Europe in centuries-old cathedrals and churches. Even from a biological standpoint, we aren’t wired to prefer thinner bodies more.
An article from Medium states, “Historically-speaking, skinniness meant you were a poor peasant and probably unable to carry a child to term.”
This equates plumper women to being healthier and wealthier than our now normalized skinny ideal. The change in societal views of the “perfect body” only started to change around the 18th century, when the shape of corsets began to change and diet culture was brought to the public eye.
Dieting was first tested in the 1840s by Sylvester Graham, says an article by LiveScience. He advocated for a plain diet for women to achieve “health and morality.” Then came the Banting diet, a protein heavy diet created by William Banting, who staunchly opposed obesity of any kind. His teachings are what started the nation’s spiral into diet culture obsession.
Dieting became completely normalized by the 1920s, when most women were on diets and calorie counting to keep their slim figure. This is due to the harsh societal standards of women at the time, with flappers as the mold. Flappers of the 1920s are characterized by having a thin, boyish figure, with no curves and very small breasts.
One of the most dangerous body ideals in history was that of models in the ‘90s. These models were so extremely thin that their look even garnered its own nickname — heroin chic. Their emaciated figures and sunken eyes gave the effect that they were using heroin, which was commonly used during this period. Though we’ve started to move past this, more unhealthy body types just keep replacing the ones we’ve fought to get rid of.
Many people have begun to question our generation’s body ideals and if they’re even healthy. One example of an ideal body type now is the “gym girl.” This isn’t only an aesthetic, but something a lot of women take very seriously, possibly even too seriously.
A lot of modern influencers have made their living off of gym girl content, whether it’s “what I eat in a day” videos or vlogs of their active lifestyle. The question is if this is promoting unhealthy behaviors.
Although not all gym influencers are promoting bad habits, there are still a fair amount that aren’t encouraging a truly healthy lifestyle. Instead, they are promoting diet culture and using their figure to lure young women into wanting to become like them. These influencers claim to lead a “healthy lifestyle,” all while eating below the recommended calorie intake and working out excessively every single day. They encourage people to “cut out” certain food groups and only do certain workouts, or else weight loss will be unattainable.
Other influencers such as Hailey Fernandes post content that promotes healthy weight loss, while she shares her struggles with body image issues. In her “What I eat in a day” video, she says that “nothing is off limits,” referencing sauces that she used to restrict herself from eating. She practices intuitive eating, where she tries to eat healthy most of the time, but if she is craving fast food or something sweet, she’s not afraid to eat it.
Although today’s media portrays fit women as the ideal body type, it hasn’t always been this way. Body types may go in and out of style, but health doesn’t. That’s why it’s best to listen to your intuition and ignore what the media says is beautiful, because that image will change over time anyway.
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