It’s All Relative: How Beauty Standards Have Evolved Throughout History
As a boudoir photographer, I’m constantly hearing women talk in depth about the parts of their bodies they don’t like.
“I hate my arm flab.”
“My boobs are so small. I look like a man.”
“Maybe I should wait until I’ve lost another ten pounds before we schedule the shoot.”
“Make sure my hair stays in place so you can’t see how big my forehead is.”
I’ve heard women criticize themselves over things that I didn’t even know you could be insecure about, like the shape of their nail beds, or having “asymmetrical lips”, or the dimples on the small of their backs (or lack thereof). The things some people consider to be beautiful, others see as mere flaws, and this is nothing new. Humankind’s beauty standards have always changed from decade to decade and from country to country.
Some of us are convinced that we are just objectively unattractive when in reality, beauty is completely relative. Just because we were born into a time where our physical traits weren’t in fashion doesn’t mean that we are any less beautiful than those women who were lucky enough to be born during a time where their appearance is in favor. Almost every woman alive today would have fit the mold of the “ideal” woman during one era or another.
As I wrote this post, I had each and every woman I’ve ever worked with in mind; not only do I truly think all women are beautiful in their own unique ways, but I also think that the things we dislike about ourselves are often the things that make us beautiful in someone else’s eyes.
25,000 BCE
Behold: the Venus of Willendorf, the heavily idealized standard of beauty during the Paleolithic, or “Old Stone Age”. Though she may not be what we think of today when we imagine an “idealized” woman, this is, in fact, what a desirable woman would look like during this time. The fact that her face is completely absent and the arms are so small and unpronounced tells us that the artist’s aim wasn’t to create a meaningful portrait of a real person, but to create a sculpture emphasizing the most sexually appealing parts of a woman’s anatomy – large breasts, thighs, stomach, and pronounced genitals. Fertility sculptures that are almost identical to this one have been found in excavation sites all around the world, all dating back to this time period.
1550 BCE
Women and men in ancient Egypt were in many ways seen as equals, but not when it came to beauty. While men were expected to have a reddish-brown skin tone, a woman’s complexion would ideally be more of a light golden tan. Men were expected to have angular bodies with broad shoulders, and a desirable woman’s body was more soft and rounded. A pronounced stomach and a plump, slightly sagging butt were nothing to be ashamed of, in fact, they were greatly admired!
300 BCE
What better example of the ideal woman in ancient Greece can you think of than Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty? And is she depicted with a six-pack and huge boobs? Of course not. Aphrodite, the epitome of physical perfection, is portrayed with distinct stomach rolls as she crouches. I don’t know about you, but if stomach rolls are good enough for the goddess of beauty, they’re good enough for me.
In ancient Greece, the ideal woman was plump, with wide hips and small breasts. Being beautiful was very important in Greek culture, and many women were willing to sacrifice their health in pursuit of physical perfection. Women would sometimes coat their skin in makeup made with white lead (which happens to be toxic). Blondes and redheads were considered to be especially beautiful, so women would sometimes bleach their hair with vinegar (which often caused hair loss). As for facial features, a prominent nose and small lips were the most favorable.
800 AD
Vikings sometimes get a bad wrap, being labeled as brutal savages who did nothing but pillage, murder, and rape. But, when you compare their way of life with the cultural norms of the rest of the Western world at the time, they were actually much more civilized than people realize. Unlike the other settlements and countries throughout the rest of Europe, women in Scandinavia had many rights; the right to own land, the right to request a divorce, and the right to join the men on raids. Additionally, the Vikings valued personal care more than most peoples of the time. While most Europeans of the era never bathed a day in their lives, Viking women often bathed as frequently as once a week, taking exceptional pride in maintaining long, shiny hair. Women were admired for having bright white arms, which, again, may have been due to their “obsession” with appearing to be as clean as possible, since most cultures at the time viewed dark skin as a sign of poverty or poor hygiene.
1400
During the Renaissance, large foreheads were thought to be a sign of great beauty, and although blonde hair was all the rage, women would often pluck their hairlines back and thin their eyebrows in order to make their foreheads appear larger. Pear-shaped women were thought to be the most beautiful; women were proud of their curvy hips and thighs, but would flatten their chests with tightly bound corsets.
1790
Queen Louise of Prussia, pictured above, was widely considered to be the most beautiful woman in Europe during the Georgian era. During the 1700’s and early 1800’s, “beauty” was synonymous with “proportion”. A conventionally beautiful woman was neither too tall nor too short, neither “too thin” nor “too plump”, with a long neck, large breasts, and a tapered waist. Much like in ancient Greece, a prominent nose and small lips were considered to be very beautiful, as was a round face with a slight double chin.
1880
During the Victorian Era, men wanted women who fit the role of the “damsel in distress”; women who needed to rely on strong men to protect them. Because of this, women were expected to be feminine, delicate, and even sickly. During the 1880s, women desired an “s-shaped” silhouette, and in addition to tight corsets that accentuated the waist and lifted the breasts, women wore dresses with layers upon layers of ruffles that gave the illusion of a larger, more exaggerated butt. Due to their incredibly tight corsets, it was often difficult for women to breathe, which made fainting spells a common occurrence. This contributed to the perpetuation of the idea that frailty was a trait of beautiful women. Few women wore makeup, and those who did usually only wore rouge and eyeliner, which also contributed to that look of emaciation and illness that was considered to be attractive.
1920
In contrast with the femininity that was expected of women in the Victorian era, androgeny was all the rage during the 1920s. For the first time in hundreds of years, women were ditching their corsets, which were too restrictive for the active lifestyle of this new generation of wild, rule-breaking women. Curves were no longer in vogue; women aimed to maintain a slender figure and wore loose, shapeless dresses that understated and hid any natural curves. Some “radical” women began wearing pants (several of whom were arrested for “cross-dressing”). In another act of rebellion, women began cutting their hair short, which was shocking and offensive to both men and women of older generations. Keep in mind, despite the fact that women had just won the right to vote, many people still felt that women were the inferior sex and that they could never be seen as equals to men. Because of this, there was an underlying societal pressure for women to prove that they were just as capable and intelligent as men, often by downplaying the qualities that made them conventionally feminine, and this heavily influenced the beauty standards of the time.
1950
By the 1950s, the world had changed in very dramatic ways. The Great Depression and World War Two had taken a toll on the economy, forcing women in the 1940s to make due with what they had. Because of rationing, women would use eyebrow pencils to draw “seams” up the backs of their legs to make it look like they were wearing nylons, and they began making alterations on men’s suits to repurpose them into dresses (which led to the very popular trend of wearing padded shoulders). But by the 50s, the economy was booming for the first time in decades. The beauty industry took off like never before, providing fashionable dresses and cosmetics at affordable prices to women of every class. The availability of these products, amongst other factors, created a societal expectation for women to “keep up appearances”, and always look their best. Full lips with bright red lipstick were the new trend, as well as voluminous hairstyles. As women began gaining a little more weight (due to the fact that food was no longer being rationed, as it had been in the previous decade), the hourglass figure became the most desirable shape, which brought about the repopularization of corsets. Contrary to popular belief, “plus-sized” women were not the ideal of the time, at least, not what we could consider today to be “plus-sized”. Women still wanted thin arms and legs, as well as a tiny waist, but they also wanted large breasts and round hips. By today’s standards, the ideal women in the 1950s were still quite thin.
In recent years, we’ve made leaps and bounds when it comes to expanding our ideas of what we consider to be “beautiful”. For the first time ever, the media has begun representing women of many different sizes, shapes, complexions, sexual orientations, etc. in their advertising. We still have preconceptions that have been ingrained into our cultural consciousness about who the most beautiful women are, and we still have a long way to go when it comes to accepting that beauty comes in many forms, but I’m optimistic about the coming years.
So, what can we learn from this? When it comes to beauty, there is no set of rules. In 100, 200, 300 years from now, the physical qualities that our society glorifies will fall out of fashion and traits that we typically think of as “unattractive” will become the new gold standard. Our perception of beauty is not based in fact, but rather, an ever-changing set of societal opinions that ultimately mean nothing.
Whether you feel that our culture affirms or denies this, you are beautiful. I encourage you to show yourself a little love this week, whether it’s booking a boudoir session, buying a new dress that makes you feel great about your body, meditating, or whatever makes you feel like the best version of yourself.