Why the Idea of a Perfect Body Keeps Changing and What It Will Be Like in the Future

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Women from all over the world today have to worry every time they check the scale for their weight. And one of the reasons for the rise of these issues was because of insurance firms. To avoid needless expenditures on their part, they became interested in the relationship between weight and human health and soon started to measure the body mass index. As a result, we ended up using this measurement to measure how close or far our body shape is to be ideal, and with excessive exercise and varying diets, torturing ourselves.

Hunger makes men like plump women more.

Several variables influence the definition of the ideal form of the body and the feeling of hunger is one of them. Research has shown that when they are feeling hungry, even modern men find plump women more attractive. The sensuality and fertility of women were associated with broad hips, a big belly, and large breasts in the ancient world. People would also undereat at those times, so women with a greater amount of fat were more likely to give birth to a baby and be able to feed them. That’s why men find them more appealing.

Fat women in Mauritania and in a tribe in Uganda where food supplies are small are still considered an ideal of beauty. Besides, they want to make women fat. Ugandan brides drink several jars of milk, each of which is around 5,000 calories each, every day leading up to their wedding, to make themselves more attractive.

It’s a society that defines what a paragon will be.

The concept of an ideal body form is often influenced by culture and community. In Ancient Greece, it was portrayed by sculptors — feminine statues were not too slender and had an appealing form. Since sculptures used to be a representation of the human body’s perfection and not its sexuality, the breasts were not very large.

In Medieval times, the canons of beauty were determined by Christianity. At that time, pale and emaciated faces and thin body types that reminded people of fasting and abstinence became the ideal of beauty.

In the Renaissance era, the body shapes of women were slender, but most of them had a noticeable tummy. All because there was an awakened curiosity in the human personality and body, so pregnancy was seen openly.

An indication of fertility is a woman with an hourglass body shape.

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The epoch of corsets that lasted until the start of the 20th century started in the 16th century. Corsets are used to support the waist and make the body look like an hourglass. And while the fashion of the times was often dictated by this beautiful contrast between the hips and the waist, the tastes of men, shaped by nature itself, often affected those standards. Research has shown that women with wide breasts and a thin waist have a higher estradiol level, while women with a sharp contrast between the waist and hips have a higher progesterone level. Both of these hormones lead to effective pregnancy. Women with hourglass body forms, therefore, have the greatest fertility or the potential to become pregnant.

This standard of the female body was at the height of popularity once again in the 1950s, after famine and war. At the time, beauties such as Marilyn Monroe, Betty Brosmer, and Jayne Mansfield rocked men’s worlds with their flawless shapes.

By the way, in truth, a girl with this shape will be infertile, even though the Barbie shape is considered the ideal of fertility. Moreover, by crawling, she will be anorexic and only able to walk. A Hamilton College student demonstrated what a life-size picture of this ideal of beauty would look like.

The appearance of the ideal of androgynous beauty

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In the 1920s, the period of relative equality for females began. Women stopped trying to impress men, began to cut their hair short, and stopped improving the curves of their bodies. Slim and slim body types took their firm place in fashion beginning in the 60s. That’s why Twiggy, a teenage girl, became an idol of those times for young people. She was one of the first models with androgynous features, mixing a boyish body form, long eyelashes, and giant eyes with short hair.

And while women stopped “tightening” themselves with corsets, diets and sports continued to constrain themselves. During the 80s, when we saw models such as Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell, the height of obsession with a lean, muscular body happened.

Thinness became famous again beginning in the 90s and the ideal beauty standard of those times was Kate Moss. The media began to broadly disseminate information about the health hazards of being overweight, and plumpness began to be mocked and synonymous with a lack of will. Designers have tended to favor slender models since that time, those that can comfortably fit into a size XS.

Modern diversity

In the 2010s, different body types began to gain prominence due to the increasing popularity of the internet and social media, from plump plus-size shapes and prominent curves, as Kim Kardashian has, to the amorphous bodies of androgynous models.

What will the perfect body shape look like in the future?

A perfect woman’s body may remain slim shortly. And for this, there are many reasons:

1. Globalization

All over the planet, television and the Internet have become widespread. Plump women have always respected the traditional cultures of Puerto Rico, Samoa, and Tanzania. However, they started to view plumpness as something ugly beginning in the 1990s, having been influenced by European countries.

2. Relative satiety of the population

As we have pointed out, men prefer slimmer women if there is no war or drought. And because most of the developed world’s nations have enough food to consume, obesity would be synonymous with plump shapes.

3. Preference for women with an “hourglass” body shape

A slim waist and broad hips would probably remain among their goals. But, owing to the power of the fashion industry, the preference for slim girls will remain more fashionable.

4. Advertisements and the fashion industry are made for slim girls.

5. Removing borders between genders

 AFP / East News

Thanks to Photoshop, it is also likely that we could popularise an incredibly slim female body form that would only fit a Victorian-era lady sick with tuberculosis.

So. So. So. It’s still not the best time to free up some space for a cake in your fridge. In the other hand, it is not the best thing to do to pursue the Barbie-doll image either, else we may end up getting a diagnosis of “anorexia nervosa” instead of loving the beautiful form of our body.

Preview photo credit tessholliday / Instagramkimkardashian / InstagramATF / East News