Body Types Of American Women Research Paper

Ideal Body Types of American Women Throughout History

This project will delve into the ideal bodies that have emerged throughout the past century, and possible causes for the change in ideals. Accompanying this paper will be a series of drawings depicting the bodies that I, after researching, have decided are most representative of ideals at that time. For this assignment I chose five documents to study, which I thought would be useful for my research and would provide enough information to build a substantial project on. “U.S. Trends in Feminine Beauty and Overadaptation” by Allan Mazur talks about the various trends and explains how they came into fashion, this writing also emphasizes the trend of women being depicted as slender in the

In “U.S. Trends in Feminine Beauty and Overadaptation”, Mazur says that in the very early 1900s, before the 1920s, “the body below the waist was completely covered with bulky skirts, so the shapes of hips and legs were irrelevant to fashion.” (Mazur, pg. 283) The emerging mass media of the 1920s helped change styles quickly and mass retail outlets changed what body type was in fashion quickly. (Mazur, pg. 288) Mazur explains that “dresses of the 1920s, and the ideal bodies underneath, became curveless, almost boy-like.” (Mazur, pg. 287) There was also an emphasis on face and later on the newly emerged leg, which women were expected not to show prior to this time. I was unable to find as much information on body ideal in this time period, and because of that I decided to draw a flapper who was almost boy-like in her figure. I found the flat chested and the emergence of women’s legs to be fascinating and I feel like when I think about the early 1900s this is the most prominent figure I think of and I feel like it was the first major body type pushed by the

In the mid 1980s author Mazur wrote that “The words “anorexia” and “bulimia,” barely known a decade ago, are now in common use to describe self-destructive eating habits, particularly of young women.” (Mazur, p. 281) In Mazur’s reading it is explained that the changing cultural concept of beauty led to a slender body and that girls were starving themselves to reach this ideal that had been set for them. (Mazur, pg. 281) Furthermore, on the effects of the promotion of thinness and the development of eating disorders in girls, Mazur says that “in pursuit of the new slender ideal, some women are dieting to a degree that is detrimental to their health.” (Mazur, pg. 297) One author notes that the emphasis on fitness and exercise in magazines geared towards women spiked in the late 1900s in a time when obesity rates were rising in the U.S. (Nobles, pg. 27-28) At this time in history diet and exercise industries target the desire for a slim rear end and legs, while women often complained that their buttocks and hips were too large. (Mazur, pg 298) Advertisers showing thinness in excess in a time of rising obesity rates seems to fuel the formation of eating disorders. On this Nobles says that “advertisements that show women who are impossibly thin and beautiful despite the rising obesity rates are showing women what they should aspire to become. Women try to