Let’s Talk about Beauty Standards.
Even in our present day, there are variances in what constitutes as an Feminine Ideal. I don’t think we will ever stop men, and for that matter women, some of whom may not even be lesbians, from looking at feminine bodies. What is interesting, to me, is that the variances in Feminine Beauty Standards reflect intersections of social values and attitudes that ISN’T quite so essentializing as just simply being Male Gaze.
But let’s begin with talking about Sizing Charts and Body Types. One of the Problems, I find, in our society is that we don’t make things for the different kinds of bodies types that exist in any society. Generally speaking there are Three Types of Men’s Body Types, and depending on where you go, Six to Twelve Different Types of Women’s Body Types. I will be focusing on Six Body Types for Women, NOT because we can’t say that there are more, but if you want change, I think it needs to be simple, and less is more communicable than not. We will be touching on Men’s Body types only in reference to a Type of Feminine Body shortly.
Roughly 5 or 6 years ago, I actually made a chart to help Communicate these Differences and also try and Simplify them into Easy Communicable Shapes. I will do that again today, because I no longer have access to that Document, but roughly there are Six Shapes:
- Inverted Triangle.
- Apple Shape.
- Rectangle.
- Hourglass.
- Pear Shape.
- Athletic.
Now I’m going to approach the Athletic first because I think that it is most comparable to the Masculine Ideal of a Mesomorphic Body Type. The reality is what we call either a Feminine or Masculine Body Type DOES TEND to Reflect the Values of a Society within a Historical Context. And this is actually, I think, MUCH MORE IMPORTANT for talking about the Expectations Placed on Women, because it speaks to an Interaction of Social Ideals, that if we Acquire a Language for will Provide a Possible Means for Articulating Greater Autonomy and Democratic Freedom.
I provided this Adumbration of More Easily Communicable Body Types in Service to that Possibility, because a Literacy for these Variances and the Articulation of Variance allows for Women to be more Self-Directed in HOW they Choose to Represent themselves, and the Speak to a Larger Societal Conversation regarding Equity and Social Justice.
