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You know what they say… “3 minutes could give you 3,000 years or more on beauty standards.”
Wait, no, that’s not what they say. But it is what this Buzzfeed video is giving us. Over the span of 3000 years, this video summarizes the female ideal with just a handful of models, from Ancient Egypt to Victorian England to the postmodern poster girl.
Some fun facts from the video are listed below:
- Ancient Egypt is the only era that does not overtly or subtly idealize fair skin
- In Ancient Greece, women were considered to be disfigured versions of men
- The Han Dynasty forced women to bind their feet in order to achieve the beauty standard and gain a suitable husband
- We would definitely call an ideal Italian woman during the Renaissance
plus size”, but we don’t think the Italians of the era would see that like we do - Victorian England, what does “desirably plump” even mean?
- By the twenties, these standards became a little more specific, and by the nineties they were frankly kind of wacky, with “waifish”, “translucent skin”, and “thigh gap” ruling the female ideal up until postmodern today.
Whatever body type you are, it’s important to realize from this video that we shouldn’t have to make ourselves sick trying to attain the beauty standards of now – and not just because they’re fleeting and/or totally unattainable. Simply put: it just shouldn’t matter all that much.
Image via Life & Style Mag
