"It’s true that everyone has its own philosophies on what the ‘perfect’ body type should be, but it’s also true that every piece of media now includes models selling items or ideas with their bodies held up as understood guidelines of beauty"
Fashion is one of the greatest ways of self-expression, and that’s profoundly connected to how someone feels about their figure, as the most basic meaning of self-perception is one’s impression of the style and sexual allure of their own body. Someone’s individual philosophy relies almost exclusively on the standard that has been set and accepted by the general public, and self-perception is about how people see themselves behind their musings and recollections, when they stop to make a very detailed examination of their own figure with their own encounters. It creates a certain mentality towards their stature, shape and weight, comparing everything to the predominant social standards and thoughts in present day time.
We live in a society in which no one – specially when it comes to women – can be satidfied with their looks, one in which people actually feel ashamed to show their normal, natural bodies. The mainstream media created a society which the culture is based on standards created only to make everyone feel bad about themselves. It’s true that everyone has its own philosophies on what the ‘perfect’ body type should be, but it’s also true that every piece of media now includes models selling items or ideas with their bodies held up as understood guidelines of beauty. Those bodies are then held up altered and improved, later creating what becomes the ultimate perfect body type.
We are regularly making correlations and comparing ourselves to models – it actually became so much easier now with the instagram models all over our feeds – something that we do only to create a significant effect on ourselves like low confidence, negative self-perception and dietary issues. We seem to forget that models and other body-goals-images frequently need to starve themselves or have a crazy workout routine to be kept up the in the ideal figure, and even then their photos will most likely be edited. Another thing is that every body in the business is affected something other than by style creators, editors, and so forth. A perfect body type in style has somewhat to do with selling the status enrollment in the world class. It is critical to perceive that changing the ultra-flimsy perfect is significant for the wellbeing and prosperity of everyone, from the creators of this show all the way to us. The current reality is not healthy to anyone – it's worth saying that we are indeed trying to make a change with the body positive and the anti diet culture movements, but we still have a long way ahead.
With all that being said, there is no such thing as the perfect body, but throughout history there's always been a specific body type that has been greatly glorified and mostly fetishised. Let’s talk a little about it.
The ascent of the 1920s flapper reflected this move toward the Western world wanting a thinner figure. And as those thin bodies began to show up in magazines more and more, an epidemic of eating disorders also happened among women and girls. And just around that time, full body sorts of hot chick models and entertainers like Marilyn Monroe grew in ubiquity, and the first issue of Playboy magazine was released in the early 50s. The proportion at that point changed once more, and another ‘body trend’ started – as people were still trying to fit in the first one.
More recently, in the 80s and 90s, it was all about extreme thinness. We all remember models like Kate Moss and the ‘heroine chic’ moment, with sunken cheekbones and jutting out hip bones. At that time, celebrities other than models, like Cameron Diaz, Keira Knightley and Angelina Jolie, were also idolised for their bodies – guess what they all had in common.
In the late 2000s, Kim Kardashian was the clearest image of the perfect body. Big bum, big boobs, flat stomach, curvy figure – but don’t get it twisted, a bigger body is not it. And now, stars like Nicki Minaj and others with the same body type became the most known sex symbols of the time. All of a sudden, it was less about taking diet pills and more about having plastic surgeries and bbl’s.
But was this curviness real progress? I mean, I suppose it was a nice change from asking women to starve themselves, but to which point was that body type real and reacheable? If you're as thin as you’re supposed to, you don't have the right hips. But then if you have enough weight to have the hips, there’s no way your stomach is flat enough. So how to get that body? Do you see how it’s almost impossible to have it without getting it professionally done?
That impossibility has haunted me ever since I was very young – and I’m only 20 now. I was born during the peak of y2k, but I was too young then to actually understand anything, but even then I wanted to wear low rise jeans as a child – and somehow I didn’t have the right body. I was no older than 10. But I really grew up during the Kim Kardashian body era – and I’ve never had the hips to it. There's always an overarching sense that my body isn't good enough, and it is something I've never managed to grow out of, and I know for a fact I am not the only one. And truth be said, those feelings make sense, because there are like ten body shapes women can have, and only one body type is always seem by pop culture as worthy and beautiful.
The whole industry needs us to be insecure and reach for that impossible perfect body in order to exist. They’re selling beauty, they’re selling all the things we desire, they’re selling a lifestyle that can only be achieved if you have the right figure. It’s a way to say people are not enough, or aren’t working as hard as they’re supposed to, causing psychological mistreatment which is portrayed as damaging conduct that may comes as improvement of dysfunctional behavior post-awful pressure issue, nervousness issues ceaseless despondency dietary problems.
It is so serious that anorexia nervosa was related with the most noteworthy pace of mortality among every psychological issue during the 90s. Around that same time, the World Health Organization began sounding the alert about the developing worldwide heftiness pestilence. Do you see how contraditory this may sounds? People were living in extreme situations, one being totally different to the other – and almost none of those people were happy with themselves.
The main thing about the 'perfect' body is that it is constantly changing. Everyone owned skinny jeans until we were said that they are uncool and then we all had to accept that, so we went for boyfriend jeans and wide legs instead. Trends, even body ones, are always going to end and flow – there will never be just one figure that will always stand as the epitome of beauty. And the industry isn’t the only issue, as much as it is a big one because it creates the collective idea of standard beauty, we are also part of the problem when we act like someone’s value as a person has something to do with their body image. We do need to change our philosophies and generalizations, because we actually hold the power to make some changes. Some behaviours and concepts are no longer totally accepted by us, so now even lingerie brands have models of different sizes and shapes. We might be on the right path, but there’s a lot more that can be done.