The past few months, I've been seeing photos like these circulating on Facebook. one of them is the one shown above and another is a picture of Marilyn Monroe compared to a very skinny woman in a swim suit with the caption "When did this become hotter than this? **ck society."
When I look at this picture, I see and think what the people that created this picture want me to. My first impression was thinking how classy, beautiful, and healthy the women int he bottom row looked and how artificial and scarily skinny the women in the top row looked. I grew up in a generation that is used to looking at women with the physique of the women in the top row (Heidi Montag, Nicole Richie, Keira Knightley, and Kirsten Dunst) so I'm pretty used to classifying them as "hot." The makers of this picture, however, seem to have chosen pictures that portray the women of present day in a bad way.
Looking back at what many many considered to be "beautiful" ten to twenty years ago, quite a bit has changed. Women are wearing more revealing swimsuits and have slimmed down a lot more. Upon seeing this picture, many (including myself), reflect on society, thinking how we have changed for the worse, idolizing women that are very skinny. We could continue to dwell on how the women in the bottom row are full figured, natural beautifies, and how one or two of the women in the top row have gotten plastic surgery, but let's look at it from a different point view-let us be more sympathetic to the women in the top row. Just because these women are skinny, doesn't necessarily mean they are unhealthy. Women nowadays tend to work out a lot. Most celebrities have personal trainers and have work out routines to keep them in shape. Instead of being quick to judge these women as unhealthily skinny when compared to women twenty years ago, we could consider the fact that they are just perhaps very fit.
I think this is an interesting topic that you picked. Beauty is one of the biggest concerns of women today and the idea of what is beauty and what isn't is always changing. I wonder why skimpy and revealing is considered hotter than more natural, clothed beauty. Whether it's plastic surgery, anorexia, or training, I think women are too obsessed with being skinny. It's good to be healthy and work out, but I think a lot of celebrities today are influencing 'regular' women to go overboard to be as thin.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your blog about our definition of beautiful women today compared to a few decades ago, I completely agree with your concerns. Looking at the pictures of women today compared with the beautiful Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor, it does seem strange how our definition of a beautiful woman has changed so much. The pictures of the celebrity women today is sending out the message that woman should be stick thin, and that just isn't realistic or attractive. I think the picture you used shows how women aren't naturally super skinny, and that curves are beautiful. Overall, I think the media's view of a beautiful woman needs to change to what it used to be, and put out a positive message like you said.
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