Women today--received this via text

[bokelley]

I asked dh what he thought. He said he thinks toned women look the best. Shows that the take care of them self by working out and care about their bodies.
Haven't I read somewhere that women from the bottom row were still like a size 4? I could be way off but I thought I read that. If that is the case that is still not the avg size of American women today right?

[bokelley]

Oh I should add don't listen to my husband he just told me his dream women is Kelly ripa. Haha

[scrub-jay]

I asked dh what he thought. He said he thinks toned women look the best. Shows that the take care of them self by working out and care about their bodies.
Haven't I read somewhere that women from the bottom row were still like a size 4? I could be way off but I thought I read that. If that is the case that is still not the avg size of American women today right?

But are you accounting for the changing standards for sizing? What were the measurements for a size 4 then as opposed to now?

[HouseofWool]

IIRC, Marilyn Monroe would have been around a 10 in today's sizes.

http://www.snopes.com/movies/actors/mmdress.asp

[diggitydot]

Sizes change DRASTICALLY over time.

[bokelley]

I never looked anything up just heard it somewhere. So clearly I had some misinformation

[MissCrabette]

True, she was bigger than a size 0, but check out her measurements and weight range. http://jezebel.com/5299793/for-the-l...marilyn-monroe Her waist was 22-23 inches! That's crazy to me. That is not plump by any stretch of the imagination. To me, that's as unattainable as the stick-thin models you see on a catwalk. Add to that the curves, and I don't see how the standard of beauty back then was any more relaxed than it is now.

[poky]

Sure there is criticism on both sides, but I didn't take the original photo as saying the first row was ugly. Which is why I thought the blog post had a good point but thought it was going way overboard in regards to this one particular image. I can see it both ways, though.

I took it as:

Here was the standard of "hot" then:

Achievable and closer to an average woman

Here is the standard of "hot" now:

achievable to most women only by being born with that body type or possibly through unhealthy choices.

You're not going to find Christina Hendricks on a cat walk, gorgeous as she is.

Heh. Naamah_darling is (obviously) not one to mince words when she's worked up, and she has issues she's very sensitive to, but she is so articulate, and she really does think things through thoroughly before she spouts off.

To me, the point of her post is that the very idea of "a standard of hot" is fucked up, and pits women against other women, and that "hotness" (especially as relates to body size) is truly in the eye of the beholder, not an absolute, and most men pay much less attention to what's supposed to be "hot" than most women do anyway, so why do we care? The image in question, by saying "why is THIS hot now, rather than what was hot back then?", IS implying that the thinner chicks should be considered "less hot" than the chicks with curves....which does nothing but flip the current pressure to be skinny over, and make women who happen to be super-skinny feel like somehow they're "wrong", and they should have more curves/put on weight. To me, it's kinda like the mommy wars; so many women are so wrapped up in legitimizing their choice to work or stay home, that they demonize "the other side" - why say skinny chicks aren't as hot as chicks with curves? To some people they are, to others, they aren't; if it's how you are and it works for you, good for you, ether way!

[SoonerTexan]

I can agree with that Sandy

[poky]

Heh. Some parodies of the original image:

[SoonerTexan]

That last group of images looks postpartum to me

[poky]

That last group of images looks postpartum to me

Why is that sad? They're fertility symbols, right? They probably *should* look post-partum! If you think fertility is a good thing, why would the natural physical consequences of that fertility be a bad thing?

[diggitydot]

Why is that sad? They're fertility symbols, right? They probably *should* look post-partum! If you think fertility is a good thing, why would the natural physical consequences of that fertility be a bad thing?

Those were my exact thoughts, too.

[ladymoreta]

Heh, I'm about tired of looking post partum...


Laurie

[SoonerTexan]

^^that