Beauty Across the Ages

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Beauty Across the Ages

• An Exhaustive, Expansive, Completely Conclusive
  Study by Kate Fitzsimmons and Karen Krautwurst

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What Is Beauty?

• Websters Definition of Beauty
• the quality or aggregate of qualities in a person
  or thing that gives pleasure to the senses or
  pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit .

The Definition of Beauty is That Definition is
none Of Heaven, easing Analysis, Since Heaven
and He are one. - Poem By Emily Dickinson
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Does Beauty Change or Is It a Constant?

• Over the years, what is considered beautiful has
  changed. This is especially true with clothing
  and other fashions.
• Cultures seem to agree (and some characteristics
  agree cross-culturally) that there are certain
  qualities that define beauty during one specific
  era.
• This presentation will examine 4 different eras,
  one dating back five centuries, and compare and
  contrast what their definitions of beauty were.

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16th Century France
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16th Century France

• Whats the deal?
• France was aristocratic
• There was a rigid system of social classes
• The clothing that a person was allowed to wear
  was determined by which social class he or she
  belonged to.

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16th Century France-Womens Beauty

• Women were considered beautiful if they had
• Soft, Pale Skin
• Tiny waist, Large Hips
• Flat Hair, usually styled or pulled up
• Small features, delicate hands

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Why these qualities?
The peasant girl shown on the left represents
undesirable qualities, such as thick arms (which
signifies manual labor), rough features, and
tanned skin (from working outdoors).

• Pale skin because it indicated that a woman was
  not forced to work outdoors, and thus it
  represented wealth and status.
• Large hips were favored because a woman would be
  seen as motherly, and tiny waists were seen as
  feminine.
• Corsets were designed to flatten the torso and
  shrink the waistline to create the desired look.

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Mens Beauty

• Men were effeminate men who were physically
  masculine were workers.
• Wigs were very expensive during this time, and
  the more ornate the wig, the higher the status of
  the man.
• Men were also expected to have pale, soft skin,
  which again indicated wealth and status.

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Mens Fashion

• Mens clothing was elegant and ornate during this
  time.
• The more elaborate the clothing, the higher the
  status.
• Jewelry became very popular and the aristocrats
  competed with each other by comparing the size
  and extravagance of their jewelry.

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Pre-Civil Rights Era
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Pre-Civil Rights Image

• In the pre-civil rights America, it was
  especially important for black women to look
  presentable to reflect a positive image on
  their race as a whole.

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Pre-Civil Rights Image

• Black women tried to look as European as
  possible.
• Women spent hours trying to straighten their
  hair, as opposed to their natural kinky hair.
• Women with smaller facial features and lighter
  skin were preferred.

• Women always left the house wearing prim and
  proper clothing with their hair straightened and
  makeup on.

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Post-Civil Rights Era
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The Post-Civil Rights Era and into Vietnam

• Whats the Deal?

The Vietnam War had created tensions among youth
culture. It had spawned an era of rebellion
which was reflected in styles and fashion.
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Civil Rights/Post Civil Rights Image

• The younger civil rights generation was all about
  taking pride in racial uniqueness.
• Black women no longer tried to look like European
  women, but rather took pride in their natural
  beauty.
• Straight hair was out Afros were in.
• Fuller bodies were celebrated along with fuller
  facial features (full lips and wider noses).
• Darker skin was no longer shunned.

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Present Era
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The 20th Century

• From This to
  This

In 1975, top models and beauty queens weighed
only 8 less than the average women. Today, they
weigh 23 less, a size that is almost impossible
to achieve by everyday females.
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The Importance of Body Image
The graph at left represents the number of
full-body photographs that appear on the front
cover of 4 different fashion magazines. As one
can clearly see, in recent years the importance
of the full body has increased exponentially.
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2005
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Todays Beauty-Women

• To be beautiful, women must
• Be thin and toned
• Have large breasts
• Have long legs
• Clear, tan skin
• Have no unwanted hair (legs, underarms, eyebrows)
• Wear Makeup

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Todays Handsome-Men

• To be handsome, a man must
• Have defined muscles
• Be tall
• Have tan, clear skin
• Have no unwanted hair (back, ear, nose, etc.)
• Have straight, white teeth

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What Can We Learn From All of This?

• Differences
• Qualities valued differed between cultures (i.e.
  pale skin representing status vs. tanned skin
  representing leisure)
• The French focused on things that could be
  changed (clothes, hairstyles), whereas in todays
  culture the focus is on inherited features (nose
  jobs, breast augmentation)

• Similarities
• Each culture has a set of desirable
  characteristics for which everybody strives.
• Physical qualities reflect a certain societal
  expectation
• Similar aspects were important (hair, skin color,
  body shape, etc.)

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Jacksons Theories

• Status Generalization Theory
• The French physical attributes reflected their
  positions in society, i.e. social expectations
• Pre-Civil Rights black women were expected to
  look a certain way in order to reflect an equal
  position in society.
• Post-Civil Rights black women were regarded in a
  diminished social light by the older generations
  because of physical appearance.
• Today, pretty people are thought to be more
  competent or skilled.

• Social Expectancy Theory
• In each culture, there is a widely accepted
  standard that all members must meet in order to
  be considered attractive/worthy
• In the Pre-Civil Rights Era, black women who did
  not straighten their hair, for example, were
  eschewed not only by white culture, but by their
  own race as well.

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Works Cited/Consulted

• Beauty. Websters Dictionary. 2005.
  Mirriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 19 Sep.
  2005. http//www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book
  Dictionaryvabeauty.
• Dickinson, Emily. The Definition of Beauty is
  (988). Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson.
  1955.
• Jackson, Linda A. Physical Attractiveness A
  Sociocultural Perspective. Body Image eds.
  Cash and Pruzinsky. Chapter 2.
• Jewelry. Encyclopedia Britannica. 2005.
  Encyclopedia Britannica Online. 14 Sep. 2005.
  http//search.eb.com/eb/article-14091.
• Sypeck, Mia Foley and James Gray, Anthony H.
  Ahrens. No Longer Just a Pretty Face Fashion
  Magazines Depictions of Ideal Female Beauty from
  1959 to 1999. International Journal of Eating
  Disorders 36.3 (2004). 342-7.
• http//channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/phot
  ogallery/explorer_searchforadam/photo10.html
• http//costume.dm.net/corsets/history.html
• http//romancereaderatheart.com/ren/timeline/
• http//www.beautyworlds.com/images/angeladavis.jpg
  
• http//research.history.org/JDRLibrary/Images/dura
  nt_2.jpg
• http//www.loc.gov/exhibits/odyssey/archive/08/081
  7001r.jpg
• http//www.got.net/mmills/black/40_image/lady.jpg
  
• http//badfads.com/pages/fashion/afro.html