Changing Views on Body Image

Prescribed Title: "That which is accepted as knowledge today is sometimes discarded tomorrow."


Image: "Born in the Wrong Century"

From Mona Lisa to the Assumption of the Virgin to Ruben's Adoration of the Magi, ancient historical paintings have lauded the voluptuous human form. There were no paintings of stick thin women who, on the verge of starvation, aimed to represent beauty.

No.

It was during these times that a women who had a more full figure was named beautiful.

Nowadays, It's the opposite.

The knowledge of a women being 'preferable' and of bride material in positive correlation with her body weight/shape has diminished. Instead, those who are near a size zero or emerging from a Vogue magazine have replaced this ideology. As seen in the left-handed image "Born in the Wrong Century", women who have the voluptuous and full-figured body type in contemporary society are shunned; however, this body image would have been advantageous in ancient times. It is ironic that although ancient paintings with women who represent the full-figured body type are still seen as exceptional art, women who represent this body type in contemporary society are not valued as highly, if at all.

Evidently, the knowledge of what it meant to be a "good figured" woman, as portrayed in art, during the earlier centuries is discarded in today's society.

Thin wasn't always meant to be.