I was struck, wandering round the British Museum, by the fact that the
ancient classical ideal of male beauty has remained unchanged. An Adonis
then is an Adonis now. But most beautiful ancient Greek women in the
statues would now be labelled "chunky". Why should that be? If we admire
the classical sense of proportion so much maybe we should contemplate their
ideals of female beauty more...
It also occurs to me that it is much too rigid to accept only thinness in
women as they come in may different body types some of which were never
intended to be skinny but are harmonious and beautiful just as they are.
Who wants everyone to look the same? And men in the 'fifties admired many
fairly hefty pin-ups and expected a specially beautiful woman to be of
medium build, as a rule, rather than skinny.(Ava Gardner, Marilyn Monroe,
Jayne Mansfield, Anita Ekberg, Elizabeth Taylor and on and on) The current
trend is media-led and I hope that it doesn't last.
Somewhat off topic and just my hobbyhorse. But I don't think anorexia was
much of a problem back then when normal meant "just as you are".
Sally
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