During the 1700's and early 1800's, “beauty” was synonymous with “proportion”. A conventionally beautiful woman was neither too tall nor too short, neither “too thin” nor “too plump”, with a long neck, large breasts, and a tapered waist.
Clear faces, bright eyes and tinted lips were desirable, but everything had to look natural. It was believed that cheeks painted with blush had to look flushed, and lips had to look bitten rather than painted.
During the 18th century stays and panniers transformed the female body, shaping the silhouette according to the beauty standards of the period: a slim waist and a "raised bust, firm and well rounded." The female body was essentially remodeled, its natural lines erased and new contours created.
In the Victorian era, women were seen, by the middle classes at least, as belonging to the domestic sphere, and this stereotype formed firm expectations for women to provide their families with a clean home, prepare meals, and raise their children.
The Renaissance ideal of beauty was fair hair, a pallid complexion, bright eyes and red lips. Elizabeth was tall and striking, with pale skin and light red-gold hair. She exaggerated these features, particularly as she aged, and other women sought to emulate them.
Pear-shaped women were thought to be the most beautiful; women were proud of their curvy hips and thighs, but would flatten their chests with tightly bound corsets.
From 1959 to 1978 there was a remarkable shift towards a thinner ideal in the fashion industry: models represented in big magazines as Vogue, Ladies Home Journal and Woman's Day decreased significantly in weight.
The hourglass figure was highly coveted during the Victorian Era, and women went to extreme lengths to achieve it. The corset, a tightly laced garment, was a staple of Victorian fashion. It cinched the waist and pushed up the breasts, creating the illusion of a smaller waist and an exaggerated hourglass shape.
Wives were expected to comply with their husbands' demands. Punishment was allowed for disobedience. The level of violence husbands were permitted to inflict, however, was less far reaching than the power granted to masters.
The image of American women in the 1950s was heavily shaped by popular culture: the ideal suburban housewife who cared for the home and children appeared frequently in women's magazines, in the movies and on television.
The ideal body shape of the 1920s was characterized by a flat chest, a slim waist, and a lack of pronounced curves. The desired figure was often referred to as the “boyish” or “flapper” physique.
Women and men showed their respectability and class through white skin, and heavy makeup was considered more respectable than naturally light skin. Cosmetics also had practical aims – their use created what was considered an attractive face, and they could hide the effects of age, blemishes, disease, or sun.
Claudio Da Soller examines the traditional European archetype of beauty: "a small head; blond hair; eyebrows set apart, long and arched; a narrow chin; large, prominent, colourful, and shining eyes, with long lashes; small, delicate ears; a long throat; a finely chiselled nose; small, even, sharp and white teeth, close ...
In the nineteenth century, the stereotypical image of a person suffering from tuberculosis was “one of delicate yet desirable youth” and “fragile loveliness” (Byrne 2011: 92). The disease was believed to enhance the beauty of its pre- destined victims, forming a discourse between illness and romanticism.
In addition, paleness and fragility were also connected to ideas of class. Many disorders, such as tuberculosis, were associated with a higher rank of life, so lightened skin became a preoccupation for all classes as they tried to achieve these ideals of beauty and emulate the upper classes.
In the 1890s, American artist Charles Dana Gibson drew images of tall, slim-waisted yet voluptuous women in illustrations for mainstream magazines, and these depictions of the new feminine ideal were referred to as the “Gibson Girl.”
But, if we were living in 18th-century America, we would have been typical. In 18th-century America, the typical age of marriage for middle-to-upper class white women was 22 and 26 for men. Women began courting as early as 15 or 16, but most delayed marriage until their early twenties.
That context was a period of tragedy in Islam after the battle of Uhud, when dozens of men from the still formative Muslim community in Medina were killed in one day. Numerous women and children were left without support. To deal with this problem, Allah revealed the verse permitting men to be polygamous.
This shall make her a good woman.”[4] The ideal love between a husband and wife in the middle ages was therefore conceived as something in which both partners showed respect which in turn facilitated moral development. Marital love was – in many ways – a bourgeois construct in the later middle ages.
The Head should be well rounded; and look rather inclining to small than large. The Forehead white, smooth, and open (not with the Hair growing down too deep upon it;) neither flat nor prominent, but like the Head well rounded; and rather small in Proportion than large.
During the Renaissance period, large foreheads were highly sought after as a symbol of beauty and intelligence. That's right, it wasn't just about dainty features and symmetrical faces. The bigger the forehead, the better!
The normal schoolgirl dress would be knee length and be of a dark cotton or woollen material, often black and would be worn with long black stockings. The shoes would be flat and boot like. Girls did not wear the mob cap (sometimes wrongly called a mop cap) as this was worn by servant girls.
For about 400 years, roughly between 1500 and 1900, bodily weight and volume, for both men and women, had a strong visual appeal. There were variations according to country and century in this standard of good looks, but in general it was considered not only beautiful but natural to look physically substantial.
Women with a 0.7 WHR (waist circumference that is 70% of the hip circumference) are rated more attractive by men in various cultures. Such diverse beauty icons as Marilyn Monroe, Sophia Loren and the Venus de Milo have ratios around 0.7; this is a typical ratio in Western art.
If a women's BMI is 18.5 to 20, she is skinny and if she falls below 18 she is borderline anorexic,” says Dr Seng.