Female Body Shape in the 20th Century

How has body shape changed during the last century? What were the popular and glamorized body shapes of the day?

Early 1900s

Camille Clifford
Actress - the quintessential "Gibson girl".

1920s

Louise Brooks
Dancer, showgirl, and actress.
BMI: 19.9

1930s

Lisa Fonssagrives
Fashion model, dancer. Referred to as the first supermodel. This picture is from Vogue 1939.

Also:
Greta Garbo

1940s

Betty Grable
The pin-up girl of the 1940s: "The girl with the Million Dollar Legs"

1950s

Marilyn Monroe
Actress, model.
BMI: 20

Also:
Brigitte Bardot, Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly

1960s

Twiggy
Model.
BMI: 15.

Mean BMI US females (aged 20-74): 24.9

Actresses of the time were in stark contrast to Twiggy:
Jane Fonda (the movie Barbarella, 1968)
Sophia Loren (the "perfect" hourglass - 38C-24-38)
Catherine Deneuve (measurements 33½-24-35)
Ann-Margret
Ursula Andress

1970s

Farrah Fawcett
Actress

Mean BMI US females (aged 20-74): 25.3

Also:
Jacqueline Bisset, Bo Derek, Brooke Shields.

1980s

Cindy Crawford
Model - the late 1980s marked the beginning of the age of the supermodel.
BMI: 19

Mean BMI US females (aged 20-74): 26.6

Also:
Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer
Madonna

1990s

Kate Moss
Model - marked the beginning of the 'waif' look.
BMI: 16

Mean BMI US females (aged 20-74): 28.1

The Gap Keeps Widening
It is tempting to draw an inverse correlation between the BMI of models and celebrities against that of the general population. It seems that as the average joe (or josephine) got fatter, the people we idolized became thinner.

However it is not quite that simple.

Many fashion models have been thin over time. Lisa Fonssagrives (above) described herself as a "good clothes hanger". Did she starve herself to get that way? Probably not.

The 1920s and 1960s both bucked the trend of the curvaceous woman. Ann Bolin, an anthropologist at Elon College suggests that "during periods of liberation, like the 1920s, when women had just gotten the vote, and the 1960s, when the Pill became available, the ideal shape for women deemphasized their reproductive characteristics--the nourishing breasts, the wide, childbearing hips."

Other measures of physical beauty show a very clear trend towards slimness.

• Waist measurements of winners of the Miss America pageant went from just under 26 inches (1920) to around 24 inches (1980s).
• During the period from 1979 to 1988, 69% of Playboy models and 60% of Miss America contestants weighed 15% or more below the expected weight for their age and height category.

Influential: High Fashion or Mass Media?
Some countries are beginning to ban fashion models of a certain size - but how much impact will this have on body shape ideals of popular culture? The real mind games come not from the subculture of high fashion - but from the insidious influence of popular mass media.

Remember Ally McBeal? The TV show of the late 1990s portrayed women as being very thin. At a time when mean female BMI hovered around 28 - the actress Calista Flockhart had a BMI of around 15.6. The trend continues today - much of the entertainment industry is fixated with thinness - in spite of a viewing public that keeps on getting heavier.

The last 40 years has seen explosive growth in the accessibility of visual media. Portrayal of full bodies rather than just faces has also been a trend (source). The scrutiny that our modern channels of media allow has reached a level undreamed of 40 years ago. Idols are rapidly created and discarded - leaving behind impressionable masses endlessly pursuing impossible goals.

So What Now?
Today's ideal body shape seems to be a bizarre combination of male desire and waifish androgyny; thin, no hips, big bust. For most this is only possible with a genetically-blessed bone structure along with surgery - something which America is pursuing with a vengeance. Couple this with the "toned" look, where muscular (but not overly-so) women play lead roles in Hollywood, and champion the fitness industry.

How willingly do we subscribe to a cult of perceived beauty that is attainable by so few? Could it be that after all these years, many women are still judged (by themselves and others) on the basis of body shape and little else?

We are a two-body society: one body is an advertising medium, the other body is what you see on the street.

I think it would be nice if hating the way you look weren't so good for the economy. [...] We know, too, that women in ads, knockouts to start with, are artificially perfected beyond human emulation. We know, but we forget. - Anne Bolin

Sources

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