With the story of Narcissus, the Greeks cautioned us about obsessing over our looks. Narcissus, the handsome hunter, looked into the water, fell in love with his own reflection, and unable to stop admiring himself, died there all-alone.
No one wants to end up like poor Narcissus, but vanity and the pursuit of beauty, subject to the whims of trendsetters, has led to tortured bodies throughout the ages. From the bound feet of women in China, to the metal coiled neckpieces that turned necks into stalks in Myanmar, and corsets that withered muscles, broke ribs and atrophied organs of women in Europe and the United States, bodies as well as self image suffered.
At one time, women were celebrated for their natural bodies, but the standard of beauty has gone through drastic changes over the years. Art historian, Anne Hollander said, “Nudity is a costume.” Benjamin Franklin would have liked that, because he had a tendency to write in the nude. However, he was relatively clean compared to other patriots in 1776 that were a smelly, dirty bunch.
Our Founding Fathers had a bath once or twice a month, their hair was a home for lice, and dental disease was the norm. Wigs for men and hairpieces for women covered greasy hair, and everyone wore perfume to hide body odor. Because it couldn’t get much worse than that, they were able to form a more perfect Union.
In the 14th and 15th centuries, full-figured women were glorified. In the 1800’s, women were pale, plump and perfect. But in the 1900’s, as women began to play sports, the slender figure became ideal. Women joined the Olympics and Eleanor Roosevelt taught calisthenics and dance.
The 1920’s brought the flapper era of the “washboard” boyish figure, but in the 1950’s, thanks to Marilyn Monroe, curves were once again in fashion. The 1960’s brought a wave of eating disorders, because of the British teenager, “Twiggy,” a 5’7” model who weighed 92 pounds. Things turned from bad to worse in the 1990’s, when 5’9”, 100 pound model, Kate Moss introduced the “waif” look, and models began to eat Kleenex to satisfy their hunger pangs. Fed up with diets, women as well as men then turned to plastic surgery for fat-sucking procedures to realize the desired silhouettes that used to be achieved by steel and whalebone.
However, in 2014, there seems to be a push-back---as store mannequins are beginning to look more realistic, reflecting bodies of average women---with love handles, thicker waists and breasts that don’t protrude beside arm pits. Stores are now making an effort to display mannequins that look more like the women who buy their clothes. It is also helpful to customers to see a mannequin who doesn’t look as if it has just suffered the guillotine. The headless horseman might be okay if you are shopping for pumpkins, but not a wedding gown.
My 77-year-old friend, Deborah, is a natural beauty. She recently attended a party where a woman bragged about her recent face-lift, looked at Deborah, and said, “I’m a year older than you, but I look so much younger.” Sometimes, beauty is a sty in the eye of the beholder.
Esther Blumenfeld (“You’re born naked baby, and everything after that is drag!”) RuPaul