Vintage Ads Promoting Weight Gain

[Volnutt]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/29/vintage-weight-gain-ads_n_1119044.html

My how times have changed. Why can't this fashion trend make a comeback like all the other ones?

[IsmiLiora]

My issue with all these ads is that they're still promoting an ideal of beauty that is unattainable by most.

Yes, the women are thicker (which I do like, personally -- I think my face and arms look much better at 135 than 110), but they also have relatively flatter stomachs and they have an hourglass figure. And look at those legs!

On me, that same weight makes me look like a lumpy mattress. Oy vey! I have a straight figure, so such curves will never be mine.

Not that I should be the ideal of beauty! But I'm just pointing out that like in any era, there was still the "ideal" that still took work and a certain kind of genetic makeup to attain.

If y'all love the idea of heavier women, in my fashion reading, I've bumped into Judgment of Paris (http://judgmentofparis.com), which features plus sized models and celebrates the idea of heavier women. Warning, though, they generally discourage what they call "exercise torture" and bemoan the fact that size 16 models aren't bigger. I don't think that they should be championing a life of languidity (not a word) and indulgence completely, but they feature some beautiful models. In fact, the model in my avatar is Justine Legault, I believe, who is a plus-sized model.

I do have to admit, many of them are beautiful because their faces belie their figures. They still look "thin." I'm not too heavy but my face shows every pound that I have. Sometimes we just can't win.

[Volnutt]

Good points. I didn't realize.

I guess when it comes down to it, if women in general are always going to judge themselves as falling short of an "ideal" (call me a pessimist, I suppose). I'd rather see them overweight than under, less immediately dangerous.

[IsmiLiora]

As someone who struggled with eating disorders, I agree. Just my thoughts on the issue.

[Volnutt]

And good thoughts they are. Thanks.

[Adela]

It's interesting to see how the ideal beauty image has changed. There was a recent James Bond movie marathon and I pointed this our to my fiancé. How the women in Thunderball would be too fat  for Hollywood today.

But it's marketing and commercialism that tries to make us feel deficient so we will buy more products and treatments. 

I read a book recently about the cultural differences in what is considered beautiful. In  white America you have to be anorexic looking, unfortunately. But in the carribbean, they hold up a curvy shape and call it a "coca-cola bottle shape". You can be 400 pounds, but if you have this shape, you are considered very sexy.  Then, Japan idealizes a very different figure and they call it a kimono shape. If you can make your kimono lay right over a slender, not very curvy figure, that is considered beautiful. And then in places like Uzbekistan, families don't want their girls thin because people will think they can't afford to feed their girls.

I became allergic to make-up and that was a hard transition. But now I notice that women wear alot of make-up and it often hides their true beauty.   There are so many ways to be beautiful and it's sad when girls and women don't know they are beautiful as they are.

[Volnutt]

It's interesting to see how the ideal beauty image has changed. There was a recent James Bond movie marathon and I pointed this our to my fiancé. How the women in Thunderball would be too fat  for Hollywood today.

But it's marketing and commercialism that tries to make us feel deficient so we will buy more products and treatments. 

I read a book recently about the cultural differences in what is considered beautiful. In  white America you have to be anorexic looking, unfortunately. But in the carribbean, they hold up a curvy shape and call it a "coca-cola bottle shape". You can be 400 pounds, but if you have this shape, you are considered very sexy.  Then, Japan idealizes a very different figure and they call it a kimono shape. If you can make your kimono lay right over a slender, not very curvy figure, that is considered beautiful. And then in places like Uzbekistan, families don't want their girls thin because people will think they can't afford to feed their girls.

I became allergic to make-up and that was a hard transition. But now I notice that women wear alot of make-up and it often hides their true beauty.   There are so many ways to be beautiful and it's sad when girls and women don't know they are beautiful as they are.

Seriously.

[jewish voice]

I wish we see more adds like that plus them women in that pairs shoot there all um very cute 

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