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Beauty Across the Ages

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Title: Beauty Across the Ages


1
Beauty Across the Ages
  • An Exhaustive, Expansive, Completely Conclusive
    Study by Kate Fitzsimmons and Karen Krautwurst

2
What Is Beauty?
  • Websters Definition of Beauty
  • the quality or aggregate of qualities in a person
    or thing that gives pleasure to the senses or
    pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit .

The Definition of Beauty is That Definition is
none Of Heaven, easing Analysis, Since Heaven
and He are one. - Poem By Emily Dickinson
3
Does Beauty Change or Is It a Constant?
  • Over the years, what is considered beautiful has
    changed. This is especially true with clothing
    and other fashions.
  • Cultures seem to agree (and some characteristics
    agree cross-culturally) that there are certain
    qualities that define beauty during one specific
    era.
  • This presentation will examine 4 different eras,
    one dating back five centuries, and compare and
    contrast what their definitions of beauty were.

4
16th Century France
5
16th Century France
  • Whats the deal?
  • France was aristocratic
  • There was a rigid system of social classes
  • The clothing that a person was allowed to wear
    was determined by which social class he or she
    belonged to.

6
16th Century France-Womens Beauty
  • Women were considered beautiful if they had
  • Soft, Pale Skin
  • Tiny waist, Large Hips
  • Flat Hair, usually styled or pulled up
  • Small features, delicate hands

7
Why these qualities?
The peasant girl shown on the left represents
undesirable qualities, such as thick arms (which
signifies manual labor), rough features, and
tanned skin (from working outdoors).
  • Pale skin because it indicated that a woman was
    not forced to work outdoors, and thus it
    represented wealth and status.
  • Large hips were favored because a woman would be
    seen as motherly, and tiny waists were seen as
    feminine.
  • Corsets were designed to flatten the torso and
    shrink the waistline to create the desired look.

8
Mens Beauty
  • Men were effeminate men who were physically
    masculine were workers.
  • Wigs were very expensive during this time, and
    the more ornate the wig, the higher the status of
    the man.
  • Men were also expected to have pale, soft skin,
    which again indicated wealth and status.

9
Mens Fashion
  • Mens clothing was elegant and ornate during this
    time.
  • The more elaborate the clothing, the higher the
    status.
  • Jewelry became very popular and the aristocrats
    competed with each other by comparing the size
    and extravagance of their jewelry.

10
Pre-Civil Rights Era
11
Pre-Civil Rights Image
  • In the pre-civil rights America, it was
    especially important for black women to look
    presentable to reflect a positive image on
    their race as a whole.

12
Pre-Civil Rights Image
  • Black women tried to look as European as
    possible.
  • Women spent hours trying to straighten their
    hair, as opposed to their natural kinky hair.
  • Women with smaller facial features and lighter
    skin were preferred.
  • Women always left the house wearing prim and
    proper clothing with their hair straightened and
    makeup on.

13
Post-Civil Rights Era
14
The Post-Civil Rights Era and into Vietnam
  • Whats the Deal?

The Vietnam War had created tensions among youth
culture. It had spawned an era of rebellion
which was reflected in styles and fashion.
15
Civil Rights/Post Civil Rights Image
  • The younger civil rights generation was all about
    taking pride in racial uniqueness.
  • Black women no longer tried to look like European
    women, but rather took pride in their natural
    beauty.
  • Straight hair was out Afros were in.
  • Fuller bodies were celebrated along with fuller
    facial features (full lips and wider noses).
  • Darker skin was no longer shunned.

16
Present Era
17
The 20th Century
  • From This to
    This

In 1975, top models and beauty queens weighed
only 8 less than the average women. Today, they
weigh 23 less, a size that is almost impossible
to achieve by everyday females.
18
The Importance of Body Image
The graph at left represents the number of
full-body photographs that appear on the front
cover of 4 different fashion magazines. As one
can clearly see, in recent years the importance
of the full body has increased exponentially.
19
2005
20
Todays Beauty-Women
  • To be beautiful, women must
  • Be thin and toned
  • Have large breasts
  • Have long legs
  • Clear, tan skin
  • Have no unwanted hair (legs, underarms, eyebrows)
  • Wear Makeup

21
Todays Handsome-Men
  • To be handsome, a man must
  • Have defined muscles
  • Be tall
  • Have tan, clear skin
  • Have no unwanted hair (back, ear, nose, etc.)
  • Have straight, white teeth

22
What Can We Learn From All of This?
  • Differences
  • Qualities valued differed between cultures (i.e.
    pale skin representing status vs. tanned skin
    representing leisure)
  • The French focused on things that could be
    changed (clothes, hairstyles), whereas in todays
    culture the focus is on inherited features (nose
    jobs, breast augmentation)
  • Similarities
  • Each culture has a set of desirable
    characteristics for which everybody strives.
  • Physical qualities reflect a certain societal
    expectation
  • Similar aspects were important (hair, skin color,
    body shape, etc.)

23
Jacksons Theories
  • Status Generalization Theory
  • The French physical attributes reflected their
    positions in society, i.e. social expectations
  • Pre-Civil Rights black women were expected to
    look a certain way in order to reflect an equal
    position in society.
  • Post-Civil Rights black women were regarded in a
    diminished social light by the older generations
    because of physical appearance.
  • Today, pretty people are thought to be more
    competent or skilled.
  • Social Expectancy Theory
  • In each culture, there is a widely accepted
    standard that all members must meet in order to
    be considered attractive/worthy
  • In the Pre-Civil Rights Era, black women who did
    not straighten their hair, for example, were
    eschewed not only by white culture, but by their
    own race as well.

24
Works Cited/Consulted
  • Beauty. Websters Dictionary. 2005.
    Mirriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 19 Sep.
    2005. http//www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book
    Dictionaryvabeauty.
  • Dickinson, Emily. The Definition of Beauty is
    (988). Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson.
    1955.
  • Jackson, Linda A. Physical Attractiveness A
    Sociocultural Perspective. Body Image eds.
    Cash and Pruzinsky. Chapter 2.
  • Jewelry. Encyclopedia Britannica. 2005.
    Encyclopedia Britannica Online. 14 Sep. 2005.
    http//search.eb.com/eb/article-14091.
  • Sypeck, Mia Foley and James Gray, Anthony H.
    Ahrens. No Longer Just a Pretty Face Fashion
    Magazines Depictions of Ideal Female Beauty from
    1959 to 1999. International Journal of Eating
    Disorders 36.3 (2004). 342-7.
  • http//channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/phot
    ogallery/explorer_searchforadam/photo10.html
  • http//costume.dm.net/corsets/history.html
  • http//romancereaderatheart.com/ren/timeline/
  • http//www.beautyworlds.com/images/angeladavis.jpg
  • http//research.history.org/JDRLibrary/Images/dura
    nt_2.jpg
  • http//www.loc.gov/exhibits/odyssey/archive/08/081
    7001r.jpg
  • http//www.got.net/mmills/black/40_image/lady.jpg
  • http//badfads.com/pages/fashion/afro.html
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