my mother once told me that she read a study in some magazine (i dunno what it was but she refers to this article quite a bit so she obviously read it thoroughly and feels it's reliable) that said that the women voted most beautiful had hips that were 10 inches bigger than their waist. now i choose to believe this myth because last time i measured for a sewing pattern that was the exact difference between my hips and waist. now i'm not saying i'm the most beautiful woman in the world of course, but i like the idea that curves are desirable, because all i've seen on models for the past few years are these literally stick girls. not just refering to their width (which generally could not be considered width at all) but their shape as well. they definately don't have hips 10 inches bigger than their waist, and it gets me thinking about our idea of beauty and how it fluctuates, cuz i'm thinking that article must have been old. i mean marilyn monroe was a size 13, that's bigger than me by far and yet she was considered the ideal for her time period. personally i like my size- sure there are days when i'm up or down and i'm happier or not so much but honestly when i think about shapes, i'd rather have mine than just about anyone elses. my mom told me this week (i quote my mom a lot) that she thinks God made me the size i am because i'm more relatable. i mean i'm attractive enough that people can hang out with me but i'm not that untouchable beauty- not too thin that i'm unlikeable and not too big that it's uncomfortable. i thought it was an interesting thing to say- i have to think she's right, i mean i don't really love hanging out with people that are that much better looking than me because it makes me feel self conscious but do i generally choose to hang out with people that are pleasing to the eye, i can't lie and say that i don't.
i guess my thought is just, what will the next beauty shape be? will big ever be in? will we keep going for the small? middle of the road? i mean i knwo fashion tends to repeat itself but will american's ever again go for the fleshy look of the past? i don't know, i think media gets to kind of choose whatever it wants and if it wants to migrate toward another shape, another look, it will- as much as we think it's showing us what we already view as beauty really it's telling us what is to be beauty.
it's so funny, i mean this isn't a new concept- we all realize this, there are certain things that we see and crave that we can't explain or understand, it's those things that we are presented with every day- bombarded with all the time until we either decide we like it or we stop saying we don't because we realize everyone around us does. we learned about this in my comm theory class- the whole, which has more influence on which, us on media or media on us, and the answer is media effects us far more than we effect what the media presents, which is sad, but true so what'r we gonna do about it i guess.
i'm done talking about this now- changedfish