Body Image

Tonight, I made the observation to my husband that if I had lived during the Renaissance period, I would have been smokin' hot.  And it's true.  If you look at the art, the paintings and sculptures, you would notice a certain voluptuousness to the women, not just in bosoms and derrieres, but in arms and legs, hips and thighs.  If you go by the depiction of woman's body by the timer period's art (which I think is rather accurate), you can see what the "ideal" woman would look like for that time/society.  Renaissance dudes would have digged me.

Now, before you make any assumptions about my husband, he did make the appropriate response that I'm "smokin' hot" regardless.  Very good man.  But I still ponder...

Trends come and go, correct?  So when is the trend back towards a more supple figure going to return?  Would it even be possible in a society crazed by health food trends, SUPERmodels, and the skinny jean?  What would it take to return us to a less skinny-obsessed to a well-padded woman?

There are two parallels that I see here.  Both the Renaissance woman's image and woman's image today are influenced by one thing: the figure that is harder to get.  Don't believe me?  Think about it: during the Renaissance only those who were rich and had access to greater quantities of food and greater quality of food were likely to be plump.  Though things were not as dire for the regular citizenry than in the Medieval period, still, you had to be doing well to have so much to eat that you were more than a thin frame.  Today, it's the opposite.  The ease and frugality of convenience and junk foods (or really, they are one in the same) has created a nation that is hitting the obesity statistics.  And instead of patting ourselves on the back and admiring our general gorgeousness by our ancestors standards, we have instead become obsessed with the stick skinny woman, who in her forebears' time would have been considered quite differently.  Scrawny, maybe.  Today, it costs more to buy organic or even just fresh produce than it is to depend on frozen commodities all year round.  Have you seen the price of peppers, even in season?!  Plus, the amount of exercise needed to remain stick-thin (unless you're blessed by an enormous metabolism) cuts into other daily activities: you have to be committed.  And really, a personal trainer wouldn't hurt, either, if you could afford one.  I wonder if anyone's done a demographic study on obesity....  But, I could be way off.  I simply know that from my experience, it was much cheaper to buy prepackaged, unhealthy convenience foods and try to make them stretch with some frozen veggies when we've been strapped than to try to indulge in fresh produce, particularly out of season.

An interesting thought.  I think this reinforces to me that, rather than being concerned about how I look, I need to be far more concerned about being healthy: being active and eating healthy and letting my weight stabilize on its own.