As I was walking through the Impressionist exhibit of the Musee D’Orsay I noticed a very interesting trend. Looking at painting after painting, I realized that the women of Monet, Cezanne and Manet’s paintings were a bit larger than what I was used to seeing. Staring back at me were actually paintings of full-figured women (who were often times naked with each roll of fat painted in detail). Instead of bones popping out at me (as I am so used to seeing) I was actually seeing fat. These paintings were of women who would without a doubt be considered Fat in our culture today.
A very common justification of our current culture’s hatred of fat is the following: fat is ugly and thin is beautiful. Many people claim that thin is better because well, it just looks better. Well, tell that to Monet! He and other famous impressionist painters seemed to find something fascinating and beautiful about the full-figured women they so often painted.
My stroll down this famous Impressionist hall further confirmed what I already suspected to be true: Our culture’s love of thin is nothing more than a social construction. We think thin looks better because we are bombarded everyday with images of thin as the better alternative. I’m quite sure that if some of the women of the Impressionist paintings stepped on the scale, their BMI’s would be less than satisfactory. And yet these 19th Century painters seemed to find something beautiful about their bodies.
I say all this to point out these hard truths: Thin DOES NOT equal beautiful. Thin DOES NOT look better. Thin IS NOT better. Thin is merely something we have been taught to THINK is better and many of us (myself included pre-cheeseburger days) accept as better. But what we learn from the past is that just as thin is considered beautiful now, “Fat” was once considered beautiful.
I’m not here to tell you that fat should be considered more beautiful than thin. One of our main goals here at EAC is to encourage you to accept your OWN notions of beauty that are not based on the media’s narrow definition. Although it’s a hard task, I think reminding ourselves that thin has not always been synonymous with beauty is a good place to start.
It isn’t an easy task to think outside of the box when people are not used to it. I need to say these things to myself in the mirror “thin DOES NOT equal beautiful!” And I think if you tell your friends these things you will get silence an expression looking like what did she just say? and Are you sure about that? But it gives people something to think about. Great post!!!!
I thank heavens every day that my dear boyfriend is so conservative in his values, choices and tastes. He loves old masters, he loves these painted beauties, he loves me
First time commenter, long time reader. Great blog, tiffabee!
(just) Bee
Wonderful post today, man. Not only were certain body-types more accepted(valued, even!) during earlier times….even in the modern-day world, in parts of the world that aren’t the United States of America, heavier women are not ridiculed or shunned.
Africa, for instance, and Jamaica. So I’ve heard.
Hindu belief says, “I am not my body” – the body is just a vehicle for my SOUL! That must allow for a great deal of disattachment from the judgements we often make on our bodies here in the u s of a. If you believe in reincarnation, and you don’t like your body, well, whatevs because you’re gonna get another one next time you incarnate! *heehee!*
Of the Pacific Islanders, the Samoan’s have the same inspiration of beautiful women, as did the French artists. They love and adore the more fuller-sized women, even today, their ideals remain the same.
They didn’t only find them beautiful, but they loved them in a romantic and sexual way. They slept with them. Sometimes they even fought for them. We don’t know what did Van Gogh’s favourite prostitute look like, but he even chopped a part of his ear for her. Maybe she was fat. Or maybe she was naturally thin. She probably would be hated by fashion designers anyway. But love and desire made them do the craziest things for them. They were loved with a passion. And they deserved it.
Maybe the ideal of beauty is so twisted and fake nowadays because the people who love them don’t love them with such passion? I’m not saying real women have curves. I’m saying real women aren’t Photoshop disasters. The people who fall in love with this Photoshop disasters have no sense of commitment nor passion. I mean, French painters weren’t exactly monogamous, but they loved every woman they were with. With a passion. Maybe because they were aware of their volume and proportions. They didn’t see everything through the eyes of technology. Maybe that’s why non-western civilisations have the same perceptions about women of size and respect towards women in general: lack of technology. A blessing in disguise.
I don’t know much about art, so can’t comment on that. I think we all want what’s unattainable. The grass is greener on the other side of the fence etc. In the past in europe, and presently in Africa being fat was unattainable because people did manual labour and fatty food was expensive. Now the opposite is true, office jobs and expensive (time-wise) healthy food. So thinness appears unattainable now for the average person, therefore we value it more.
‘Is Jane beautiful?’ is impossible to answer, but ‘Is Jane beautiful to me?’ is answerable. I don’t think we can generalise beauty. So the idea of beauty really is personal and specific and therefore subjective (at best) when put generally. It’s so specific that really all I care about is whether my wife (whoever she may be) finds me attractive… everyone else, well it’d be nice but it isn’t as important. That’s why we shouldn’t care so much about society’s portrayal of a thin ideal — because it isn’t solid.
Forget about the image argument, buy the health one. Be healthy (which probably will make you thin). Don’t aim to be thin.
Rory, I disagree that being healthy will “probably” make you thin. Or did you mean probably not? I wasn’t sure from the context of the comment. But I agree with “Don’t aim to be thin.”
You have some interesting twists on the subjectivity of thinness as a beauty ideal in this post. I really like how you pointed out that the painters not only painted fatter women, but rendered all the light and shadow associated with their fat rolls as well–all of the features that women often have in the real world that we never see in modern advertising or on TV or whatever. They could have glossed over these details if they didn’t consider them to be an integral part of the beauty in the image they were painting.
I wish we could get back to this strain of realism in public imagery, because it’s the kind of thing that makes women (fat or thin) ashamed of the natural curves and angles of their bodies, and of the natural changes that occur in their bodies with pregnancy or aging. There is nothing inherently “ugly” about a sagging stomach or breasts or a roll of fat around the waist, but you would never know that from the images we see today.
I don’t think that Impressionists “chose” to paint larger models or sort them out; I don’t think they were doing anything out of the ordinary – for one thing, there were too many of them doing it. I am under the impression that those women were pretty much average for their time and their diets, and that our perception of them as overweight for their time may be a false one based on our current cultural valuing of extreme thinness and (particularly) extreme youth.
What is regarded as beautiful (when it comes to our size) seems to always be determined by those who are of higher social status. In the days when beautiful full figured women were considered the models of the time, a fuller figure meant higher social status. Those who had the luxury of fat on their bodies were the rich elite and could afford more food and even delicacies. Thin meant you did strenious work to survive and in order to survive, you had no time for weight gaining lesiurely activities.
Now days foods that make you fatter (i.e fast food, high fructose foods, pre packaged foods) are cheap, very abundant and more affordable for the those of “lower status”. Those who can afford to be thin can afford, organic, natural foods, personal trainers, facials and live in areas where they can run outside, hike or walk to their nearest Whole Foods Market.
One thing that seems to be consistent in society is that we like people who have nice looking faces related to the scientific measurement of beauty. Even babies like to look at an attractive face. It just makes us feel good. That’s why pretty people are on TV and in Movies.
Despite all these factors, what is truly beautiful is how a person carries themselves and the beauty that emanantes from within. We may see someone and on first glance consider them homely or fat but after a few conversations we may find them to be the most beautiful and adorable person ever.