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Beauty in Different CulturesFrom the West to ….
Health and Self-Image
Dr. Peih-ying Lu
Oct. 15, 2009
Ancient Greek and Roman Culture
• Primitive cultures valued obesity in women
• The ideals of feminine beauty changed as civilizations developed.
• The ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans valued thinness in women.
http://www.edupics.com/en-coloring-pictures-pages-photo-greek-woman-with-chiton-i13309.html
• After the collapse of the Roman Empire, the full-bodied woman again gained favor.
Medieval Age
from the Ellesmere manuscript of The Canterbury Tales, The Huntington Library, California, USA
Renaissance women
National Portrait Gallery, London
18th Century
• http://textline.wordpress.com/2009/02/12/women-readers-in-the-eighteenth-century-and-the-british-museum/
• During the eighteenth century, this began to change, at least for the upper class.
• While artists continued to depict peasant women as robust, they began to portray their wealthier counterparts as thin.
http://textline.wordpress.com/2009/02/12/women-readers-in-the-eighteenth-century-and-the-british-museum/
• By the late nineteenth century, women’s magazines were sending strong messages about body size, standardized sizes had been introduced, and clothing was being mass-produced.
Beauty in the 19th Century
www.picturesofengland.com/img/M/1002850.jpg
www.eapglass.com/JerseyLily/lilliesitting.jpg
http://nm-server.jrn.columbia.edu/projects/masters/bodyimage/history/1890s.html
• In the 1890s, American illustrators began depicting the ideal young American woman as tall, thin and athletic.
The image of the flapper, a thin boyish look that women dieted and bound their breast to attain.
• With the depression and World War II, the ideals for women became more mature and the body size slightly heavier.
• This change is reflected in the sex symbols of the 1940s and 1950s
• By the mid-1950s, thinness was againg being emphasized.
• The image of Barbie Doll
Beauty in Confucian Culture
• And it’s your turn….
• 5 minutes talk about the change of concept of Beauty in Confucian Culture
• Is it influence by Western Culture to some certain extent?
