Beauty in Different CulturesFrom the West to ….

Health and Self-Image

Dr. Peih-ying Lu

Oct. 1, 2012

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

http://www.marilyn-monroe.org.uk/pictures/mm15.html

• By the mid-1950s, thinness was again 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 influenced by Western Culture to some certain extent?

Societies that practiced or have practiced body

mutilation

• Aborigines of Australia(nasal piercing for bone-ornament)

• The Ainu of northern Japan(ear piercing for ninkari)

• The Chinese(foot binding)

• The Sara of Southern Sudan (lip piercing for labret)

• The Mangbettu of Central Africa (head shaping)

• The Kwakiutl of the Northwest Coast (head flattening)

• The Masai of East Africa (ear piercing for adornment and elongation)

• The Kayapo of the Amazon (scarification)

• The Maori of New Zealand (tattooing)• The Padaung of Myanmar (neck

elongation)• The Sara of Southern Sudan (lip

piercing for labret)