Fashion has always been an influential and evolving part of women’s lives throughout history. However, it did not start to become a psychical and psychological health problem in America until the 1920s. Though the iconic “flapper” era brought about edgy clothes that led to a beneficial feminist movement, it also fostered the detrimental idea that women’s appearances must be perfect at all times. Thus, these unattainable standards led to the feeling of inadequacy that is still prominent in society today. In the 1920s, flapper uniforms were the must-have outfits of the era. For the first time in history, women were wearing short skirts, high heels, and had short, bobbed hair. Nonetheless, though this may have been a strive for feminism at the
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Being a slim women had become a way in which to prove one’s pure lifestyle and thoughts to a male audience. In Fasting Girls: The Emerging Ideal of Slenderness in American Culture by Joan Jacob Brumberg, she states that:
“Food preferences and thin bodies also sent moral and aesthetic messages, the young woman whose frail, delicate frame demonstrated her rejection of all carnal appetites more closely approached the Victorian ideal of femininity than did her more robust counterpart whose heavier physique signaled sexual craving” (451).
In other words, thinness theoretically proved that one could turn down their sensuous appetites such as indulging in delicious foods and, more importantly, sexual desires. Heavier women, on the other hand, were seen to have a lack of control and were therefore seen as less virtuous than their thin …show more content…
In order to fit into the latest and hottest trends, women “turned to flattening brassieres [...] that encased the body from chest to waist” (Brumberg 452). In other words, in an attempt to flatten their bodies to gain the “flapper” look, women would essentially bind their chest down and flatten their stomachs with these specific, restricting brassiers. This attempt to reform one's body proved that fashion ideals of the 1920’s were creating mental conflict and, evidently, body insecurities in young women. Not only this, but these insecurities led to the formation of the modern day diet. Obsessed with the desire to be thin, women soon turned to dieting and exercise to help them achieve their goals. In 1918, the dieting book Diet and Health with a Key to the Calories by Lulu Hunt was the first best-selling weight-control book in America. The incredible popularity of this book only proved “that weight was a source of anxiety among women and that fat was out of fashion” (Brumberg 453). Moreover, it also proved that women were willing to suffer to be
Being a slim women had become a way in which to prove one’s pure lifestyle and thoughts to a male audience. In Fasting Girls: The Emerging Ideal of Slenderness in American Culture by Joan Jacob Brumberg, she states that:
“Food preferences and thin bodies also sent moral and aesthetic messages, the young woman whose frail, delicate frame demonstrated her rejection of all carnal appetites more closely approached the Victorian ideal of femininity than did her more robust counterpart whose heavier physique signaled sexual craving” (451).
In other words, thinness theoretically proved that one could turn down their sensuous appetites such as indulging in delicious foods and, more importantly, sexual desires. Heavier women, on the other hand, were seen to have a lack of control and were therefore seen as less virtuous than their thin …show more content…
In order to fit into the latest and hottest trends, women “turned to flattening brassieres [...] that encased the body from chest to waist” (Brumberg 452). In other words, in an attempt to flatten their bodies to gain the “flapper” look, women would essentially bind their chest down and flatten their stomachs with these specific, restricting brassiers. This attempt to reform one's body proved that fashion ideals of the 1920’s were creating mental conflict and, evidently, body insecurities in young women. Not only this, but these insecurities led to the formation of the modern day diet. Obsessed with the desire to be thin, women soon turned to dieting and exercise to help them achieve their goals. In 1918, the dieting book Diet and Health with a Key to the Calories by Lulu Hunt was the first best-selling weight-control book in America. The incredible popularity of this book only proved “that weight was a source of anxiety among women and that fat was out of fashion” (Brumberg 453). Moreover, it also proved that women were willing to suffer to be