Male social status and the female body
Body and beauty ideals are rather misleading. The general societal assumption is that they are born out of what’s hot, what’s popular, attractive and appealing. Whilst this is somewhat true, a shifting ideal body type doesn’t originate with a woman’s looks. In fact, it’s all about social status. Particularly male social status.
When the feudal system was abolished, and men could individually own property, everything that resided under the roof of his home belonged to him. Of course, because women are mere objects, and had no business setting foot outside the house whilst their husbands nobly ventured out to work, they too, counted as the male’s belongings. Female family members were living, breathing assets.
The higher the value of one’s assets, the higher one’s social status. The same shit applied way back in the 17th century; meaning the higher the ‘value’ of your wife, the greater social standing you were afforded. During this time, a high value wife meant one with a plumper, softer, more rounded body, because it meant her husband was clearly rich enough to feed her well, and support a sedentary lifestyle, that allowed her to accumulate an abundance of curves. The ‘excess’ flesh was a sign of wealth and prosperity, making it the desirable aesthetic, or the ‘ideal body’ of the time.
Any ‘respectable’ and wealthy 18th century man would have boasted a wife with an anatomy-defying tiny waist, as it displayed his ability to pay for (and often house) multiple maids to lace up and tighten her bone-crushing corset, (which was a two, sometimes three-woman job). As a result, the ‘ideal' female figure became the extreme hour glass…interesting how history repeats itself huh?
Cut to the mid 19th century (industrial revolution gang) and the rise of the ‘middle class’, where middle class men would advertise their wealth and status by having a wife who was so frail and thin, that she was too weak to work (ring any heroin chic bells?…) because it confirmed to the outside world that the man was so successful, that his family required no supplementary income to maintain their lifestyle, making ‘tiny and childlike’ the most sought after physique amongst women.
Nowadays, as women gradually gain more financial independence, female beauty ideals aren’t solely linked to their male partner’s social standing (although the term ‘trophy wife’ is clearly more literal than one might have once thought). However, we still live in a male-dominated world, and male influence on women’s bodies remains strong, but in the form of the monetised male-gaze.
Women whose bodies match today’s narrow ideal (and whose bodies therefore appeal to the male-gaze), are generally seen to have a higher social status than those women who’s bodies don’t adhere so closely to the ideal. In our masculine, money-driven world, those with more disposable income are naturally the favoured members of society, and women with smaller, more athletic bodies, are those who can afford the extortionate ‘health’ foods, personal trainers, £100 Lululemon running leggings, and £20 spin class. What’s more, the women with ever-youthful faces, breasts that defy gravity, large bums and tiny waists, are those who have enough spare cash, to spend tens of thousands on cosmetic surgery.
What’s depressing, is that this means that women in bodies that don’t fit the cookie-cutter ideal, are actually less-valued members of society. Why? Firstly, because it is assumed that they don’t have the money to spend on their appearance, and are thus weaker assets to the capitalist machine. And secondly, because it is looked down upon that they haven’t yet managed to force their bodies into something that appeases society’s male-gaze.
So, whilst it may not be quite so screamingly obvious as it used to be, the relationship between male socio-economic status and female body ideals still stands. In some ways, it is even more sinister now, as at least back in the 17th century, it was accepted that body ideals were exclusive by definition, whereas today women are sold the illusion of choice. That anyone can obtain the ideal body! All we have to do is try hard enough! All the while, today’s ideal body is just as exclusive as it was then, with only 5% of the female population able to physically achieve it…
Isn’t it backward that female beauty standards aren’t based upon standards of female beauty, but rather male standards of wealth and prosperity? Women have been manipulated into body dissatisfaction at the hands of male dominance for literal centuries. Centuries trying to morph themselves to fit ideals that they are not only physically excluded from, but economically too, and it’s time we stopped, don’t you think?
