Blog #1

This is the Woman of Willdendorf. (on the left) She originated from Austria during the Upper Paleolthic period and dates between 22,000-21,000 BCE. The statue carved from limestone shows the female figure with rounded forms just about everywhere. Her features are exaggeratted with large breasts, thighs, a huge belly and a deep naval. (although her arms remain very tiny and practically unvisible) She's faceless; her bead like hair surrounds her whole head. Hundreds of these statues were found & were called "Venus" of Willendorf for some time. The statue was believed to be fertility figures & mother goddesses. During the Paleolithic period, it wasn't likely for actual women being of this form & figure to exist (pretty much impossible). With moving around from place to place & food being scarce and not even guarenteed, humans, both men and women, were most likely skinny or of normal size and figure.
It's interesting how some scholars have named her Venus of Willendorf. Venus-the goddess of love and beauty. This tiny statue, of about 4 inches, had once represented the ideal form of women's beauty, a HUGE contrast to today's standards.

http://www.donsmaps.com/images/avdeevovenus.jpg to the left- "venus" figures found around 20,000 BCE in Russia

This small statue (of about 11cm height) found in the Czech Republic, was believed to represent a nourished body that expressed health and fertility. Made c. 23,000 not far from the Women of Willendorf, the figure displays more of today's typical body figure. I find it very interesting how, though both created during similar times, they vary greatly. It just goes to show us how there is no right definition of beauty.

So how does this relate to my everyday life? A lot! & hugely. Though today the Women of Willendorf might be seen to display an image of either an obsese or pregnant woman, the artist carved out then desired traits. & I, as well as many others, am glad that many of these W.o.w exist. With today's culture of supermodels & insanely non-realistic gorgeous celebrities, we need it! My younger sister often complains about how fat she is getting. I often have to reinforce that she's exaggerating & mention curvy, or at least not super skinny celebrities out there who are beautiful & known for it. She went on a squeeky swing & said: "See! I'm so heavy even the swing squeaks."
I've gone through high school listening to my friends complain about everything of their looks! & degrading songs on the radio doesn't exactly help... like how fellow rapper Mike Jones states: "I need a dime, a top of the line, slim waist, cute face with a big behind".
random funny icon ;)
In a way, how you look & how your body is shaped, can determine your interests & personality. (sad, but somewhat true) Skinny, tall girls may end up loving fashion while girls w/ more of a shapely figure can end up liking hip hop music. And with the media portraying people's bodies the way they do, skinny girls are being left out of the hip hop music scene and girls w/ more curves are being excluded in the fashion world!

The idea of beauty varies from time and people and place. What one might see as beautiful, others may disagree. The idea of figure also goes hand in hand w/ other physical aspects like skin color and hair and even fashion trends! (that would emphasize a certain body part) During the Reinassance time, like the Paleolithic time, food was scarce; wealthy people could afford a lot of food and poor people, who had little if any, would remain skinny. Being more fleshy was desired and seen as ideal; there are thousands of paintings to prove it! (including Venus looking in the mirror painting below) & now, when food is literally everywhere and easily accessible, a toned body is favored displaying fitness, health & vitality. In Asia, there's an old belief that being pale would mean you are rich. The workers out in the field would be in the sun all day becomming more tan, while having pale skin symbolized wealth and purity. In Western culture, it's usually the opposite: rich meant having many vacations therefore being tan. A girl in India may be wishing for paler skin while an extremely pale girl in America may be wishing for tanner skin. There are numerous ideals of beauty ALL AROUND THE WORLD! Some even seen as very peculiar (ex: rows of rings around necks to elongate in Thailand) The main message: BEAUTY IS RELATIVE!!!
there is no right or wrong answer for what is beautiful, everyone's idea is different.

You can see this is evident with fashion trends. In the 1920's, flapper dresses were in style. Dresses that would just fall down, not revealing much curves, yet this was desired at the time. & as the picture shows above, Victorian dresses with huge bundles of fabric comming out from behind were the norm. (why i do not know) In the 80's, shoulder pads were instyle.. Shoulder pads! I remember trying on one of my mom's old vintage jackets & seeing broad shoulders in the mirror. it was interesting to see, i tried imaging how this look would be everywhere at the time. Shoulder pads did add a dominant, independent look, & women were becoming just that.
During the 1950's both actresses Marilyn Monroe and Audry Hepburn were at their height of fame and glory. Both popular, talented and beautiful actresses of the same decade, yet completely different body types. Marilyn Monroe was a dress size 6 (vintage size 12) the same dress size as my younger sister (I try telling her this in hopes of giving her beautiful examples) while Audrey held the body of a dancer!

In the end, it's all beautiful! :)