Wow, reading this I remembered how, as a child, I used to think being dainty and frail was really compelling... I think that kind of conditioning transcends beauty culture, but beauty culture is a big agent of it. Whatever the agent is though, anything that encourages women to be small and fragile is beneficial to a patriarchal society. …
Wow, reading this I remembered how, as a child, I used to think being dainty and frail was really compelling... I think that kind of conditioning transcends beauty culture, but beauty culture is a big agent of it. Whatever the agent is though, anything that encourages women to be small and fragile is beneficial to a patriarchal society. It makes so much sense that in our modern hyper-capitalist society, there's this shift to extreme product consumption (and it also serves to make women fragile financially!).
I remember hearing somewhere that the "messiness" and "illness" of heroin chic was a response to the healthy ideal of the 80s/80s aerobics culture, etc. I wasn't alive in the 80s so I don't know how accurate that description of the 80s beauty ideal is, but I wonder how it fits into the illness/beauty trajectory.
Your analysis about projected "wellness" (at the expense of real wellness) feels absolutely spot on. Anyway, I'm gonna chew on all this a while -- you always give me so much to think about!
Yes, I thought the same growing up! After I saw Little Women, even though I loved Jo, I was obsessed with (sickly, dying) Beth (Claire Danes). I thought she was so pretty & ethereal almost, & had the daintiest piano-playing fingers. I used to pretend play that I was her, & try to make myself more frail & dainty lol. And for a long time I thought my fairly small fingers were not pretty & dainty enough to play piano. Interesting how these messages stick in our brains!
Wow, reading this I remembered how, as a child, I used to think being dainty and frail was really compelling... I think that kind of conditioning transcends beauty culture, but beauty culture is a big agent of it. Whatever the agent is though, anything that encourages women to be small and fragile is beneficial to a patriarchal society. It makes so much sense that in our modern hyper-capitalist society, there's this shift to extreme product consumption (and it also serves to make women fragile financially!).
I remember hearing somewhere that the "messiness" and "illness" of heroin chic was a response to the healthy ideal of the 80s/80s aerobics culture, etc. I wasn't alive in the 80s so I don't know how accurate that description of the 80s beauty ideal is, but I wonder how it fits into the illness/beauty trajectory.
Your analysis about projected "wellness" (at the expense of real wellness) feels absolutely spot on. Anyway, I'm gonna chew on all this a while -- you always give me so much to think about!
Yes, I thought the same growing up! After I saw Little Women, even though I loved Jo, I was obsessed with (sickly, dying) Beth (Claire Danes). I thought she was so pretty & ethereal almost, & had the daintiest piano-playing fingers. I used to pretend play that I was her, & try to make myself more frail & dainty lol. And for a long time I thought my fairly small fingers were not pretty & dainty enough to play piano. Interesting how these messages stick in our brains!