History Shapes The Way You Look

Recently, this advertisement has been shown quite frequently on Channel 5.



At first glance, it is one of those painfully clichéd advertisements designed to make the viewer feel good about themselves. Afterall in 44 short seconds, it showed the girls heart-wrenchingly triumph over their own insecurities. The advertisement is part of the Dove's campaign to promote increased self esteem among girls in the age, where the idea of beauty invades the lives of young impressionable girls in various mediums.

The campaign which hit Singapore recently, come on the tails of reports of Brazilian model Ana Carolina Reston and Uruguayan model Luisel Ramos' death due to anorexia. In the last few months of her life, Ana Carolina Reston, ate only tomatoes and apples. While it is easy to view these examples as far removed from our realities, you would only need to take a few seconds to look around you.

How pressured are you to live to society's perception of beauty?How pressured are you to dye your hair?Go to the gym, to lose weight, gain muscles? Simply because your friends are?

We all have heard that during the Tang Dynasty, the ideal beauty was Ms Yang Guifei, a favorite, plump concubine of the Emperor Xuanzong. It was allegedly because of her that Tang beauties were depicted as round, plump women in contrast to the earlier Tang period where the ideal beauty were women with slender figures. We have also heard of 1950's Hollywood icon, Miss Norma Jean aka Marilyn Monroe who on her official website, was described as "personified Hollywood glamour with an unparalleled glow and energy that enamored the world. Although she was an alluring beauty with voluptuous curves".

What caused this change? When did the skinny woman become the beauty of our society?

One of the most prominent actresses that changed the conception of style and beauty was Audrey Hepburn who was the complete opposite of her contemporaries Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor. By 50's standards, Audrey Hepburn seemed too tall and too skinny. However, Hepburn captivated the audiences with her slender figure, perfect posture, graceful movements and aristocratic manners, presenting the public with a new ideal of woman. In fact, she would come to represent not only a new look but also a new femininity.

Cecil Beaton, an English fashion and portrait photographer wrote that "Audrey Hepburn's appearance succeeds because it embodies the spirit of today. She had … the striking personality that best exemplifies our new Zeitgeist. Nobody ever looked like her before World War II; it is doubtful if anybody ever did. Yet we recognize the rightness of this appearance in relation to our historical needs. And the proof is that thousands of imitations have appeared."

What was this "historical need" that he mentioned? At what point of history did Hepburn emerge and what did the different image she portrays signify for women?

The World Wars were important turning points in history, not only in terms of politics but also in the social cultural realm, particularly the Second World War. Hepburn, herself was the product of poverty and malnutrition, while living in the Nazi occupied Holland during the Second World War.

Before the war few women followed careers. Most jobs for women were ‘traditional’ roles such as nursing, secretarial or caring jobs. However, with millions of men joining the armed forces, more workers were needed to fill their places in the factories. This changed the traditional views of women. Job opportunities in ammunitions factories for working-class women allowed them to earn a much higher wage than before. Women became machinists, lumberjacks, dockers and railway engineers. Attitudes changed – people supported these changes. In the United States alone, saw the number of women employed in the shipbuilding increased from 39 to 200,000 by 1943.

Because of the changing social and economic role of women, the way women presented themselves (i.e.: the way they dressed) went through a radical change. The First World War (1914-1918) had a pronounced effect on women's fashion in the Western world, particularly hemlines. Hems rose to mid calf length by 1916. Large numbers of women were recruited into military organizations on all sides, and put into a variety of uniforms, which also influenced the shape of fashionable dress. Women were literally, as well as figuratively, wearing the trousers.

During the inter-war years, trousers for women became acceptable for the upper classes. When the Second World War broke out, women and utility trousers became inseparable. Women's clothing went through the greatest changes in, both due to shortages, and due to large numbers of women engaging in work outside the home during the war. In fact, men's suits were re-cut into women's suits, complete with the tailored details and shoulder padding previously found in the male garments.

Thus perhaps, when the war ended, the need to move away from the traditional physical conception of beauty saw the shift of an "ideal woman" move away from Marilyn to Audrey. However it should be kept in mind that in contrast to the emancipated models of today, Hepburn looked the way she did due to circumstance, and not design.