Lentis/Technology and Conventional Norms of Personal Beauty

The conventional norms of personal beauty have changed greatly over the years. Most beautiful people today would not have been considered attractive a few hundred years ago Today, the term “the perfect body” is ubiquitous in American culture, although most people feel they fall short of this ideal. PARTICIPANTS? This chapter will discuss the current norms of personal beauty and ask the question, “How does technology affect an woman’s perception of the perfect body?”

One case study that examines the sociotechnical interface of personal beauty is Mattel’s Barbie doll. The Barbie doll was created in 1959 and has evolved a great deal since then.

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Barbie's progression over the past sixty years

Barbie’s evolution demonstrates that these dolls reflect society’s perception of beauty. Mattel’s first commercial for Barbie (1959) specifically markets her as “beautiful Barbie”. The commercial’s jingle ends with these telling lines: “Someday I’m gonna be exactly like you / ‘Til then, I know just what I’ll do / Barbie, Beautiful Barbie / I’ll make believe that I am you”. However, a closer look into pre-1997 Barbie reveals that her “look” is physically impossible to obtain.

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Barbie's Unrealistic Proportions

According to Rehabs.com’s article “Dying to be Barbie” (2012), Barbie’s child’s size 3 foot and extremely thin ankles would require her to walk on all fours. Her 16-inch waist is less than half the size of an average woman’s and would leave room for only half a liver and a few inches of intestines. Also, Barbie’s neck is twice as long and six inches thinner than the average female’s, rendering her incapable of supporting her head. Lastly, a woman with Barbie’s proportions would not be able to menstruate, due to extremely low levels of body fat. These startling revelations suggest that society’s image of the perfect body does not and cannot naturally exist in the physical world.

One woman who strives to emulate Barbie’s proportions through unnatural methods is Valeria Lukyanova.

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Valeria Lukyanova: the real-life Barbie

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Before / After photos show drastic changes in Lukyanova’s appearance

While she denies undergoing any plastic surgery beyond breast augmentation, before and after photos of the twenty-something Ukrainian beg to differ.

Plastic surgeons have claimed that Lukyanova must have removed some of her ribs, made her hips wider, and reconstructed her face. Lukyanova desires to be- as many people call her- the real-life Barbie because, “ to me the Barbie doll looks perfect; it was created as a human idol”.

In response to Barbie’s unlikely proportions, artist Nickolay Lamm created a new “normal” Barbie, with proportions based off of CDC measurements for an average 19-year old woman.

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“Normal” Barbie is made using measurements of the average 19-year old woman

From side-by-side comparisons, the differences are apparent: “normal” Barbie is shorter, with smaller eyes and a wider waist, and her neck is shorter and thicker. “Normal” Barbie’s backside is also more pronounced, her limbs are fuller, and her breasts are set lower on her chest. Lamm questioned Mattel’s intentions, asking, “If there's even a small chance of Barbie in its present form negatively influencing girls, and if Barbie looks good as an average-sized woman in America, what's stopping Mattel from making one?”

Nickolay Lamm isn’t the only person who believes that Barbie’s unrealistic proportions could contribute negatively to a girl’s perception of herself. Rehab.com’s article “Dying to be Barbie” (2012) provides survey results that demonstrate very young girls’ desire to be skinnier. Girls ages 5-8 were subjected to a psychological study where they were shown images of either Barbie or a more realistic doll. The girls who saw images of Barbie were found to have less self-esteem and a stronger need to be thin than those who saw the other doll. Another study involved 6-10 year-old girls who each played with one of the two dolls. Those who played with Barbie ate significantly less food throughout the study. Google’s “N-gram viewer”, an online phrase-usage tool, shows a strong correlation between the words “Barbie” and “anorexia” in the years after Barbie’s 1959 debut.

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Correlation between “Barbie” and “anorexia” after 1959

This information supports the idea that Barbie’s impossible body image negatively affects young girls.

Brigitte's part:

Like the Barbie doll, female Disney princess characters are also a reflection of society's interpretation of beauty. Snow White was the first Disney princess movie produced in 1937 (source). During this time, the media encouraged women to gain weight, advertising what was considered beautiful (Figure 1). Similarly, when looking at Snow White's body proportions, despite being a cartoon her proportions are realistic (Figure 2). In the mid 1940s, "pin-up girls" became popular (source) as girls on informal posters "pinned up" on walls. These women advertised the hourglass figure, and this new societal interpretation of beauty was seen in icons of the 1940s and 50s such as Marylin Monroe. Disney reflected this interpretation in their 1950 Disney princess film when Cinderella had an over-emphasized hourglass figure. Figure 3 shows what Cinderella and subsequent female Disney characters would look like with realistic waist proportions (Buzzfeed). Ultimately, these cartoon characters are not real, so body proportions uncharacteristic of real women may or may not affect young girls' idea of beauty.

As the conventional norm of beauty changed through time, so did the beauty icons. Twiggy, known for her thin build, was named "The Face of 1966" by the Daily Express (source). In the 1970s, supermodels such as Janice Dickinson and Lauren Hutton maintained a very thin look in the fashion industry, and curves like that of Marylin Monroe in the 1940s were long gone. While these models all portrayed thin women as beautiful through their fame, they still advertised their natural bodies. Photos could be airbrushed, but not altered in any other way. However, in 1988, Photoshop was invented (source), making it possible to enhance images to appear more attractive. This meant that now technologically could enhance how women's bodies looked, and would help shape conventional beauty.

In the mid 1980s, there was a stark increase in use of the terms "eating disorder," "breast augmentation," and "liposuction"(Ngram), and the upward trend has continued.

-specific examples of photoshop's use; what it does -Dove Beauty campaign to combat photoshop

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http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/beauty-and-hygiene-ads-1930s/7 http://www.buzzfeed.com/lorynbrantz/if-disney-princesses-had-realistic-waistlines Ngram.com Dove Campaign for real beauty