17 Beauty Standards from the 20th Century That Would Cause Outrage Now
Beauty standards have evolved over centuries, reflecting changes in society, culture, and attitudes towards appearance. What was once considered the epitome of beauty in the 20th century may now be viewed as outdated, unrealistic, or offensive. Let’s take a journey through time and explore 17 beauty standards from the past century that could spark outrage today:
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Porcelain Skin
In the early 20th century, the prevailing beauty standard prioritized pale, porcelain-like skin, often achieved through harmful skin-lightening products. This ideal fostered the harmful ideology of colorism, which favors lighter skin tones over darker ones.
Corsetry
Corsets were a staple of women’s fashion throughout the Victorian era and into the early 20th century. They were worn to cinch the waist and create an exaggerated hourglass figure. However, this practice came at a significant cost to women’s health, often leading to breathing difficulties, organ damage, and skeletal deformities.
Foot Binding
In certain cultures, such as China, foot binding was a common practice to create tiny, dainty feet—a symbol of beauty and social status. However, this tradition inflicted severe pain and permanent deformities on women, with lifelong consequences for mobility and health.
Thin Eyebrows
Throughout much of the 20th century, thin, heavily plucked eyebrows were considered fashionable, with women striving to achieve a pencil-thin arch. This trend contributed to a homogenized ideal of beauty that overlooked natural variations in eyebrow shape and density.
Tanning
In the mid-20th century, a sun-kissed tan became synonymous with health and beauty, leading many individuals to spend hours in the sun or use tanning beds to achieve a bronzed complexion. However, the quest for browned skin came at a heavy price since too much sun exposure significantly contributes to skin cancer and early aging.
Smoking to Stay Slim
In the mid-20th century, cigarette companies shamelessly marketed their products to women as a means of controlling weight and staying slim. This dangerous association between smoking and thinness encouraged people, especially women, to start smoking and reinforced the wrong belief that thin is beautiful.
Extreme Dieting
Crash diets and extreme weight loss methods were glamorized throughout the 20th century, with women often resorting to drastic measures to achieve the coveted thin ideal. This obsession with thinness fostered a culture of disordered eating and negative body image, promoting unrealistic beauty standards.
Bleached Hair
In the 20th century, blond hair was idealized as the epitome of beauty, leading many individuals to bleach their hair to achieve this coveted look. This emphasis on blondness as the standard of beauty reinforced Eurocentric ideals and marginalized people with naturally darker hair.
Heavy Makeup
Thick layers of makeup were commonly worn to achieve a flawless complexion and adhere to societal beauty standards. However, this heavy-handed approach to makeup often masked natural features and contributed to unrealistic beauty expectations.
Nose Jobs
In the mid-20th century, nose jobs (rhinoplasty) gained popularity as a means of achieving a more “Westernized” or “ideal” nose shape. This trend perpetuated narrow beauty standards that prioritized certain facial features over others, often at the expense of cultural diversity and individual identity.
Stick Thin Models
Throughout the latter half of the 20th century, fashion models were expected to maintain extremely thin and tall figures, perpetuating unrealistic body standards prioritizing thinness over health. This idealization of stick-thin models contributed to widespread body dissatisfaction and eating disorders.
Fixation with Unnaturally White Teeth
The emergence of teeth-whitening techniques and products in the late 20th century contributed to the fixation with unnaturally white teeth. This fixation on achieving a bright, Hollywood-worthy smile often overshadowed the importance of dental health and natural tooth color variations. Today, while teeth whitening remains popular, there’s a greater appreciation for the beauty of healthy, natural teeth.
Unattainable Perfection
In the 20th century, airbrushed images of flawless beauty were familiar in magazines and advertisements, promoting an unattainable standard of perfection that fuelled insecurities and self-doubt. Today, there’s a growing backlash against digitally altered images and a push for greater authenticity and transparency in media representations of beauty.
Gendered Beauty Norms
Traditional gender roles dictated specific beauty standards for men and women in the 20th century, reinforcing stereotypes and limiting self-expression. Today, there’s a greater recognition of the fluidity of gender and a rejection of rigid beauty norms based on binary gender categories.
Hair Removal Pressure
Women were expected to remove all visible body hair to conform to societal beauty standards in the 20th century, perpetuating unrealistic expectations of smooth, hairless skin. Today, there’s a growing movement towards body positivity and acceptance of natural body hair.
Surgical Enhancements
Cosmetic surgery, once stigmatized, became increasingly normalized in the latter half of the 20th century, with procedures like breast augmentation and liposuction gaining popularity. However, this pursuit of physical perfection through surgical enhancements often reinforced unrealistic beauty standards and perpetuated body dissatisfaction.
Beauty as a Status Symbol
In the past, beauty was often equated with social status and success, leading to pressure to conform to specific beauty standards to achieve recognition and validation. Today, there’s a movement towards redefining beauty beyond superficial attributes and valuing inner qualities and individuality.
