How we see women today

There are so many different shapes and sizes. Can't we just let people be happy how they are?

Amen

Not endorsing photo alteration or unhealthily skinny models in any way, but...

In the renaissance, fat was beautiful because it was a sign of wealth. The average woman during that period would have been very thin, simply from a lack of food. Being overweight was a status symbol that said you had so much money you could afford to be fat. It's simply not apples to apples to compare beauty standards from other time periods to today. It has gone from the aristocracy being overweight and the common man being tragically thin to the reverse.

...AND let's not forget being "tanned": the fat aristocracy also wanted lily-white skin, which was a sure sign of not slaving away in the cropfields all day. ...until MUCH later, when folks started to "vacation" at the French Riviera. THEN sun-kissed skin began its assocation with wealth.

And what culture you are in as well. In other parts of the world, there are people looking to lighten their skin or fatten themselves up for beauty.

Basically, what's happening is what's always happened, right? Society says what's rare is beautiful and coveted. So when it was easy to be thin, you should want to be heavy, and when it's easy to be heavy, you should want to to be thin. So...how about we all just decide for ourselves what we want our bodies to look like, and tell society to suck it?

We comprise society. When people stop buying cosmo or shape with fit people on the covers... that's "society's" (aka, our) way of saying that's what we prefer.

I agree with your post completely though.

Basically, what's happening is what's always happened, right? Society says what's rare is beautiful and coveted. So when it was easy to be thin, you should want to be heavy, and when it's easy to be heavy, you should want to to be thin. So...how about we all just decide for ourselves what we want our bodies to look like, and tell society to suck it?

YEAH! Where is this "society" guy so I can punch him in the face!

Oh...wait.

Not endorsing photo alteration or unhealthily skinny models in any way, but...

In the renaissance, fat was beautiful because it was a sign of wealth. The average woman during that period would have been very thin, simply from a lack of food. Being overweight was a status symbol that said you had so much money you could afford to be fat. It's simply not apples to apples to compare beauty standards from other time periods to today. It has gone from the aristocracy being overweight and the common man being tragically thin to the reverse.

This is an oft-repeated "fact". It's also false.

Food shortages and malnutrition remained a recurrent problem in Europe until the late 19th/early 20th century but the preferred aesthetic varied a lot over time.

Ancient Roman art depicted women (generally) as thinner than Renaissance and 17/18th art, but curvier than ancient Greek art. Early Medieval art preferred women thin (bordering on the malnourished) and they progressively became "fuller" as time went by. This trend peaked around the 18th century and then reversed.

Economics may have played a role, but it wasn't as simple as fat = rich = pretty.

I can only be me and try not and focus on what society wants me to be.

Basically, what's happening is what's always happened, right? Society says what's rare is beautiful and coveted. So when it was easy to be thin, you should want to be heavy, and when it's easy to be heavy, you should want to to be thin. So...how about we all just decide for ourselves what we want our bodies to look like, and tell society to suck it?

Who is this "we"...?
Not I.

Of course, those Renaissance women also died at 40 and rubbed arsenic into their cleavage. Just sayin...