Instagram fitness influencer Sia Cooper has posted a series of edited photos to her 1.1-million followers highlighting the unrealistic beauty standards women have been trying to achieve forever. Her pictures show what the “perfect” female body looked like throughout the decades from the 1920s to today.
Cooper starts with the “Roaring 20s,” which she explains was “all about boyish,” so women sported short hair and “boobs and waists didn’t matter.” In the “Hollywood Era” of the 1950s, she says Marilyn Monroe’s curves were idealized, “but a slimmer waist was ideal.” In the “Swinging 60s and 70s” Cooper says the “twig” body style was introduced and “women wanted a thin and girly” appearance. The “Supermodel 80s,” were all about athletic bodies with toned arms and legs, and the “Heroin chic 90s” the trend went the other way and the thin, waifish, androgynous look was in.
“Postmodern beauty” is what Cooper calls today’s style, where “big boobs and butts and flat tummies” are ideal. “Women also turn to plastic surgery to achieve their desired look,” she writes, adding that they’re also “unhappier than ever with their appearance.” She adds that if you want to be truly happy, “choose to forget what the media says and choose to love your own self as you are.”