By contributing writer Latashia Figueroa
What is the perfect size now a days? You do realize that what is considered perfect and beautiful today may not be so tomorrow.
Having wide hips and a big behind was a no no until J-Lo popped on the scene and became almost every man’s dream, showing off that perfectly round plump booty – and it is plump. Now almost every woman wants J-Lo’s behind.
But if you ever watched an old black and white movie, or looked at old magazines from the forties and fifties, even the early sixties, having wide hips and fuller figure was
Photo: www.in-between.org.uk
considered quite beautiful. Marilyn Monroe was known for her curves (she was a size 14 when she starred in Some Like it Hot). Calendar girls of the fifties and early sixties were quite curvy. So what changed? Why the turn around? Well, Twiggy, a supermodel of the sixties became quite famous for her twig like figure. When she landed the Vogue cover in 1967 she became internationally known. I am not saying that she began this fixation on thin that a lot of women seem to have but what I am trying to show is how we as a society permit the media to play such a huge roll in what we perceive as beautiful… perfect.
Photo: sashdashfash.tumblr.com
This is nothing new, we know it but yet we seem to buy into it. I was outside of the Good Morning America studio not long ago. They were interviewing Victoria Secrets model Chanel Iman. She is a beautiful young woman but when she stood I could not get over how skinny she was. Oh my gosh, she had no curves at all. In the Victoria Secret commercials these women are quite alluring, with their push up bras and perfect flat belly’s but I wonder how many men would look at them if they wore every day clothes revealing their very thin no curves, body.
Women push themselves to get this look, because we are told this is what beautiful and perfect is. Then the next minute we are told we should have curves like Beyonce and Fergie. By whose standards are we to conform to today? How about conforming to our own? Are you healthy and even happy that you have a little jiggle when you walk and wiggle? Are you healthy and happy that you’re lean and trim? Are you healthy and proud of your size 14 curves? Marilyn was.
Note that the first part of these questions began with “Are you healthy?” If you are then you are blessed and should therefore be confident. Confidence is an asset that allows your beauty to shine at any age and at any size. When you wake up in the morning, stretch and get out of bed. Smile at yourself and say “Good morning perfect size me” and mean it. I can almost guarantee you will pay less attention to those ads and commercials that try very hard to make you believe you are anything but.
Latashia Figueroa
Very good column