{"id":76385,"date":"2023-07-07T12:26:39","date_gmt":"2023-07-07T10:26:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/visualjournalism.de\/?post_type=magazin&p=76385"},"modified":"2026-09-27T20:40:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T18:40:18","slug":"body-ideals-through-the-ages","status":"publish","type":"magazin","link":"https:\/\/visualjournalism.de\/en\/magazine\/ideals\/body-ideals-through-the-ages\/","title":{"rendered":"Stuffed, squeezed, starved: body ideals through the ages"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
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\n\tIdeals<\/a><\/div>\r\n

\r\n Stuffed, squeezed, starved <\/h2>\r\n\r\n
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For as long as we have existed, there have been supposedly ideal bodies. Which proportions were flattering in the Middle Ages? What counts as beautiful today? By Lion Knirsch<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/div>\r\n \r\n

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\r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n \"\"\r\n\r\n\r\n <\/a>\r\n \r\n <\/figure>\r\n\r\n <\/div>\r\n \r\n <\/div>\r\n\r\n \r\n
\r\n \"\"\r\n\r\n <\/figure>\r\n\r\n \r\n This is what beauty looked like to Adobe\u2019s AI image generator in September 2023. The prompt was \u2018Portrait of various beautiful people from different eras and with different body ideals\u2019 <\/span>\r\n \r\n \r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\n\n\n

Depictions of the human body are not an invention of the modern era<\/strong> \u2013 not even of antiquity. As long as about 30,000 years ago, well before social media, body images seem to have fascinated people. According to the Natural History Museum in Vienna, the Venus of Willendorf, a female figurine from the Palaeolithic, shows that lavish curves and hanging breasts evidently had a certain significance. Which exactly? A mystery to this day!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things become clearer a few thousand years later. According to Liane Vorwerk-Gundermann of Helmut Schmidt University in Hamburg, a \u2018boyish\u2019 look with apple-sized breasts and a small round belly was considered beautiful among women in the Middle Ages. Among men, a narrow waist and narrow shoulders were highly desirable \u2013 often the belly was bound in as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When society turned back to antiquity in the Renaissance, body ideals developed that had already been portrayed in ancient Greece, Marlies St\u00fccklschweiger explains in an academic study. Men were to be shaped like Greek gods \u2013 athletic and bursting with strength. Michelangelo\u2019s David is just one of many depictions of this ideal. The medieval obsession with slimness among women<\/a> eased somewhat from around 1500 AD. The idea of a modest bosom, however, remained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I am the state!\u2019 In the 17th century, the Sun King Louis XIV set standards not only in politics but also in matters of beauty. In the Baroque era, people turned towards indulgence. Ample proportions and size were considered splendid. To help nature along, people resorted to padding in breeches and the like, as well as tall curly wigs. Women were also expected to emphasise their curves with a corset \u2013 so says Daniela Mauch, who examined the subject in her paper \u2018Ideals of beauty through the ages \u2013 phenomenological and textile-didactic aspects\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n

The body project<\/h2>\n\n \n <\/div>\n\n \n\n\n\n\n

With her own art project @koerpersachen<\/a> on Instagram, the artist Maria Karasjow from Papenburg now wants to show a new perspective: body neutrality. \u2018I want to show people as they really are \u2013 unedited, with all their little details and unique features.\u2019 What began in 2019 as a simple drawing exercise has become a labour of love for the 23-year-old. \u2018It\u2019s important to me to create acceptance with my pictures \u2013 acceptance that nobody has to be ashamed of not fitting a socially prescribed ideal of beauty. Body neutrality means accepting your own body and other people\u2019s as they are.<\/a> It isn\u2019t about loving every body shape; it\u2019s about accepting them.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In doing so, we should learn from the past, Karasjow says. \u2018There simply is no one ideal body, which is why this image has changed so often over time. It\u2019s important to feel comfortable in your own body and not to let supposed ideals put you under pressure.<\/a>\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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