are-yuh pie-on

great expectations

1965
1981
1990
1990
2010

Every once in a while we get so focused on how things currently change that we forget how much they have changed in the long term.  If you’re at Columbia in the Institute of Human Nutrition we have seen this series of images a few times, but for just cause.  There are so many details you can see from the evolution of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition cover.  For arguments sake let us assume that the models that land the cover are a good representation of what “beauty” is in the main stream media (whether or not this coincides with real people/life is another issue all together).  Some things I notice through the progression:

1) the obvious change in body weight from the 1960’s through 1990 and beyond.  look at that round face from 1960’s.  she’s not even emaciated…..hufff.  are those muffins i see slightly poking off from the side of her swimsuit?  (surely I am joking)

2) the word play around the models’ figures is dramatically different.  1960s and 80’s you have actual interesting topics of travel and play that would normally be associated with a swimsuit issue.  the model is there to simply take you to a dream vacation.  look at 1990 and 2010; “not so virgin islands” ooooooooo intriguing, and “perfect 10.”  perfect 10?  really? REALLY? as the wonderful webpage wikipedia.org puts it [citation needed].

3)what are we saying to our young women in this country by making the expectations more and more extreme?  for what? the woman of 1960 seems to have a wonderfully proportionate body and a normal BMI (body mass index), overall a very healthy individual, so why did we have to change? what drove this change? who started the change and what were they expecting to happen?

4) lastly (for now at least) the women are wearing less and less of their swimsuits.  in fact some pictures in the swimsuit edition are women naked with swimsuits painted on them. let us say that I take a wheel off my bicycle and then decide to ride it around with just one wheel. i can then no longer call it a bicycle, it is now a unicycle.  the very parameters of the definition are solid and any permutation thereof change the associated name. therefore can we even call it a swimsuit edition at this point?

What do you think? Can this change? Should it change? Let us not be mistaken that a man that looks at these pictures is likely intrigued, but this only speaks on how ingrained the beauty ideal is.  Even the most progressive of men would raise an eyebrow at 2010, but she represents less than 1% of the population.  Sigh….if only the balance were struck more often.