The bottom is having a moment. Source: Instagram
NEVER before has the bum been so big! (Caution, puns ahead.)
In a rearguard action, the derrière has come from behind to twerk itself into the spotlight, bumping size 0 right off the ideal-body-image stage. Everywhere you look, it's All About That Bass, as the Meghan Trainor anthem attests.
The world loves big butts and we cannot lie. Last year, the internet lost its collective mind when bootyliciously bottomed Beyoncé proudly shared a curvaceous selfie (she was wearing a body shirt). The caption read: "99 problems, but my ass ain't one".
"99 problems but my ass ain't one", was Beyonce's caption for this shot. Source: Supplied
Meanwhile, the original purveyor of the bountiful bot, Jennifer Lopez, celebrated hers by rubbing up Iggy Azalea's in the video for their song, Booty. Nicki Minaj never shuts up about hers.
And it would be remiss not to give the Kardashian sisters credit when it comes to redefining our current world view. As the have-they-or-haven't-they-had-bum-implants conversation raged on, the pancake-bottomed Pippa Middleton — who showed off her toned glutes as a bridesmaid at Kate and Wills' wedding in 2011, before everything changed — nominated Kim Kardashian for 2014's 'rear of the year'. "I must say that mine — though it has enjoyed fleeting fame — is not comparable," she told The Spectator.
Body-shape ideals change every decade or so. This one is, ahem, shaping up to be curvier than any era since the 1950s. ''When you look at fashion and the fashionable silhouette over time, beauty standards often rebel directly against what came before them," says Margot Riley, a dress historian at the State Library of NSW. "Something gets exaggerated to a point where it has to go back the other way."
Nicki Minaj tweets a picture of her bottom. Source: Supplied
Some decades are kinder than others. Imagine all the doughnuts you could stuff down your pie hole when the Gibson Girl, made desirable by illustrator Charles Gibson during the early 1900s, was in vogue. Back when big breasts and a soft body, cinched with a corsetted waist, was the height of fashion. Challenged in the boob department? You'd have been delighted if you were blessed with a flat chest and boyish figure in the flapper era of the '20s. Gym-phobic? There was no need for sit-ups during Hollywood's Golden Age, from the '30s to the '50s, when it was all about the soft-siren look — swerving curves, rounded tummy, long legs and big boobs. The '60s then went entirely flat-chested and boyish again, as defined by the model Twiggy. Legs were still in in the '70s, as were breasts that stood up without a bra. But come the '80s, the athletic physiques of the supermodels (Cindy, Elle, Naomi) were held up as the idealised standard of beauty. Fast-forward 10 years, and the fun went out of food again when the waifs of the '90s became It girls.
Video stills of the teaser trailer for Jennifer Lopez and Iggy Azalea's new video "Booty". Picture: YouTube Source: YouTube
Growing up in the era of the glamazon supers, I was — by nature, not by design — skin and bone. I hated it so much, I drank raw-egg milkshakes in a doomed attempt to fill out. Then, in the mid-'90s, the waifish Kate Moss popularised heroin chic and suddenly I was rocking the look of the moment. However, as I aged, my body expanded into all sorts of womanly curves. As the world got even skinnier and size nothing became all the rage, I was out of fashion as quickly as I was in.
But what forces decide what constitutes the silhouette of the 'ideal woman' anyway? "It's a whole host of factors combining together," says Riley. "The influence of mass media, fashion, movies, music and, more than ever before, the focus we place on celebrities in a globalised culture."
The influence of pop culture is definitely shaping this new silhouette. Latin and African American cultures have always preferred a bigger booty, and hip-hop and R & B stars have been extolling the virtues of a badonkadonk for 20 years, but all that has moved into mainstream pop culture now. That's good news for women who don't fancy starving their bodies into submission. "Our role models are expanding, moving away from the homogenised norm we're used to seeing," says Riley.
Beyonce's dangerous curves. Source: Supplied
Before we get too excited about the new curvy, there a few things you need to know about bringing the booty back. Having a pile of junk in your trunk doesn't mean squat. While, previously, women wanted a tush the size of peach that could crack a walnut; now they want a butt that would crack a coconut but is the size of watermelon.
Just check out bubble-butted gym bunny Jen Selter, whose class act is belfies. Yep, it's exactly what you're thinking: selfies featuring her Lycra-clad buttocks squatting, lunging and cleaning the bathroom. Selter, 21, has created an entire industry of it, attracting more than five million Instagram followers and scoring a feature in Vanity Fair last year.
And yet, according to celebrity personal trainer Donna Aston, the big-bottom craze could be a bum steer. "Gluteus maximus muscles can only grow a certain size, so you can't expect to grow an enormous bottom from exercise. Many of the bottoms we're seeing have been surgically enhanced with implants, body contouring or lipo-sculpture, in which fat is sucked from the stomach, love handles or back and put into their buttocks and hips."
1960s model Twiggy (real name Leslie Hornby) was straight up and down. Source: News Corp Australia
Jennifer Lopez shows off her bangin' body in steamy new single Booty photo. Source: Twitter
Not that most of us desire a rear that you could watch a movie on; we just want one that doesn't sag. "It depends how your body fat is distributed," says Aston. "A lot of women are pear-shaped and carry fat between their waist and their knees; with that shape, you can get a rounded bottom. But if you're more of an apple shape, it's almost impossible to change the shape [of your bottom]. However, squats and lunges, or any exercise that works the glute muscles, are going to help it tighten up."
I'm sure many male readers are thinking, "What a lot of arse; a rounded posterior has always been fashionable!" Whether they know it or not, men are genetically predestined to fancy curvy women. According to Professor Tim Olds, from the University of South Australia, it has to do with external markers for fertility. "The question is: how can I, by just looking at a woman, know whether she will be fertile or not?" he says. "She can't have a body that is clearly prepubescent — no breasts, straight up and down. And she can't be too old — postmenopausal. So, a relatively thin, curvaceous body is a pretty good guide to fecundity."
That said, the consequences of trying to fit into any ideal can be unhealthy, resulting in eating disorders, body dysmorphia, even death. The big-bum craze has already claimed the life of Londoner Joy Williams, 23, who travelled to Thailand last year to have butt augmentation surgery. And, in 2011, 20-year-old British student Claudia Aderotimi died after an illegal operation in Philadelphia; the aspiring dancer believed a bigger butt would make her a "hip-hop star".
As women, we should be embracing the bodies we were born with, without having to fit into a stereotypical ideal. And, as Riley cautions, we should never pay too much heed to transient perceptions of beauty: "Nothing lasts. Fashion is driven by change. It will move on and something else will become the focus."
Follow Lollie on Twitter @lolliebarr
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
New ideal body shape revealed
Dengan url
http://segarasa.blogspot.com/2015/03/new-ideal-body-shape-revealed.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
New ideal body shape revealed
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar