THE BEAUTIFUL BODY, -IS IT THIN OR FAT?

"A beautiful body is the currency of the sexual revolution. Preservation of the body has always been a major pre-occupation with women in modern society. It has almost become an obsession, being substituted for the preservation of virginity in the competition to catch a prize male."

In the Sixties, the model that instantly caught the public’s attention was of the name Lesley Hornby, better known as ‘Twiggy’. Many claim that this 14 yr old beauty began the phase of skinny models, appearing at a petite size of SIX. At this time, Twiggy was seen as the anti-woman. For decades prior to the sexual revolution, the "ideal" woman had curvy, fleshy bodies, and rounded arms and shoulders, -all essential features of a nurturing housewife and mother. Twiggy however destroyed this image. She had no breasts, her nails were bitten, her shoulders were bony and her hair was cut like a boy’s. She was so skinny it was hard to tell she was a woman at all. She was knock-kneed and coltishly awkward. She was everything unfeminine in a way that seemed totally girlish.

The appearance of Twiggy coincided with the sexual revolution. When the revolution began, feminism pushed body image and weight loss into the public agenda. Body talk had been taken up with a vengeance by women’s magazines, celebrity gossip columns and tabloid newspapers today, and is being used in a mainly destructive way.

During this period; the "beautiful" body was slim, young and non-pregnant. It was all smooth, all gleamy, shorn of excess body hair and with flawlessness difficult for the majority of women to possess. Maintaining such beauty eats up so much time and money on clothes, make-up, hairdressers, saunas, health food and other beautifying needs. The impact of these costs on females is still evident today, although it is slowly disappearing due to a new revolution; "big is beautiful". This new "cult" is being followed by larger sized models, actresses and approximately 60% of the female population who take a size 14 or over.

Nearly forty years later, a different image is finally being portrayed with the emergence of the size 14 model, Sophie Dahl. Not only does she have voluptuous measurements of 40-30-40, but also she is making quite a name for herself in the modelling industry. Sporting a 38DD bra size, she has already appeared in Elle, Vanity Fair and Italian Vogue. In a crowd of sick looking waifs, Sophie stands out like a magnificent lighthouse, beaming the dangerous message that she is different.

It is a wonder that Sophie Dahl appears now, when the females of the world need her the most. People need to see that being a more fuller figure does not make you any less attractive or appealing. Hopefully Sophie can reverse the effects that Twiggy created four decades ago.

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