UNTIL relatively modern times most British people had little time or opportunity to worry about their appearance.
UNTIL relatively modern times most British people had little time or opportunity to worry about their appearance.
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And until general food insecurity became a thing of the past in the 1950s, thinness was never going to be fashionable.
Then cheap, calorie-dense food, combined with restricted opportunities for daily exercise, turned Britain into a nation of fatties, at precisely the same moment that advertisers and celebrity culture bombarded us with images of unattainable sylph-like slimness. What is worse, it is a culture that disporportionately emphasises appearance over once-prized attributes such as kindness, intelligence, loyalty, courage and determination. To cap it all, this quest for an ideal appearance is reinforced by technology that has made retouching magazine and billboard images so subtle that it cannot be detected. So eyes are enlarged, spots removed, stomachs flattened and legs elongated, remorselessly feeding our sense of inadequacy. The result is a society in which too many people, especially women, are either too thin or too fat for their own good and many in the middle constantly struggle to reach an unachievable shape and size.
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Beauty and the beast of unattainable perfection
UNTIL relatively modern times most British people had little time or opportunity to worry about their appearance.
And until general food insecurity became a thing of the past in the 1950s, thinness was never going to be fashionable.
Then cheap, calorie-dense food, combined with restricted opportunities for daily exercise, turned Britain into a nation of fatties, at precisely the same moment that advertisers and celebrity culture bombarded us with images of unattainable sylph-like slimness. What is worse, it is a culture that disporportionately emphasises appearance over once-prized attributes such as kindness, intelligence, loyalty, courage and determination. To cap it all, this quest for an ideal appearance is reinforced by technology that has made retouching magazine and billboard images so subtle that it cannot be detected. So eyes are enlarged, spots removed, stomachs flattened and legs elongated, remorselessly feeding our sense of inadequacy. The result is a society in which too many people, especially women, are either too thin or too fat for their own good and many in the middle constantly struggle to reach an unachievable shape and size.
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We moderate all comments on HeraldScotland on either a pre-moderated or post-moderated basis. If you're a relatively new user then your comments will be reviewed before publication and if we know you well then your comments will be subject to moderation only if other users or the moderators believe you've broken the rules, which are available here.
Moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours. Please be patient if your posts are not approved instantly.
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