Stuff and nonsense

[textualdeviance]

So some guy put up links to all the Playboy centerfolds, evah. (NSFW, obviously.)

Now, I'm not into the retro-girlie thing--I think it's kind of silly to emulate an era/style that was so sexist--but I must admit that most of the earlier models were considerably more attractive than the plastic bimbos they have these days. They actually had real curves, for one.

This lovely gal, for instance. These days, that cute chick would be considered fat.

Or this luscious lovely.

Baby got BACK

In the late 60s, you can see them starting to get skinnier, like so and so. But they still had curvier ones, too.

(side note: how amusing--my shuffle is playing Simon and Garfunkel and Joni Mitchell while I'm looking at the 60s and 70s ones..heh)

By the 70s, they still had some big boobs, but the rest of the bodies were much more slender. The broad hips, soft thighs and round bums were all but gone.

But at least then the models still had pubes. Those started disappearing in the 80s. By the 90s, the landing strip was common. These days, pubes are basically gone.

Just to give you an idea of how much things have changed, there was a big deal made about the 1993 playmate of the year--Anna Nicole Smith--because she was supposedly the first "plus size" playmate in years. She weighed ~175 lbs and looked like this.

Um. That's not plus size, folks. That's just not anorexic.

Generally speaking, my tastes run considerably curvier (except for tomboys, who can rile me up when they're rangy or athletic) but I do think it's a tragedy that the idealized female image has gone from this or this to this.

Comments

[derekja.livejournal.com]

wow, the last picture doesn't even look real. I don't find anorexic plastic attractive...

[sheistheweather]

Yeah, it's like they want men with breasts and pussies now. Where are the real curves?!

It's sad.

[ironymaiden]

i feel like they moved from being pictures of the women you know, but without clothes, to a complete object. even the lighting - in the early ones it looks like sunshine or interior lights and in the more recent one they are obviously in a studio with operating theater wattage.

i can build fantasies about the earlier ones. i can't even think of the later ones as people - they're like blow-up dolls.

[textualdeviance.livejournal.com]

Good point. I wonder what's behind the artificializing thing.

[ironymaiden]

i don't know, but it starts in the mid-seventies. my birth month is one of the last hotties. (Ms November 1974)

[thefirstalicat.livejournal.com]

One thing I notice is that even in the more recent anorexic women, big tits prevail, which in itself suggests the disposable nature of the "ideal woman." That is, a D-cup at 24 is gonna be in serious pain at 48, when those tits are sagging and dragging weight down on the shoulder and upper back muscles. (Not to mention that more likely than not, they will be more or less at waist level without bras propping them up - not so attractive then, boys, eh?)

[textualdeviance.livejournal.com]

Yup. Big boobs need a big frame for support. I have a very sturdy frame myself (my ribcage is about 44"--I have my dad's barrel chest) and my puppies still give me a lot of pain.

You can tell the bigger-boobed of the older ones had the frame to carry it. But the obviously-fake ones of the 80s and 90s are so top heavy it hurts to look at them. I wonder how they can stay upright, especially in those heels they're always wearing.

[textualdeviance.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I grew up with a lot of girls who spent tons of time agonizing about their looks, and not nearly enough on school or getting job skills or a personality.

After a few kids and 10 years of marriage, time and stress does what it will do, and there just ain't anything Botox or Estee Lauder can do anymore. And so the guy trades them in on a new model, and they're left with memories of having peaked at 19 because they don't have much else.

I suppose in some way I'm kind of grateful for my illness. I was never a knockout, and I was bookish and more of a tomboy than the other girls around me, but I had my own shallow vanity phase for a while. I did the bulimia and the 4-inch heels and miniskirts and stuff (see icon. Sigh...) And then my bod said, "Ha! Time for your endocrine system to get fubared, chica!" and within a few years, that was that.

It was (and still is) frustrating, but the net result is that all those shallow people who would've otherwise been faking their way into my life disappeared--and I got a whole heckuva lot less shallow myself, too. I still have certain physical types that trip my triggers more than others--usually because they remind me of someone I like--but generally speaking, I really can go for just about anyone if the person is right. And I think that's given me some really amazing friendships and relationships I'd never have had otherwise.

I wouldn't wish my illness on anyone, but I do think it's helped me get down to who people really are--for good or bad--beyond the container they're in.

[textualdeviance.livejournal.com]

Ah, but one never knows--you might have shallow friends who simply get off on the porn 'stache. ;)

night owl, eh?

[foxykc.livejournal.com]

also notice the evolution of how much they show. At first it's just tits. Then tits and ass... then the rest of it.