We need to get real about expectations

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Saw this video and thought it was an excellent explaination of how the media is manipulating our view of what beauty is:

5 minutes of what the media actually does to women video

So on the one hand we've got women feeling bad about themselves because they are not pretty enough to attract a man (and it's not true, the media is lying to them with airbrushed images) and on the other hand we've got men chasing the ideal sexy woman (who isn't real, these women are airbrushed) and alot of people are unhappy with themselves feeling inferior because they or not the ideal or are not dating the ideal.

We need to get real about expectations.

Curiosity

"Woman as Victim" ... again ...

And all this hype over 6 packs and making plenty of young guys taking steroids and stuff aren't partly because of the media?

They do the same tricks to guys in ads too, you know.

I had to chuckle at the first comment on the youtube page.

Nope, men are the victims of false advertising.

Yes of course they do. What's your point? I saw this video and wanted to share it. I didn't see a video about men and therefore couldn't share one.

You know, I sometimes question this. In my travels, I have met very few men who fixated on photoshop beauty.

I have to disagree with you. The ideal sexy woman does exist, and it differs based on who we are. I have specific likes that are different from others.

I lucked out when I met my wife. She was hot and rocking no matter what set of clothing she modeled. She had both the "ideal face" and the "ideal body" (ideal to me). Now after 5 children she is still "built better" than the air brushed celebrities and models in the media today. (sorry for the objectifying modern vernacular, simply making a point.)

The trouble is, the "ideal face" (I agree that it is promoted improperly by media) and the and the "ideal body" (again, agreed promoted improperly by media). are rarely on the same person. Take a look at all the celebrities today. Angelina Jolie had a face that wouldn't quit in her younger years. Her body has always looked like a crippled man with modified boobs (no offense to crippled men, nor crippled men with modified boobs, but it's just not sexy, imo). The same thing with Vanessa Hudgens, Olivia Wilde, Jennifer Beals, etc.

The trouble is that the "ideal body", while highly desired by both men and women, is not overly common in and of itself. look at history, corsets to help a woman have a different waist than a man,with flared hips, etc. Why? Look at history, belly dancers, Gypsy Dancers, Sex priestesses of different religions, historic statues and figurines, all show it to be attractive when women have slender waists, flared hips. This has been a desire for millennia.

So before photo shop, media would find a woman with an "ideal face" or close enough to work with if the woman puts enough paint on to fool them into liking her face and then hide her body with photography tricks, or even sometimes would manually edit photos with body doubles. For movies they'd find a woman with a "perfect body" or close enough, and would provide body doubles for the actresses with less than perfect assets.

Now that they have photoshop, they could probably make Chris Rock look like Halle Berry with a slender waist.

So why are these "ideal" features desirable? I could only guess but I would guess that a (typical) heterosexual male doesn't like thinking "man with vagina" when "mounting" a woman (again, apologies for the vernacular. making a point.)

So . . . . until we have perfect men and perfect women roaming the world, the sensually uncommon features will always be desirable. Once we do have perfect men and perfect women roaming the world, something else will become desirable.

In short, no matter what our expectations, humankind tends to want the unusual and unique. and those who don't have, envy those who do. Generally speaking, as a species, exceptions withstanding, etc. etc. etc. . Everyone who wants to argue this historically supported fact, simply because you just "gotta disagree" (for stupidity sake I suppose) have at it, I don't care.

Last edited by FlanMaster on 11 Dec 2013, 10:36 am, edited 1 time in total.

No need to be defensive, He's just making the point that "sexy" is equally discriminatory. It isn't an argument.

That is a very interesting point. Eqyptian hyroglifics come to mind. There are a lot of thin curvy women who feature. Although, the Egyptian goddess of fertility, Tawaret, was a hippopotamus shaped statue with a great big waistline. But I'll bet nefertiti wasn't as symetrical as her statue makes out, by that I mean she got the sculptor to "airbrush" her.

Last edited by hurtloam on 11 Dec 2013, 10:22 am, edited 1 time in total.

I think it was an argument. But he is right. Both sexes need to be realistic or they will miss out on something more importatn that looks

But even Tawaret wasn't fat as a hippo, just had some belly.

Things really didn't change that much, most ancient figures (except faceless figures because those are symbolic) show that men preferred slender to curvy women.

What about Victoria nudes. They were all a bit hefty? Curvy, but with realistic cellulite. Big butts and little breasts. They are more realistic images.

Again, it's different depending on what's unusual for the society of that day. In that era, plump was evidence of wealth. Poor women were often stick figures, too skinny, too straight, etc. Women with wealth wore retaining clothes that helped to shape them, so they still had some of what history has promoted as the "feminine" shape, and those willing to pose were often (not always) women of status who could "get away with it". Sometimes they were women who needed the money but history again shows that the women who "need the money" are often the ones who have been ravaged by time and circumstance and are not desirable to the culture of that day.

Last edited by FlanMaster on 11 Dec 2013, 11:29 am, edited 1 time in total.

Surely they were more realistic but I was more referring to a popular myth that most men in ancient times preferred the obese women,especially in midieval era - that's simply not true.

Read this:
http://www.femininebeauty.info/medieval ... references