" Beauty Itself Doth Itself Portray ", Our Ancestors' More Do-able Ideal

JPK Huson 1863

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Joined
Feb 14, 2012
Location
Central Pennsylvania
beauty phoebe.jpg

Currier and Ives did and endless series of prints where fictional women were presented as ideals, this one entitled " Phoebe ". That 1860's neckline vanished along with the hoops just a few years later. The famous post war bustle drew attention elsewhere and er, larger parts of one's anatomy were admired well, larger.

Using fictional women on purpose because it seems intrusive illustrating era ' beauty ' using someone who may have objected.

Phoebe nicely illustrates two mandated features of the era, a ' well rounded ' arm and sloping shoulders. How you added roundness to forearms is anyone's guess. No idea how you'd slope your shoulders but it was a ' thing '. This snip from 1859 is terrific- we clearly valued enough pounds to create all this. It's very nice even if pellucid nails have gone out of vogue. ( no idea what it means ) AND one's bosom wasn't the centerpiece to female charm.
beauty ankles.JPG

I apologize for all the ' white ' emphasis both in era images of ' beauty ' and text. It's a little unnerving to see in 2019. One book is so emphatically lyrical about the word it seems clear there was a point to it- and not one you'd like.

Standards of beauty have sure changed since our ancestors waved goodbye to their own idea of loveliness standing on her doorstep, hoops, hair buns and dust catching skirts. IMO there's ' good ' and ' bad ' to our progression. What was wonderful about our ancestors' idea of beauty is their lack of insistence on sunken cheeks and hips that cut paper. Dresses for someone with the ' well curved form ' you see described as the ideal would hysterically be found in the plus-sized section today, a good tan was considered coarse, make up a sure sign of low living and everyone felt a little sorry for the girl so thin she'd never attract a husband. Goodness forbid you had some muscle- not only were plump arms de rigor, there was copious instruction on how to achieve them.

beauty head.JPG

The chapter goes on to ask we encourage our ears to be pink and nicely folded, to bind strips of beef to one's face to discourage wrinkles. describes an ideal face as one which is divided by one's nose (?), tells you a tincture of pounded up boxwood, fat of stag, ambergris, white brandy and rose water will keep your complexion pink ( bet it would ), bemoans " scraggy " arms and tells you the cure for this " deformity ", gives hints on hiding those massive feet, recommends we have a more nice roundness to a medium sized chin and if you have man shoulders to please swath them in scarves.

Little pre-war, " Elizabeth ", from LoC, displays charms inclusive of' sloping' shoulders and those well rounded arms. Since it's physically impossible to possess a wasp waist and good, round ( white... ) arms at the same time, maybe it's where corsets became handy.
beauty eliz loc.jpg

" Elizabeth ", a pre-war ideal although we can't see her pink, well-folded ears.

IMO, while we'll never entirely loose our tendency towards measuring one's worth based on what someone looks like it does seem younger generations are tossing this useless yardstick in the recycle bin along with 80 dollar pots of age cream. We've come a long, long way from the day when small feet were so admired wealthy women sometimes had their slippers sewn on each morning, the better to show off one's small foot. That's a true story.

How women of the era were able to hide the muscle inevitable in a hugely physical life is anyone's guess. We pay monthly fees to gyms and personal trainers. Bet a gajillion bucks the same workout was part of daily life just doing the laundry. Buckets of water, scrubbing, wringing then lugging the whole thing to your back yard where you hoisted it piece by piece onto a rope? There's a free workout.

Yes, frequently it was someone else doing the hard labor. That set you free to experiment with bee's wax, arsenic, rose water and mercury- if your complexion wasn't as shiny as your hair you were doing something wrong.

beauty fanny.jpg

" Fanny ", on her wedding day. I'm not poking fun at any of this although it's difficult not to laugh at descriptions of cheeks that mandate they be " Soft, full yet firm, wide and rounded, not plump ". We've done this to ourselves over centuries and IMO I'm impressed by our ancestors' disinclination to use what we think of as female buzz words guaranteed to make us feel inadequate, awful at not ' measuring up ' and plain old aged. Like it's all over.

They left us this too. Despite the over-the-top patriotic theme, Liberty sure had those arms, is portrayed as a healthy woman and not the weedy boy-girl present ' standards ' throw at us and is obviously allowed to be strong, sloping shoulders and all.
patriotic woman.jpg






Ever read a book where you're sure you wouldn't get along with the author? There's an 1859 publication by a famous ' beauty ', a how-to for those not only aspiring to the author's beauty, there are chapters devoted to ' how to get a man ' plus a good section on strategery :biggrin: for guys. It's about how to charm women via various underhanded methods. You know. How to lie well so we'll turn into jello.

That's whole, ' nother thread- the art of courtship. Considering the plethora of wonderful courtship stories between soldiers and their sweethearts it doesn't seem they needed much advice.
 
I really enjoyed this thread @JPK Huson 1863. The truth is that people come in all shapes and sizes and people of all shapes and sizes can be attractive. Sadly women have always been encouraged to discipline their bodies to conform to ideals that were almost impossible to achieve. It seems to me that just as women started to make dramatic gains in the areas of education, employment and politics, the ideal female body began to look like a malnourished preadolescent girl, weak, emaciated and non-threatening.

It's very nice even if pellucid nails have gone out of vogue. ( no idea what it means )

Of course I had to look this up. It appears to be a reference to clear, bright, healthy nails. I have read that by the turn of the 19th century, nails were often tinted red with scented oils before being polished and buffed, but the focus eventually shifted away from tinted nails to a clear nail that remained the trend through the 1930s. Our Victorians polished their nails with a cloth and oil to give them a shiny appearance and a red tint. Some used tinted powders and creams to color their nails, before buffing them for a shiny look.

wealthy women sometimes had their slippers sewn on each morning

Never knew this! I've got something else to read about for sure.
 
Of course I had to look this up. It appears to be a reference to clear, bright, healthy nails.


Ah HA! Thank you. I just added it to the list of baffling terms we're clueless about 150 years later. Aren't there a lot of them? It's like being bilingual, if we can get through an issue of Godey's, 1861.

OK, so you spent a career around kids- meaning pre-graduation, from 1st grade on up. I'm just curious. It seems to me ' kids ' are a little different in the past few years. I'm hearing less critical attitudes about each other ( in general, have a feeling cliques are stubborn constructs ) and more of an inclination towards accepting each other as just, plain who they are. Considering what most of us were bludgeoned with, from some well defined social status to ' looks ' and the 1-10 in between, it all sounds awfully hopeful. Educators are ground zero, you get to observe from the best vantage point ever. Is there a change?
 
Is there a change?

Every generation is shaped by the social, political, and economic events of the day. In my view, today’s kids value individualism and are increasingly more inclusive. Sadly, social media is making them more lonely, anxious, and depressed, and if left unchecked it undermines their social skills. This makes sense developmentally because the onset of puberty triggers changes in the brain that make teens more emotional and more sensitive. Today’s kiddos (at least the ones I was blessed to teach and lead) are respectful and inclusive of diversity of many kinds and they reject offensive speech. Educators have begun focusing more on teaching empathy and respect and how to engage in conversations with people who don't look like us and who don't agree with us. I really do think we are seeing the benefits of this more and more each day. Keep the faith Annie. I am!
 
Back
Top