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100 Years of “The Perfect Body”

One of my favorite sections from Tina Fey’s 2009 bestseller Bossypants deals with body image:

I think the first real change in women’s body image came when JLo turned it butt-style. That was the first time that having a large-scale situation in the back was part of mainstream American beauty. Girls wanted butts now. Men were free to admit that they had always enjoyed them. And then, what felt like moments later, boom — Beyoncé brought the leg meat. A back porch and thick muscular legs were now widely admired. And from that day forward, women embraced their diversity and realized that all shapes and sizes are beautiful.

Ah ha ha. No. I’m totally messing with you. All Beyoncé and JLo have done is add to the laundry list of attributes women must have to qualify as beautiful. Now every girl is expected to have Caucasian blue eyes, full Spanish lips, a classic button nose, hairless Asian skin with a California tan, a Jamaican dance hall ass, long Swedish legs, small Japanese feet, the abs of a lesbian gym owner, the hips of a nine-year-old boy, the arms of Michelle Obama, and doll tits. The person closest to actually achieving this look is Kim Kardashian, who, as we know, was made by Russian scientists to sabotage our athletes.

I know that in this day and age, we women are taught that true beauty shines from within, that our happiness, health, and confidence are far more important than our physical attributes. But let’s face it — I have not come across a single woman in my life who was 100% satisfied with her body, all the time.

And how can we, when our society’s perception of an ideal body is every-changing as well?

To illustrate this point, The Greatist has put together a series of images that outline just how much the American standard for the “perfect body” has evolved over the past 100 years. Take a look!

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Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?

Thanks to the expansive trove of treasures offered by Netflix, I have been introduced to various cable shows I would have never watched otherwise. I've gone through almost all of USA Network's original programming (some of the best cable shows out there!), and now I've moved onto Syfy TV with the likes of Z Nation and Haven. There was an episode of Haven last season in which a relatively unknown cover of an old song served to heighten the emotionally bittersweet conclusion. The song and the scene continued to play in my mind for days on end, so I did what any nincompoop would do and looked it up online. I present to you: "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" by Sweet Talk Radio. Isn't it hauntingly beautiful? Months...

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Marvel’s STAR WARS #1

This past week was a big one for us Star Wars nerds fans. Even if you're not into the greatest sci-fi franchise ever created, you may have heard about a certain comic book already breaking records before its official release date. ;-)  That's right — Marvel's Star Wars #1 was released on January 14th, 2015! Did you know that these days, major comic book releases almost always include different cover variants? And that there exist illustrators who make their living just from doing comic book cover variants? So with Star Wars being such a popular franchise — and because Marvel's acquisition of the comic book rights is such a big damn deal (previous Star Wars comics were published under Dark Horse) — it seemed that every major variant artist, comic book store chain, distributor,...

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I’ve Been a Bad, Bad Blogger

Harro there! Remember me? I've decided to ease back to this blogging thing with a contrived post that crams my life within the last month through pictures (many which my Facebook friends and/or Instagram followers have already seen) and captions. Can you believe it's already been 3 weeks since Christmas? We kept it low-key again this year with a casual dinner at my parents'. My mother asked me to cook my famous 갈비찜 (kalbijiim, or braised short ribs) and while I was a bit nervous because I hadn't made it in over a year, it still turned out delish and I was proud of myself for not losing my touch. The day after Christmas found me at King Spa. My mother had insisted on treating my...

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Illustrator Gives Western Fairy Tales a Korean Makeover

Korean artist Na Young Wu has recently unveiled a series of illustrations which combines well-known western fairy tales with the Korean manhwa (the equivalent of manga in Korean) as well as the traditional Korean drawing style! They’re quite stunning, to say the least.

The Princess and the Frog:
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The Little Mermaid:
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Snow White:
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