James Kinsler, Holly Rautio, Claire Wiley and Taylor Hansen

 

Women have been objectified for a long time in American history. Having a large chest and hips, with a thin waist has been the ideal image of a woman, ever since the “Gibson Girl” in the 1890’s. Still, to this day, we have celebrities such as Kim Kardashian, posing with her “hourglass” figure in front of the camera. Society treats a woman’s body as an object and this needs to stop.

The Gibson Girl was created by Charles Dana Gibson, and started appearing in illustrations during the 1890’s throughout the U.S. and Canada. Kim Kardashian is a famous, contemporary public figure who similar to the Gibson Girl exemplifies an example of what society expects women to currently look like.

Both women have similar body types and they both show the expectations that women are expected to follow. Women in the Gibson Girl era used corsets to trim their figure while contemporary women have access to modern tools such as Photoshop and plastic surgery. Societal pressures can cause people to take extreme measures in altering their bodies to meet unrealistic expectations.

In this piece the Gibson Girl and Kim Kardashian are wrapped in a ribcage that is deformed on one side to show what corsets do to your ribs.

Our society needs to stop objectifying women’s bodies. Society pressures everybody to be, look, or act a certain way, but especially women. Instead we need to recognize and appreciate that there are many different body types and that healthy is beautiful.