Cover Story
Body buildingThe ideal shape has shifted constantly over the years. So what does fit look like now?
By Christopher Muther Globe Staff / January 20, 2011
Christina Hendricks, the curvaceous actress who plays bombshell-with-brains Joan Harris on the series “Mad Men,’’ went looking for red carpet dresses last year with mixed results.
Photos: The evolution
of body types
“Award season is very, very tough for me,’’ Hendricks said at a New York party last fall. “There are only size zeros and size twos available. Designers are saying ‘We love you!’ but they won’t make me a dress. It doesn’t matter how many times I beg. It is frustrating for me.’’
Hendricks’s predicament shows just how dramatically the ideal body type has shifted in the past 45 years. On “Mad Men,’’ set in the early to mid 1960s, Hendricks embodies the era’s feminine ideal. Her nipped waist and hourglass figure drive men crazy — and leave other women looking boyish or frumpy in comparison. But by current Hollywood standards, Hendricks is plus size. In critiquing Hendricks’s 2010 Golden Globes gown — a peach strapless number with cascading ruffles — New York Times fashion critic Cathy Horyn quoted an anonymous stylist who said: “You don’t put a big girl in a big dress.’’ The shape that had once been considered perfection was now, while unquestionably beautiful, rather “big.’’
It’s clear that those flocking to gyms this month to keep their New Year’s resolutions are striving for a physique that is much different from what their parents, or their grandparents, held as the ideal.
“No one wants to look like Marilyn Monroe anymore,’’ says Jean Fain, a psychotherapist and author of “The Self-Compassion Diet.’’ “And they haven’t for a long time. Standards have changed, and they’re always going to be changing because no one wants to look like the aging cultural ideal. They want to look like the young ones, and the young ones are slimmer and more muscled than Marilyn was.’’
Not only do they no longer want to look like Marilyn, they don’t want to look like Farrah Fawcett, Cindy Crawford, or even Linda Evangelista.
“I’m going for lean and hard,’’ says Cindy Gowan, a 26-year-old Cambridge nurse and avid gym-goer. “When I think sexy, I think Megan Fox. That’s my goal.’’
That shift is also noted by personal trainers, who say their clients come in and ask for a body like Angelina Jolie or Halle Barry. Just a few years ago, those clients were asking for Madonna’s body. Now they specify that they don’t want Madonna’s arms. They want Michelle Obama’s arms.
“The term ‘functional fitness’ is what everyone is using to describe a celebrity body like Jessica Biel,’’ says Sara Shears, a trainer in Vancouver who works with stars such as Salma Hayek and Rosario Dawson. Functional fitness refers to the idea that a workout should enhance strength and cardiovascular health, not just make legs or abs or arms look toned and muscular. “That’s a big difference from where we were five years ago. Back then it was just about looking good in clothes,’’ Shears said.Continued...
http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/fas..._shape_has_shifted_constantly_over_the_years/
