When I was in college, one of the projects I had to do in one of my classes as a Communication major was to make an infographic. You know. The type of thing that was really big in the 2010’s that showcases information through pictures. I thought it would be a cool idea to make one on the ideal silhouette and how it’s changed over the past century or so. Imagine my surprise when Buzzfeed did a whole video about it around that same time. I promise I came up with the idea all on my own!
If you look at all the different fashions we’ve had throughout time, not just within the past century, I’m sure you will see it too. With those fashions, the ideal body types and frames changed with it as the idea of what femininity should look and what was deemed attractive changed. So, I attempted to make an infographic showcasing what that ideal silhouette has been over the years, what made each era significant or different, how they were usually attempted to be achieved, and what really makes people in general beautiful, or, at least, should.
I was thinking about this project a couple months ago after watching a couple movies from the 30s and 40s.
One of my favorite things to do in my spare time is watch old movies (well, movies in general, but especially the old ones). Not necessarily the good ones that have been beloved by many like “Casablanca” or “It’s a Wonderful Life” and stuff like that. Any that sounds interesting to me at the time. I will collect them in my favorites on the various streaming services we have and watch them one by one in chronological order. I used to watch them every night before me and my daughter went to bed, but as she has gotten older, it has become harder to convince her that this is a good idea and have taken to letting her choose, but every now and then, I get the chance to watch what I want. Even if it’s long after both my little girls are in bed as I pump.
Anyway, I don’t remember the movie I was watching, but I recall it being from the 40s and I began really observing the differences between the movies from the 30s that I had been watching up until this point and how the leading male love interests were portrayed in both. I thought back on my experience with this project and how I had spent a couple hours doing the bare minimum of research on how the ideal woman has changed, but it struck me how it never occurred to me to really think about how the ideal man has changed.
I knew that fashion has changed. One day the mustache is in style and the next it’s creepy. One moment the skinny jeans were seen as an ok thing for men to wear, the next, it’s innapropriate. Look at the toothbrush mustache! It was super in style until a certain German man gave it a bad name. It never occurred to me that the ideal male silhouette may have changed too.
Women have various cute pet names for our body shapes; the hourglass, the pear, etc. We don’t seem to label men the same way. Not that my little oblivious mind has really paid attention to. I took for granted the naïve notion that men only really have one shape that has been considered attractive since the dawn of time. “Man Shaped”. I mean for crying out loud, for a good half of a century, men only really seemed to wear suits and all suits looked the same to me (until now after looking at too many pictures to count as I started researching this)!
It wasn’t just that aspect that hit me as I watched that movie, though. It was also in how differently the male love interests were portrayed. How they talked, their movements, their very character. You don’t necessarily think about these types of things. At least I know I didn’t. It was kind of just a given in my mind that these types of things never change in these types of movies. Not really. There is a very attractive man who meets a very attractive woman and they fall in love. But it struck me at that moment that there truly was a difference in the types of men that women found attractive and the type of love stories they sought throughout time. The common theme of an unhealthy relationship being romanticized was a given. I don’t think that’s ever going to go out of style. Look at all the girls who fawned after those 50 Shades of Grey books and movies? No shame! I have my comfort movies, but you get my point. Is there really a difference between that and a movie like Grease?
Regardless, it got me to thinking ‘How has masculinity, at least through the lens of movies, changed over the years? What traits, physical or otherwise, did the various time periods value?’ Not necessarily in the eyes of men. Every movie catering to men shows similar things, probably. Buff men doing crazy things like jumping off buildings, taking bullets, etc. What about movies made for women? What are their expectations of what an ideal man should be? What’s different? What’s the same?
Ground Rules:
How would someone measure this? I look back on my infographic and see it was rife with stereotypes and inaccurate or incomplete information that could have been prevented with more quality research, and more dedicated time to researching. I wouldn’t want to make that same mistake twice.
Anything I would do, I can’t really claim is the most accurate truth though. You can’t really go back in time and talk to people. The best way I could come up with, or at least the easiest for me to accomplish, is to analyze the top 5-10 movies that grossed the most in each era. Not just the movies that are the most popular now, but movies that were popular at the time. This is a very important point. Just because we might like it now, doesn’t mean that it was just as popular at the time. You can’t measure something with the value of hindsight. For example, the movie Titanic has gone from people loving it in the public eye, to hating it to loving it again.
Also, it can’t just be any top grossing movie. If that were the case, I’d be stuck with superhero movies or Star wars. It has to be specifically movies deemed “Chick Flicks” or Chick Flick adjacent. Specifically movies that showcase what a woman might find romantic and what females might value in a relationship at the time. That’s the whole point. Now, it doesn’t necessarily mean the main purpose has to be romance, but there has to be a main plot point being a female and male interacting with each other romantically. More specifically, no action or horror movies. Nothing wrong with them, but I don’t want to misconstrue the data just because girls watch these types of things too. Also, they aren’t watching these movies because of the love story. Teen movies are also out. What appeals to teenagers is going to be different than adults.
This also means, possibly, no character actors like Charlie Chaplin, or Woody Allen whose sole role is for the laughs not the romance and wouldn’t necessarily be good at showcasing what is actually attractive in real life. It’s no secret that women value a man with a good sense of humor. Humor has changed over the years and varies within cultures, and that would be a whole other topic someone much more interesting could explore, but this is probably something that’s never going to change. Basically, a part of these types of men’s appeal isn’t their swoon worthiness.
This is the same reason no cartoons are allowed in this metric. While my favorite prince is Prince Philip from Sleeping Beauty… it’s a cartoon. A whole other level of not a real person. Musicals are probably ok, I guess, only because it would be nearly impossible for me not to include them in certain decades where a good portion of the top grossing movies are musicals. But no period romances where they speak or dress in a significantly different way than what is current. As much as I would love to watch Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility for the millionth time, it wouldn’t be fair.
Another caveat would be no movies over the rating of pg-13. There’s a difference between porn and romance. At a certain point, are they really watching the movie because of the romantic chemistry or the fact we’re going to see 2 attractive people do it? Also… I’m a prude and don’t want to see a bunch of naked people that aren’t my husband.
Though I wish I could for a completer study, I’m not going to include movies made in 1900-1909. There are movies during that time and some that might showcase interactions between the sexes, but I’m not sure how to figure out which movies were the most popular and which ones aren’t. It’s not enough to just have them exist. Also, this is already a huge undertaking as it is.
Something else that’s probably important is to try and choose movies with as many different lead actors and actresses as humanly possible to showcase all the different heart throbs of the time. In order to do this, I’m probably going to have to sacrifice higher grossing movies for others. Why? Because half of the top grossing romantic movies (comedy and dramas) in certain eras based on the little I’ve done so far in terms of research were all with the same actresses and actors at times. What fun is it to watch a million movies with Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Julia Roberts, Gloria Streisand, and Sandra Bullock in it?
All this being said, this is still a theoretical research project not ready to surface yet. I started on it with the hopes it would be ready within the next few weeks, but after thinking about it more, anything I did right now would not be up to par with the quality I would want it to be. Especially with the lack of time I have to dedicate to such a feat. Not to mention I already have quite a few projects I’m currently working on at the moment. It would be foolish to flit around willy nilly from idea to idea like a moth. And if I want to prove I’m better at this than the little college student I used to be who made that little infographic in the first place, it deserves the proper attention. That doesn’t mean I can’t revel in the high of the possibilities of this future project though.
That’s not to say this series I’m about to undertake will be a masterpiece of research, with great understanding of each movie and historical context with a well thought out opinion as some great expert about masculinity and the media. If that’s what is expected, you’ll be sorely disapointed. It will still be rife with selection bias given I don’t have all the resources and the money it would take to do it the way I would want. I’m also no great historian. I have an imperfect understanding of historical events. Plus, the ridiculous amount of movies I’ve watched over the years from these various eras already are bound to shape my opinion. I’m not even sure 5 to 10 movies is a great enough sample for each era to have a complete opinion. Even the pictures I spent hours browsing to use to create illustrations are probably not accurate either since it’s not taking into account the various subcultures and just how often fashion changes even within the decade it’s supposed to represent. In the end, I’m just a random person on the internet who likes movies and researches things all for fun. Not sure what this says about me, but, maybe my little research project will get others who are better at doing this sort of thing to talk about something I’ve wondered about for a while with a more balanced understanding.
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