The bodies are controversial. They can arouse desire or rejection. Do you remember the story of Quasimodo, the protagonist of Victor Hugo’s Notre-Dame de Paris? The deformed hunchback, bell ringer of the cathedral, lives there hidden. He hides from people’s gaze. Do you remember the tale of Beauty and the Beast? The Beast has an appearance that creates rejection from those who meet him. It’s real scary. In literature we find many examples of beings marginalized because of their physical appearance.
Ugliness and beauty follow established canons, which change with the times. Look at the beauty that escapes current canons, but appears magnificent, in Botticelli’s painting The Birth of Venus. Or in his Three Graces, where the protagonists have light and harmony. Today some claim that they are bodies full of fat and cellulite. Rubens also painted the Three Graces, and made them plump, a spectacle of meat. What would you tell me about Botero’s paintings?
Now trends impose very different canons on us. In the shows, the models display slender, sometimes almost ethereal bodies.
For decades, our society has been rigorous with beauty standards: being thin was an obligation for many adolescents, victims of the stereotypes that mark fashion and social networks. The results are an increase in eating disorders.
An acquaintance of mine posted a photograph of her in a bikini on the networks. The intention was clear and the slogan would be: “Body without complexes”. It was the portrait of an overweight woman. She accompanied the image with some encouraging phrases towards women. Love each other, she came to say. Totally agree: it is important that we learn to love each other, because there is already enough hate in the world, and because we have the right to be happy. No one should become an enemy of himself. Following were comments from followers. They praised the courage to show oneself without filters, to present to the world a body that shunned stereotypes in a natural, uncomplexed way. Everything seemed like a hymn to the empowerment of women, which always goes through self-acceptance.
Suddenly, the alarm bells went off. Was it really about this? Or was there a second part?
We order the ideas: there are very attractive thin bodies; there are also attractive curvaceous figures. We must not impose enslaving sizes or sizes. Beauty is usually a sum of factors that include harmony, grace and also self-esteem. Feeling safe makes us feel beautiful, empowers us.
But the line that separates the lack of absurd complexes from the non-acceptance of reality can be very fine. Neither anorexic nor obese bodies are beautiful. The reason is objective: they put the health and even the lives of people at risk.
Nowadays, no one would dare to proudly post a photograph of an anorexic body on Instagram. Fortunately, there is a fairly widespread awareness of the dangers of this disorder. On the contrary, there are those who hang an obese body and claim it. It doesn’t seem right to me. Obesity can also be dangerous. Don’t try to deceive us. Rubens women should visit a nutritionist today. Botero’s are only delicious in paintings.
