Muscle Barbie: A New Ideal for Female Beauty

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

We know that models and stars in glossy magazines are retouched. That Instagram beauties put tons of filters on their faces and bodies. But for some reason, the massive race for the ideal of female beauty continues.

Recently, the scientific journal Sex Roles published a study on the new attractiveness standard. American scientists have found that now the ideal woman is not just thin, but also muscular. It is no coincidence that the popularity of fitness and healthy lifestyle has increased, and women in Hollywood films have long been not "princesses in trouble", but "warrior princesses", the ability to fight and run away better than men.

123RF / Andriy Bezuglov

But on the other side of the screen are ordinary women.

And here the statistics say something else: every year, the body mass index of the fair sex is only growing. Clothing sizes of the 21st century do not correspond to the same sizes in the 20th.

And only a small percentage of women are able to fit into the "Procrustean bed" of the mass standard of beauty. The self-esteem of others will be tested for strength more than once.

You can, of course, blame the mass media for everything, but there are other reasons, as psychologists say. The modern woman has more and more masculine responsibilities. Often times, life develops in such a way that a woman has to become multitasking and “sort out” the issues of finance and raising children. At this moment, her attitude begins to change. She is either a mother, or a dad, or a woman, or a man.

Larisa Surkova, psychologist

Several clients admitted to me that they themselves did not notice how they began to wear short haircuts. They began to give preference to men's clothing. More trousers, jackets, fewer dresses and skirts. Someone can reflect on this and understand about himself. Someone begins to unconsciously become like the male half - they actively go to the gym, engage in power loads, building up muscle mass.

On the one hand, this is a plus: women take care of themselves and their health. On the other hand, women choose power loads or martial arts because they accumulate a huge amount of internal fatigue and aggression, irritability and resentment towards the whole world and the opposite sex. It is in the sports club that women struggle with this, acquiring a muscular body, which they begin to be proud of. They show their accomplishments on social media by triggering a mechanism of imitation, which is highly developed on the Internet.

Modern women, especially in Russia, have very fragile self-esteem and it is easy to hit it with anything. It doesn't matter if the woman is thin, muscular or plump. There will definitely be those who will write nasty things to her on social networks. It’s ridiculous to think that “fit babies” are doing well with self-esteem. They likewise suffer from negative comments and unsolicited counselors.

Sports and health activities are definitely in vogue now. In particular, this is due to the fact that we have more opportunities to pay attention to ourselves, our appearance. At the same time, dressing and makeup are becoming more relaxed. Dressiness ceases to be fashionable, and good health and grooming (without cosmetic and hairdressing excesses) become new markers of human well-being.

And despite the fact that sport does not guarantee health, and some workouts are fraught with injuries, many girls really reached out to fitness clubs and took iron in their hands.

123RF / ammentorp

Some even turn to the relief muscles not to a fitness trainer, but to … a plastic surgeon. Clinics offer procedures for building muscle mass, isolating muscles, and even designing cubes on the stomach.

Yuri Dikov, plastic surgeon

I cannot say that today this is the most popular and demanded procedure, but there are those who wish. For example, the same stomach cubes can be achieved in two ways. The first is when a person has cubes, but the thickness of adipose tissue does not allow them to be clearly drawn. In this case, it is enough to remove fat from the abdomen and place an anatomical emphasis on the muscles and grooves. Then the patient will have his own natural muscles, and we will only emphasize its contours. The second is when they try to form some kind of relief on the subcutaneous adipose tissue, but the patient does not have the allocated muscles in the abdomen. It looks not very aesthetically pleasing and it will be unpleasant to the touch.

The fashion for very thin bodies has already become a thing of the past. Now we go back to the shapes, to the decorated bodies. But, of course, people still come to plastic surgeons not under the trend of fashion, but to solve their specific problem.