They used to make real women, didn't they?

[elfs]

Wow, talk about clueless. Karl Lagerfeld, some famous fashion designer, yesterday said of those who criticize his excessively thin models,

These are fat mummies who sit with bags of potato chips in front of the television saying that thin models are ugly. Fashion is all about dreams and illusions. Nobody wants to see a round woman.

Yo, Karl, these are real women: Playboy centerfolds, 1953 through 2008. Well, okay, up until about 1994 or so. Then the cyborgs took over.

Comments

Gosh, they're beautiful

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

And Lagerfeld's an ass. There are a couple of very slim girls in the 70s, but they don't look anorexic. Star Stowe in 1977 looks very natural, as does Janice Pennington.

Interestingly, when I keep scrolling back up to look at Eleanor Bradley in 1959, I find myself looking at her wonderful face, not really her secondary sexual characteristics, which were probably the point for most viewers. That's a fabulous portrait.

Re: Gosh, they're beautiful

[wolfwings.livejournal.com]

Elaine Reynolds in 1959 is also quite amazing.

Says something that I think the models they had in the 50's are some of the most beautiful of the whole lot, I think though.

[lemur123.livejournal.com]

Well, not exactly cyborgs. More like bad CGI done by someone who has never seen a live human female.

Re:

[hugh-mannity.livejournal.com]

Yep. Photoshopped out of all their humanity.

[featheredfrog.livejournal.com]

Lagerfeld is "reborn" having got through a significant precipitate weight loss. Kind of like the converted preaching. We disregard the fundies, whichever fanaticism they espouse.


Thanks for that page reference. It's been fun to note the changes: first pubic hair, first shaven, etc.

Kinda hard for the others to come up to MM in 1953, though, wasn't it?

[featheredfrog.livejournal.com]

Just in case you want to keep your portfolio of Playboy Centerfolds up to date:
http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/marc_malkin/b148065_ay_caramba_marge_simpson_gets_nude.html

[(Anonymous)]

ルイスは出てくる？

[gromm.livejournal.com]

*cough*

Uh, I couldn't help but notice that the closest Playboy (appears to, correct me if I'm wrong - please!) ever came to a "round" woman in a centerfold was Kathy McDonald in March 1969. And she's pretty skinny, with a fantastically rare figure - big butt, big boobs, and flat tummy. As much an impossible ideal then as Karl Lagerfield's models are today.

At the same time, any time anyone in Media ever says "nobody wants X" I want to slap them hard for their arrogance for a) thinking that they know what everyone wants and b) thinking that *everyone* wants what they give us. His audience is just as likely to turn on him tomorrow afternoon and leave him penniless by the end of the year as it is to keep paying attention to his art. Anyone in the world of art who thinks otherwise has their head in the sand, and is more than likely going to discover this single salient fact very, very soon.

[fallenpegasus]

I think I've told you my prediction that reasonably soon, the fashion design industry will eliminate the human models entirely, and instead have robotic coathangers with legs walking the runway. At which point it the last vestige of it being about wearing clothes will be severed, and it will quickly evolve into a variety of kinetic sculpture with textiles.

That the rest of the world can completely ignore, instead of mostly ignore, and can instead just wear fun clothes that we like wearing.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_candide_/]

Word.

[dossy.livejournal.com]

Boy, remember the days when sexy women had pubic hair? It just shrank away to nothingness from 1996 onward.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_candide_/]

Thanks, Elf! That link reaffirmed that I'm still weirded out by boobs.
;)

But seriously, I think that another reason why I'm above a K4 is that I find the current female "ideal" repulsive. How the h3ll is a lady who looks like a concentration-camp survivor attractive? I'd be afraid of breaking her bones.

Of course, things have gotten just as bad for the guys in the past few years. Many male models, apparently trying to imitate Skeletor, look just as freakish as the roided-up muscle-queens.

And Mr. Lagerfeld, just because you're a necrophiliac doesn't mean the rest of us want to have sex with skeletons.

[elgatocurioso.livejournal.com]

Interesting page... you can see when pubic hair disappeared. I wonder if it will ever come back. Frankly, it adds a lot of "character" to the area and I'm tired of looking at what might as well be a piece of skinless chicken.

Aaand, that's my random thought for the day ;)

[elfs.livejournal.com]

I have mixed feelings about it myself. I like the shaved look, I think it's sexy and hot and shows attention, and it suggests a level of access that you couldn't get otherwise. On the other hand, I like pubic hair a lot; I like the way it smells, for one thing, and I also like the suggestion of maturity. So I guess I just like pussy, but that's not saying much.

[urox.livejournal.com]

You mean you haven't heard of the trends in the past decade of the pubic area being waxed into various shapes and dyed colors? I heard about one celebrity who had hers in the shape and color of a strawberry. I would assume that it was cropped short for the shape and waxed everywhere else.

[mauser.livejournal.com]

I don't see them as being all that radically different as the years go by. There are plenty of flat tummies, and even ribs in the '70's.

As for the point about pubic hair, I wonder if that coincides with Christy taking over the Magazine?

You might also want to check yourself a little, you're drifting into Thin women aren't "Real" territory. They're human beings just like everyone else.