Which celeb do you consider curvy?
A) Jessica Biel
B) Kim Raver
C) Anna Faris
D) Sophia Bush
E) All of the Above
F) None of the Above
If you answered “all of the above,” then you’re correct! All of these women in one magazine or another were called “curvy.”
Bazaar thinks Biel has a “curvy figure”; Glamour raves that Raver has “serious curves;” and according to InStyle Makeover, Faris has a “curvy bod,” notes Wendy Felton of Glossed Over. Health magazine also refers to Sophia Bush and her “healthy curves,” even after she discussed Hollywood’s skewed standards:
“But it’s weird: In our business, I’m a size 2 and considered curvy.”
Underneath the title “Sophia Bush loves her curves,” Health also writes:
“The star of One Tree Hill is proud to have a butt — and an incredibly toned body, which she gets from boxing, yoga…and a refreshingly unscrewed-up attitude toward food.”
If these uses of “curvy” are confusing you, you certainly aren’t the only one. It used to be that “curvy” meant a womanly, rounder body type. But its definition clearly has changed throughout the years.
For instance, gleaning the meaning from Health, it appears “curvy” has become synonymous with toned and thin. Those who are frail or rail-thin are simply considered svelte or skinny; anyone who looks healthy, yet still quite thin has curves. The same can be said for Biel, Raver and Faris, who are all very thin but look like they exercise.
Or, perhaps, healthy-looking (or workout buff) isn’t even a criterion. In the same post, Felton writes:
“It used to be the word was bestowed upon those lovely women who, nonetheless, were heavier than the Hollywood-lollipop standard. Now? The definition has loosened. It seems any celeb who hasn’t retained Rachel Zoe as her stylist could one day be worthy of the term.”
But it isn’t all skinny starlets who are considered “curvy.” In the same curvy category, you’ll find Gisele Bundchen and Jennifer Hudson, confusing us readers even further.
Magazines constantly toss out words like “fat” and “anorexic,” so perhaps it’s not that shocking that the original meanings are vanishing. As the image of “thin” shrinks (as a result of the ever-decreasing world of fashion and Hollywood), it seems only natural that other words and images would follow suit. The pattern goes like this: The women in magazines get thinner. Then our perception of “thin” gets even smaller. And, appropriately, the definition of “curvy” has no choice but to get smaller, too.
But should we even pay these migrating meanings any attention? Hollywood and the fashion industry always have had wacky notions of women’s ideal appearance, which often change capriciously.
Does the change in “curvy” harm our body image and view of ourselves? Everything from Hollywood — be it clothing trends, appearance, the newest “it” diet or exercise routine — eventually, without fail, trickles down to us. And this might have its own collection of consequences. Felton asks: “Is the pressure to be slim increased by expanding the definition of “curvy” to include slender women? Are women with different, heavier bodies being squeezed out by the broader definition of the term that once belonged to them? Does it even matter?”
It does and it has to. Though the ideal body shape and size have changed throughout the centuries and will undoubtedly alter again, these everyday words (curvy, fat, anorexic) carry significant weight. With these words, we try to navigate what is normal, what is desirable and, only naturally and unfortunately, we then judge ourselves.
In Other Headlines
- A Model’s Notorious Navel
Victoria’s Secret Model Karolina Kurkova has a disappearing belly button, reports The Daily Mail. One beauty insider dishes that they maintain a set of navels in different positions to airbrush on for bikini photos. I’m not sure what’s more disturbing: that there’s a set of foreign navels on hand to perfect the already beautiful Kurkova or that a belly button has made the news.
- More Anorexic Stars
Thanks to In Touch Weekly’s investigative reporting — a magazine that continues to act as watchdog, scouring the world of celebrity for unhealthy stars — we learn that various too-thin celebs refuse to admit they’re anorexic. How could they!
- Celebs & Cellulite
The Sun couldn’t possibly offer tips on preventing and reducing cellulite without parading a picture of Tara Reid and her “Christmas satsuma skin,” along with other photos of cellulite-suffering celebs. Is this supposed to make us feel better?
(5 votes, average: 4.2 out of 5)
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Links to This Article
Website Directory - Psychology (11/22/2008)
Minding the Media: Body Image in Popular Culture - World of Psychology | dairyskin.com (11/25/2008)
From Psych Central's World of Psychology:
Minding the Media: Is the Thinning Economy Bringing Curves Back? | World of Psychology (2/19/2009)
7 Comments to
“Minding the Media: Body Image in Popular Culture”
It’s not that confusing. Curvy to me, means one with curves. You can be petite or thin with curves. I”m 5′, 110lbs and a size 2, yet I have a round butt that is more pronounced than average, and a distinct waist v. hip ratio–which is womanly i.e. curvy.
THAT is curvy.
I may not agree that all the women here are curvy, but curvy isn’t just a polite term for chunky.
photographs of celebs are a very tricky thing because these are often photoshopped to represent their accepted body image. it is not hard to lengthen legs with a computer, eg.
still we are discussing the perception of body image so these are still fair game.
women don’t generally describe themselves as ‘curvy.’ That’s an imposed attribute. On dating sites woman allow themselves to be called ‘full-figured’ if they are large. In the past large women sexualized themselves with the term ‘Rubenesque.’
it is a pity so many women are obsessed with thier body type. unfortunately for celebs, it’s part of their business -that prototyping. in those terms being ‘curvy’ is the door prize–like being miss congeniality in a beauty contest.
when i studied life drawing of nudes in college, we were taught the importance of using the ‘arabesque,’ a fluid rythmic curve in the posture and motion of the female form, in our drawings of nudes. that’s what curvy really means but of course linguists derive meaning from how it is used now and nothow it was used in the past.
curvy can sexualize the description of a sports car but on a young woman who is not a dancer the term seems to be a euphemism for not quite flabby.
Research published in today’s newspaper has found that people would be more likely to buy a product after seeing it being worn by a curvy woman as opposed to a super skinny woman.
To read more: http://www.psycinreallife.com
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,,24691259-5007190,00.html
A timely catch, thanks for the link!
Trudy: thanks for the link! Definitely an interesting study. Personally speaking, I think I’d be more inclined to buy a product when it’s advertised by a person I could relate to. Maybe such findings will influence companies to include a variety of body types and looks in their ads.
Also, thanks everyone for your comments! Not surprisingly, we see a variety of perspectives here, which is great.
The study was done by a person at the University of Queensland (you will notice the sizes they mention are not US clothing sizes). Ideals of beauty are different in Australia than they are in the US. While the obesity rates are fast approximating the US I think we have less outliers on either extreme. Models have traditionally been bigger in Australasia than the US (though hollywood has resulted in things changing admittedly). I bet you would get a different survey result interviewing young people in LA…
I can’t get over the way jeans are sold in the US. You basically have two main options (and variations within those two): Skinny. Curvy. The cut is different. But basically… Kinda forced between skin tight jeans (and tight legs about ankle length) or, if you want lose leg or flares or bootleg or anything like that then ‘curvy’ it is. I was wondering what ‘curvy’ means in the US… My girlfriends from here seem to think it means ‘for the bigger woman’. I simply don’t understand why they can’t just sell the cut (flares / bootleg or whatever) and drop the whole ’skinny’ and ‘curvy’ thing. Fitting into size 0 ’skinny’ jeans… Make them and people will aspire to them, it is about as simple as that…
It is weird to me… I’m basically a size 0/1 in ‘curvy’ jeans - but I certainly wouldn’t pass a ‘grab the flab’ test for skinny. Skinny… Is simply not a self conception that I aspire to. Just the name puts me off… I just don’t like it how there basically seems to be two categories of looks that (it seemed to me) were based on weight rather than having many categories of different cuts of clothes. But maybe the ’skinny’ / ‘curvy’ labels aren’t about weight? I haven’t tried on anything ’skinny’ to know whether the sizing structure is different for those two categories (I suspect it is because I wouldn’t pass a grab the flab test but I do like to wear flares / loose leg jeans).
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Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 21 Nov 2008
