Historical Hot Stuff: How Beauty Standards Change

1720: The bigger the mouth, the hotter the girl. Beauty points for girls with a big schnoz to match.

1890: Behold the measurements of a perfect woman: 5'5" and about 160 pounds.

1950: Two words: Marilyn Monroe. No, wait, make that platinum blond.

1980s: Out of necessity, the word "Supermodel" is invented to describe the catwalk glamazons trolling fashion shows with their big hair, long legs, and dingy rocker boyfriends.

Ok. So we're fickle about beauty.

ABC News has an absolutely don't-miss-it article about how our standards of beauty have changed over time (anyone else here wanna load up on size 12 pants and transport back to 1890?).

Thanks to the benefit of a historical overview, we can tell you that the Ideal American Beauty is this: We have no Ideal. At least, not ones that stick for more than a few years. I smell a corny joke somewhere in here: "If you don't have looks like a model, wait five minutes!"

So what's hot now? Luckily, it's the good stuff. Accessible beauty, "cute" little flaws, and a look of casual imperfection. Hey!! That pretty much describes my makeup routine every morning. Huh. I guess I must be pretty hot.


Photos courtesy of ABC News and my own Yahoo! avatar from three hairstyles ago.