The Beauty Standard Didn't Evolve. It Was Engineered.

A Greek aristocrat would have looked at the modern red carpet and started ordering bread, olives, and honey cakes.

This NY Post story on Demi Moore at Cannes has 41.7 million views this morning.

Forty-one million views is a lot of people trying to decide what beauty is supposed to look like.

People stopped scrolling. Some admired her beauty, while others expressed concern and unease.

That argument has been running for 100 years. Almost nobody knows how it started.

The Beauty Standard Didn’t Slowly Evolve

In 1901, the ideal body had full hips, rounded shoulders, and skin that suggested leisure. By 1925, one researcher tracking Vogue found bust-to-waist ratios had dropped roughly 60 percent. Sixty percent in twenty-five years.

The flapper silhouette arrived with a flat chest, narrow hips, and a boyish frame. In 1918, Lulu Hunt Peters published Diet and Health: With Key to the Calories.