6
THE BODY SIZE AND HEALTH DEBATE
in the workforce. Prior to 1920 was the Great War—World War I, which
meant that the women during the era of the Great War filled the jobs of the
men who went off to fight, many of whom never returned. Working women
started to become more commonplace. Despite the necessity of work, men
and women alike viewed women’s employment as temporary, as they were
not really embarking on careers. As such, women earned far less than their
male counterparts. Popular magazines of the day continued to remind girls
and women that they were socially and biologically predisposed to engage
in domestic duties. They admonished anything that took them away from
their traditional roles and that would contribute to their “failure” as future
mothers and wives. The message was clear: do not work.
Fashion prior to the 1920s was designed to hide how women’s bodies
naturally looked by using metal and bone corsets to artificially produced
an hourglass shape and to improve one’s figure. The voluminous use of
fabric helped to hide anything that might be considered unappealing. The
fashion of the 1920s by contrast was not designed to intentionally hide or
enhance the female body; however, women with larger bodies may have
used various forms of binding to flatten their breasts since the Flapper look
was sleek, thin, and flat chested.
This change in fashion was not an easy transition. Resistance to get-
ting rid of corsets and the like was expressed via advertisements that
communicated the perils of not wearing these items by using racist lan-
guage and images imploring well-to-do white women not do away with
this necessary garment. Corsets were also marketed directly to women
whose bodies changed as a result of bearing children, and corset manu-
facturer preyed on women’s fear of aging and disease by claiming that
corsets would help you stay youthful and keep you from getting ill.
Getting rid of such undergarments and aspiring to the thinner look of
the Flapper—which did not require the female form to be squeezed or
to make other parts of one’s anatomy appear larger—meant that there
was greater emphasis on how the female body looked naturally. This
also meant that there was nothing to hide behind and women became
aware of their weight in a way they had not before. Women of the 1920s
became invested in making sure they were small enough to fit this new,
sleek image which meant they were dieting.
Prior to the 1920s, larger bodies were viewed as a sign of prosper-
ity. larger body meant greater resources and hearty food. Meal times
were events with multiple courses including more than one type of meat,
multiple starches, and myriad desserts. By the 1920s, however, families
were shrinking the size of their menus including what was on them. This
changed in part due to the invention of many kitchen appliances, but there
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