Apr 29, 2012 12:48AM

Anna May Wong was an Asian American actress.

Minority women were exotified, still are today, and I’m sure that helped a lot in her sex appeal back in those days.  But what I’m particularly interested in is looking for the common factor among these beauties.  It’s one thing to say that I’m personally picking them, but it’s another to be able to trace the history of aesthetic American beauty by doing simple research.  Does Anna May Wong and Josephine Baker start to look alike?  What does that mean?  Let’s say you want to succeed in the “image” industry, what could you deduce from these shared traits so that you could have the cutting edge?

Apr 29, 2012 12:43AM

Josephine Baker was a black beauty back in the 1920s.

Think about how taboo it must have been back then. People weren’t so open about their interracial lust.  Also, look at how much skin she’s showing!!!

And this one’s from Wikipedia! Can imagine now why so many men didn’t live past 30, they died of heart-attacks at these peepshows!

Apr 29, 2012 12:31AM

In the 1920s, the “Gibson Girl” was the personification of feminine beauty. Imagine that, some cartoonist made her up.  They sold a lot of pillow cases and merchandise.

More about the Gibson Girl at Wikipedia.

Apr 29, 2012 12:27AM

As long as I’m documenting what Americans have been teaching to their youths as history’s muses, here are some that have started wars:

Helen of Troy

I’m sure were she real, she probably wouldn’t look like Diane Kruger, but she’s not bad on the eyes.

Next is Cleopatra…

Americans got their definitive Elizabeth Taylor:

Angelina Jolie, oh my!

But my personal favorite was Leonor Varela on TV.

I’m sure there have been many other interpretations, but that’s up to you to post. ;)

Apr 29, 2012 12:17AM

The Venus de Milo

No one knows who sculpted it, but everyone wants to believe in it’s aesthetic value.

Apr 29, 2012 12:12AM

Leonardi Da Vinci unintentionally defined beauty for the ages with the Mona Lisa.

Of course, this was back in the day when the rendering of the hands was what was really appreciated. Nowadays, it would be considered a “fetish”. If you’re a model and can find a demographic that is looking for particular body parts, make sure you keep your body in good shape. There might be a paying customer looking for nude earlobes!

Apr 28, 2012 12:11AM

The first scanned “Internet” babe was Lena Sjooblom from Playboy.

So, this was in 1972. Have the beauty standards changed?

More on the history of the first digitized/scanned model here.