Marilyn Monroe was considered the most beautiful woman of her time, but were you aware that by modern standards of beauty, the The Seven Year Itch star would be labeled as “plus-size” and too heavy to be a model? Yuck!
Her size-16 body is disgusting to look at today, but, believe it or not, just 50 short years ago this hideous, full-figured monstrosity was held up as an international superstar and sex symbol. It’s appalling when you realize that audiences once went wild for photos like this one that would repulse any reasonable person living in 2014.
Yikes. She’s a far cry from the Kate Uptons and Zoe Saldanas of today, and even that’s being generous. You see, Marilyn wasn’t some skin-and-bones wisp of a girl. She was proud of her voluptuous hourglass shape. Worst of all, society accepted and even celebrated her natural curves.
Seeing the anorexic models we find sexy today alongside Marilyn, you almost have to ask: What was the fashion industry in her time thinking? Were they out of their minds? Sure, they didn’t have tools like Photoshop to fix Marilyn’s body in photos, but it’s almost as if people simply didn’t notice—or didn’t care—how busty she was.
Saddest of all is the cognitive dissonance her success caused for women who were really beautiful, women who had worked hard to get tiny waists only to be told that a lumbering elephant like Marilyn Monroe had a gorgeous and attractive body.
We’ve come a long way since the 1950s.
