Have women’s figures changed over the last 50 years?

[Anonymous]

For those old enough to remember the 60s and 70s, were 24-inch waists as common as the movies and magazines indicate?

My question is not whether Americans have gotten larger on average, this is a confirmed fact. What I’m wondering is if bodies and figures have evolved to be heavier and wider, even among healthy people, and if it’s necessarily in a negative way.
I have a 25.5 inch waist, most people would consider me thin and healthy, and I don’t have any belly fat to lose. For me to take two inches off my waist, you’d have to remove part of my ribcage or rearrange some of my internal organs. It just doesn’t seem like a 24 inch waist would be healthy or advisable for most women (surely some can pull it off, but certainly not all) Did women 50 years ago more commonly have a narrower or more fragile bone structure?

[Anonymous]

They used girdles or corsets

[Anonymous]

Amphetamines are kind to frowned upon now

[Anonymous]

Smoking isn't so cool

[Anonymous]

I have read that the coveted hourglass shape is not common, now or back then. Maybe only 10% of women. I am 33-25.5-35 and 5’7. Also don’t have any belly fat to lose. I am starting to lift weights but even do, I don’t think I’ll ever get a bigger bust or booty or smaller waist. I’d settle for nice guns and a 6-pack.

[Anonymous]

People are generally taller these days also... so taller would mean wider to maintain same proportions.

[Anonymous]

Look at Playboy-type nude photos from the 50's. Definitely less skinny.

[Anonymous]

I think women did have narrower waists and smaller frames in general. I have a 26 in waist and am lean. I cannot imagine an adult heathy woman of average height having a 24 in waist anymore

[Anonymous]

We walked/biked more. There were fewer fast food places; we didn’t eat out as much. No supersized sodas.

[Anonymous]

There were no Frappuccinos in the 70s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We walked/biked more. There were fewer fast food places; we didn’t eat out as much. No supersized sodas.

Oh, yeah, not as much screen time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We walked/biked more. There were fewer fast food places; we didn’t eat out as much. No supersized sodas.

Oh, yeah, not as much screen time.

Frappuccinos and sodas are not the reason I have a 25-26 inch waist and not a 24 inch waist. It’s bone structure and muscle mass. 24 inches would require a particularly narrow frame which I just don’t have. I was wondering if this was somehow more common before.

[Anonymous]

Ugh. Women working out was not a thing back then. I’ll take the extra inch or two on my waist to run a marathon and build muscle and endurance. Seems a good trade off.

[Anonymous]

i think it might've been b/c we are also taller and have access to better nutrition at a young age so our bones grow bigger. Like Audrey Hepbournes' svelte form was b/c of starvation through the war.

We think that everyone was eating meat, veg & mash everyday but roast chicken/beef was a Sunday dinner thing. even if people did eat meat everyday, it was a very small portion or maybe a stew. Lunch would be a cheese sandwich and an apple an a glass of milk when you were a kid with maybe a cookie or graham cracker. Maybe a slice of baloney and 1 slice of lettuce. being able to eat to bursting at every meal all year around became available to the baby boomers when the war production machine switched to producing food for americans. Baby Boomers aren't particularly thin. Before WW2 most of the population was rural. Also, this is something people don't realize but I have lived with live in help- when you have help, gardener, maid, driver etc . . the menu is planned and you get a set meal at a set time and teh rest gets eaten usually by the helpers or whoever comes round to do something that day, like my grandmothers house has terrible plumbing so the extra slice of dessert we didn't eat at tea would get served to him. Whenever I was at my grandmothers' homes I would always lose weight even though wed get a proper fried breakfast, lunch, tea and a very late dinner. So even wealthy americans wouldn't be able to just eat 'at will' but would have to eat at the appointed times. A lot of kids didn't get sufficient calories to grow to their full potential- just like europeans. They all thought the american soldiers were so tall but now all those nationalities are much taller than the average American is.

[Anonymous]

Yep. We’ve gotten fat AF.