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Standardizing Slimness: How Body Weight Quantified Beauty in the Netherlands, 1870–1940

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Beauty and the Norm

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Globalization and Embodiment ((PSGE))

Abstract

This chapter investigates the history of one of the most powerful quantitative beauty standards: weight. The chapter argues that weight is neither a natural nor a neutral standard for the beauty ideals of slimness and fatness. It is shown first how, in late nineteenth-century Netherlands, weight had not yet become a standard of beauty but was rather a bodily curiosity, measured at fairgrounds. The chapter then analyses Dutch newspaper advertisements for slimming remedies to show that, by the 1930s, weight was strongly established as a standard of beauty, scales having ceased to be a fairground attraction. The chapter concludes with an exploration of the consequences of this new standard of beauty, which complicated its character by partially separating it from the visual.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) under grant 317-52-010. I would like to thank the editors of this volume, the anonymous reviewers and Filip Herza for their helpful comments during the writing process.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Descartes Centre, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Hieke Huistra

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  1. Hieke Huistra
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany

    Claudia Liebelt

  2. University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany

    Sarah Böllinger

  3. University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany

    Ulf Vierke

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Huistra, H. (2019). Standardizing Slimness: How Body Weight Quantified Beauty in the Netherlands, 1870–1940. In: Liebelt, C., Böllinger, S., Vierke, U. (eds) Beauty and the Norm. Palgrave Studies in Globalization and Embodiment. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91174-8_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91174-8_3

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-91173-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-91174-8

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