With each century, female body images and ideals change dramatically. The fleshy female form immortalized by the world's classical painters and sculptors is no longer considered an ideal of beauty. The athletic, slender body admired today would have horrified both men and women in previous eras when a rounded body was a symbol of health and fertility.
Modern beauty is in a constant cycle of evolution and change in the eyes of artists and the world.
This has been so from the Renaissance period in which full, rounded bodies symbolized health and prosperity, to the early 1900's in which there was no specific body weight, but more so of a confident, reserved attitude which was encouraged. Then came the 1950's, when role models such as Marilyn Monroe and Doris Day set the standards of beauty as voluptuous, full figured, and very sexual. During the 1960's and 1970's a slender, feminine, yet not emaciated figure was considered beautiful, while the 1980's embraced more of a sexually-expressive, muscular physique. The present decade's desired form is typified by very thin, somewhat frail and willowy young girls. Long, thin limbs, boyish hips, full lips, and protruding bones, are the features which set the unattainable standard for today's beauty.