History of BBWorld Part I

The surviving artifacts of ancient tribes indicate that the correlation between a woman’s size and her attractiveness were being established even in human prehistory; fertility statues depicting women of generous proportions have been found in many locations around the world, showcasing a widespread ideal of voluptuousness among the female ancestry. It is hypothesized that this ideal arose as an exaggerated form of the sexual division of labor in early hunter-gatherer societies. Given that men typically fulfilled the “hunter” role and thus took part in strenuous expeditions ranging far from their settlement in order to pursue animals, the masculine ideal emphasized muscularity to indicate strength and athleticism. Meanwhile, women typically fulfilled the “gatherer” role and thus collected more-easily sourced foodstuffs in close proximity to the settlement; this less-strenuous lifestyle led to women conserving more energy in the form of fat, and thus excess adipose tissue became the indicator of femininity. Over time, this aspect of female identity would shift to become the feminine ideal: the more a woman could gather with less effort, the larger she became, and since the most effective gatherers were seen as the most “womanly” (similar to how the most effective hunters were seen as the most “manly”), fatness became a desired asset to establish one’s womanhood.

As agriculture and domestication were developed and the average human’s lifestyle transitioned from nomadic to sedentary, the hunter-gatherer ideals adapted to the transition. The masculine sphere contracted from the wide area covered by hunting expeditions to the more localized farms and grazing fields surrounding a settlement, but muscularity was still emphasized due to men generally performing the majority of agricultural labor. The feminine sphere contracted from the foraging grounds in proximity to a settlement to the central area of the settlement itself; in tandem with the establishment of female labor duties which generally emphasized dexterity and fine motor skills over physical exertion (basket weaving, cooking, pottery, and the like), fatness remained the ideal as both the indicator of a woman’s efficiency- and thus reduced energy usage- in completing her tasks and a man’s efficacy at providing for his household (given that agriculture was increasingly likely to be the only source of a family’s sustenance).

Metallurgy and writing marked the start of ancient history; enhanced tool usage and the ability to keep records and more effectively communicate resulted in the emergence of civilizations as settlements linked together into societies to promote trade and the distribution of technological innovations. Empires began to arise (most notably in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and China), and with them came the first standardized systems of measurement, which give us an idea of how the feminine beauty standards of the era compare to today. The first written record describing a woman’s weight in quantifiable terms dates to approximately 2080 BC. Shulgi, the second king of the Neo-Sumerian Empire, was a rather prolific writer with a specific focus on personal glorification; in one of his tablets listing his achievements, he boasted that his wife Taram-Uram was measured to “exceed 200 mina,” which corresponds to roughly 220 lbs. Though this figure may seem far from impressive today, a few points should be recognized. First, though there is no definitive record of Taram-Uram’s height, the average woman’s height in this era has been estimated as 5’0”, indicating her weight was still in reasonably large proportion to her frame. Second, given the relative scarcity of food resources in ancient history (even considering the improvements in agricultural yield resulting from the coordination and innovation provided by an empire) and the fact that Shulgi found his wife’s weight boastworthy, it can be concluded that the threshold for fatness in ancient civilizations was rather lower than that of modern times.

Shulgi epitomized an attitude which would take hold in most other ancient civilizations moving forward: women of royal blood and thus the highest prestige should also have the highest weight. This represented another step in the progression of the feminine beauty standard and a natural evolution from the agricultural-era ideals; while previously fatness indicated both a woman’s efficiency at work and her partner’s ability to provide, emphasis shifted to the latter point as royal women became a form of “figurehead” for the state as a whole. As a ruler made the empire more prosperous, more of the excess resources could be devoted to fattening up his consort (and often his daughters as well). Likewise, in leaner times the consort would need to slim down as well or risk unrest among the population, as a fat queen in times of struggle epitomized the disconnect between the rulers and the populace; indeed, the collapse of the Neo-Sumerian Empire (and a fair few empires in the millennia since) has been partially attributed to the citizens’ loss of faith in their rulers’ priorities, as the attempts of later kings to live up to Shulgi’s example- despite the presence of less prosperous times- resulted in mismanagement of the empire’s resources and its subsequent conquering by outside states.