I personally prefer a bit of meat on my women, my fiancé is a size 8 and I’m quite happy with that.
As for the trend of “beautiful” becoming smaller and smaller, my personal opinion is that it is a show of self control. In this age of plenty where even the poor can become grossly over weight, a trim figure shows that you can practice self control and you know how to take care of your self, you know eat right and exercise.
Keep in mind many of the models are picked by homosexual men that work in the fashion industry, girls see the models and think that that is how a man wants a women look. Guys see all the girls and think if that’s what they are trying to look like, that’s what I want.
I know its messed up and convoluted, but it’s just my humble little opinion.
And if I’m not mistaken it was Twiggy that started this anorexic look.

I don't think it's a trend, nor is it societies over all views changing.

I think what it is, is that people are moving away from a single idea
of beauty, and moving to a multiple ideal version of beauty.

Personally I like thin, not 90lb thin, but still.

In my opinion, a view of beauty where big is beautiful would not be a
good thing, as we already have an obesity epidemic as it is, we don't
need the ideals of beauty saying that fat is beautiful.

How about the view of beauty being healthy. Not every woman is genetically engineered to be a size 8 or lower, some of us are healthy at a larger size; just as men vary in size. It's pretty silly to expect me at 5'11" to be the same size as a woman who is 5'6". I much prefer the healthy look neither too fat nor too small. Frankly I don't much like the muscle bound look either how about just fit for both men and women.

Pulchritude?? I had to look that one up.

My question is: Can a person really be persuaded to find attraction in a figure that is represented by the fashion industry?

I generally tend to find petite figures to my taste, but there have been woman in my life that are anything than petite.

Polynesian views on beauty, and also Victorian and pre-victorian views on beauty; round, well-fed child bearing figures just don't strike me as being sexually attractive. Is it my predisposition? - or have I been influenced by the images in the boob tube and print media?

Inquiring minds want to know.

I like women with fat brains.

I do think the trend is swinging towards larger, more average sized women.
Instead of the superslim model types. I'm not really sure why.

One idea I've had for a while, is when looking a the population in general, at least the American population, is that there are a lot more folks who are overweight, both men AND women. Perhaps the bell curve of body mass, has shifted. And Average is a lot larger than it used to be.

I agree with annestacy but there are also tons of companies that are making loads of money off the people that strive to look like models. I can't even begin to name the different diets that are out there and the products that go along with them. These products are cashcows for an overweight country like the US.

It's always been in a constant state of flux. If you look at history, thin and voluptuous have traded places often as the most desirable look.

Originally posted by djohnsto77
It's always been in a constant state of flux. If you look at history, thin and voluptuous have traded places often as the most desirable look.

That a very precise description and I like it
If you take other subjects or ways of life, you have the youth uprising in the 60/70s and now the new generation is one who doesn't offer any uprising what so ever.

Changes must occur for progress to take place, it's only natural.
So we've had a long stretch of beauty being defined as superthin and I'm willing to support the idea that something new could happen. I'm not saying this or next year, but in the coming times.

I work in the commercial industry on the production end, and I was actually amused to see the other day an underwear model, in a catalogue I do work for, being... well, lack of better words makes me use the word "healthy" she had a round shape to her without her being fat and such.
Now I like the skinny girl as much as the next guy, but seeing that photo made me feel happy.

I just took a pause to think about what my definition of beauty is at the moment, and very precisely I can say it is:

a body that is working 100% at all times, at everything the person does with it.

Not so skinny that the person has no energy to performe anything and not too fat so the person looses his/her breath from one flight of stairs.
I'd like to think that it's pretty universal since it's a basic question of balance.

So to answer the main question, I do think society's view on beauty is changing, but ofcourse I take this stance primarily from the change in myself...

[edit on 7/4/07 by flice]
uh oh... I missed this part:

Originally posted by annestacey
The bottom line is this: If people maintain a healthy diet, they will be healthy people and they will maintain a healthy weight. Letting "them" control what you wear, what you eat, and how you should look is the worst thing anyone can do.

Beautifully said Anne... I've had a natural force to eat a variety of foods and care very much if it's ecological or not. Did you know that the common supermarket orange juice does NOT hold any natural vitamin c? Most of it actually gets destroyed in the heat process during production, and what they next fill in the juice is artificial vitamin C.

[edit on 7/4/07 by flice]