The 1920’s were a time of newfound freedom for women, especially in dress. However, the ne

The 1920’s were a time of newfound freedom for women, especially in dress. However, the new fashion of slim, masculine, and curve-less bodies also created a new psychological pressure for women that had never before existed on such a grand scale - the phenomena of dieting, known then as “slimming” or “reducing.”  Women could no longer depend on corsets, petticoats, hoops, and voluminous dresses to achieve the body ideal of the era. The new dresses freed women’s movements but did not flatter or hide the unsightly, be it body hair, breasts, or fat, and it was now a woman’s responsibility to change her body in order to fit the fashionable figure. Many women began to undergo rigorous dieting regimes and buy dubious products - the most horrific of which was probably tapeworms - in vain hopes of slimming down.  Joan Jacobs Brumberg’s book The Body Project highlights a 1920’s teenage girl’s diary and shows the obsession with thinness that was beginning to take hold of girl’s minds. “I’m so tired of being fat!…Three months in which to lose thirty pounds - but I’ll do it - or die in the attempt.” The girl lists how she will go about reducing - “No cake or pie or ice cream or cookies or candy or nuts or fruits or bread or potatoes or meats or anything.” The girl’s constant worry about her body would not be out of place in a contemporary diary, and shows that, although the corset was long-gone, a new type of body restriction had taken its place. -- source link

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