Girl’s participation in sports has increased from _% to _% since Title IX was implemented in 1972. The body image for women of today may be a result of this change in physical activity and involvement in athletics. “Radiant health is always in vogue and people have come to equate good health with physical fitness”, says freelance women's health, fitness and nutrition writer Aviva Patz. But this was not always the case, as we can see through examples in art history.
Venus of Willendorf (dated back to approximately 20,000 BCE) by today’s standards, would be considered obese, unhealthy and unattractive. In those ages, to be this large would imply nourishment for children, which meant reproduction and survival.
During the Renaissance the female body image slimmed down, but still portrayed beauty as overweight by today’s standards. The woman in The Birth of Venus, painted by Boticelli in 1485, is full-figured. This body shape meant the woman was well nourished and healthy as a sign of great wealth and high status. A hard body, model physique would have implied a woman that performed manual labor all day in the fields and therefore thought of as a peasant, poor, and unattractive.
