Our Bodies Ourselves pointed out that models in advertisements were allowed to have a tummy and look relatively normal, if attractive and made up. Ken (from Ken and Barbie) was built like Gilligan from Gilligan’s Island.
By the eighties, women were expected to be 36"-26"-36" (big butts were out, 36" DDs were in) and Arnold Schwarzenegger was doing action movies as a prime specimen of masculinity. The Luke Skywalker action figure was normally proportioned but had a lightsaber blade that retracted into its arm.
By the nineties, the 40" bust was the norm, and women like Tiffany Towers who had enormous serial implants were more mainstream. The Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker action figures (now with separate unretractable lightsaber) were ripped like He-Man or Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Curiously, Nineties cartoons featured normally built women (no longer in bikini armor but situation-appropriate clothes) and all the men were built like body builders, until the Adult Swim / Cartoon Channel era when characters were more abstracted (post Simpsons).
Our Bodies Ourselves pointed out that models in advertisements were allowed to have a tummy and look relatively normal, if attractive and made up. Ken (from Ken and Barbie) was built like Gilligan from Gilligan’s Island.
By the eighties, women were expected to be 36"-26"-36" (big butts were out, 36" DDs were in) and Arnold Schwarzenegger was doing action movies as a prime specimen of masculinity. The Luke Skywalker action figure was normally proportioned but had a lightsaber blade that retracted into its arm.
By the nineties, the 40" bust was the norm, and women like Tiffany Towers who had enormous serial implants were more mainstream. The Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker action figures (now with separate unretractable lightsaber) were ripped like He-Man or Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Curiously, Nineties cartoons featured normally built women (no longer in bikini armor but situation-appropriate clothes) and all the men were built like body builders, until the Adult Swim / Cartoon Channel era when characters were more abstracted (post Simpsons).