Edwardian Idea of Obesity

An emphasis on a slim figure is considered by many to be a modern idea and blame the fashion industry for its introduction, but it appears that the idea of "Obesity as the Enemy of Beauty" goes back at least to Victorian times, as this excerpt from The Woman Beautiful (1899) demonstrates:

The moment a woman begins to be conscious of the weight of her flesh, that very moment she must face the questions: Shall I allow this encroaching master to overcome me? Am I not strong enough to assert my freedom of will? It means a battle a l'outrance betwixt the ego and the flesh. And the woman who wills shall win every time. "A strong purpose creates its own means of accomplishment." It is a truism that superfluous flesh enervates; and all experience proves that what was true in Rousseau's time is still the rule: "The weaker the body the more it commands; the stronger it is, the more it obeys." And the price of freedom for woman is to exercise such self-restraint in the ordering of her life as shall keep her mistress of her own small kingdom.

Every additional pound of flesh beyond that required to round out the form to artistic lines and harmonic proportions is a menace to woman's beauty and health and usefulness, and, consequently, to her happiness. She who is wise, and has any comprehension of the joy of an active life, will never let her flesh dominate her. That beauty and an excess of adipose tissue are incompatible is one of the fundamental theories of what constitutes true physical beauty, and ranks next to the common basis of health, with which it goes hand in hand.

But obesity is not merely a beauty-destroyer. There is a stronger charge yet to make against this most uncomfortable condition. Even roly-poly plumpness takes all the youth out of a woman's face and step; and every ten pounds added beyond plumpness ages her. It is only in recent years, comparatively, that corpulency has been recognized for what it is, a disease; and that it is rapidly increasing is evident to all who travel much or who live in large cities or towns. It is one of the penalties which frail, weak-willed humanity has contrived to evolve out of the privileges of our high civilization. "Riches and poverty alike war against health."

While over-indulgence in the good things of life—the rich fat-producing foods which are so unwisely and so lavishly supplied on our generous American tables—is a chief producing cause in the accretion of this so ponderous flesh, it is ably aided and abetted by indolence of mind and body. Women who are alertly active, with many interests crowding their lives, which necessitates sufficient exercise to maintain health, can without harm enjoy all the good things of an elaborate cuisine. They are simply supplying the waste of a nervous temperament which makes large demands.

The phlegmatic temperament, however, which takes life easily, is oftener than not prone to self-indulgence, and therefore peculiarly exposed to be a victim of over-assimilation and mal-assimilation of food. If allowed to run its course the disease is one of constant encroachment, and may bring in its train most painful complications.

Could the woman who has let this monster of flesh overmaster her by such insidious degrees that she cannot remember the simple joy of lightness of foot, but for a moment exchange her corporal prison for the litheness and freedom of the alert Diana, who chases balls over the golf links, she would move heaven and earth and accept any discipline rather than submit to such death in life, as her imprisonment actually is.

From the first trying consciousness of weakness and weight, obesity imposes on its victim daily-increasing, petty pin-pricks of unnamable discomfort, and transforms the simplest pleasures into painful exertion. Wherever the fat woman finds herself in a crowd—and where can she avoid it in the metropolis?—she is in effect an intruder. For, she occupies twice the space to which she is entitled, and inflicts upon her companions, through every one of her excessive pounds, just so much additional fatigue and discomfort.

Too often, this so redundant flesh seems to serve as a bullet-proof armor, repelling all consciousness of the rights of others. The woman who makes a god of her stomach is incorrigible, and I fear no word of mine will avail to induce her to reform. She is the innately selfish woman who makes her very existence an offense.

All defects are in the nature of ugliness, but certain ones are more degrading than others; and of these obesity, which is a deformity, is signally ignoble, for it gives unseemly prominence to the grossest part of the body, and pampers flesh at the expense of the soul and mind. Living to eat is debasing life to its lowest terms, on a plane with mere animal life; and the man or woman who does this often fails to evince even the instinct and discretion with which the higher order of beasts control their appetites.