[RedMonqey]

" By today’s standards, strapping two pieces of material onto any body fits the bill, but a decade ago, the term was still reserved for only those with six-pack abs and not an inch of perceived bodily "imperfection" in sight."

Standards change along with society's economic and political positions.

Before the Industrial age, fat women(by the "bikini" standard) were very desirable.

But when food became cheap and even the lower class became obese, being "pleasingly plum" became out of fashion with the upper classes and set the standard to be thin.(selective exotic foods from distant lands became desirable)

The same thing with white people having tans. Before Industrial Revolution, having a pale, white skin was "en vogue" among the upper classes, Then, as women were interring the work force in sunless, bleak commercial and assembly line jobs, being pale meant working class poor.

Only the upper class had the wealth and time to lay about in the sun getting the "prefect tan'.