Monroe 1950's

The end of World War II and the return of men into the labor force thrust many women back into the home. "In the regressive 1950s, women's natural fullness could be briefly enjoyed once more because their minds were occupied in domestic seclusion," says Naomi Wolf in "The Beauty Myth." By today's standards, the women of the fifties are considered overweight. The actress and sex-symbol Marilyn Monroe was 5'5'', 135lbs. "It wasn't threatening," Wolf says, "because the ideology, the feminine mystique, was in place so people could revel in women's flesh without fearing political activists."


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