Chasing “Perfection”: How One Woman Revealed The Changing Face Of Beauty Through History

Beau­ty has nev­er been a fixed con­cept. What was once praised as the pin­na­cle of attrac­tive­ness can quick­ly fall out of favor, replaced by an entire­ly new “ide­al.” From the soft curves of Renais­sance paint­ings to the ultra-thin sil­hou­ettes of the 1990s and the Insta­gram-inspired bod­ies of today, women have been chas­ing ever-shift­ing stan­dards for cen­turies. Fit­ness blog­ger Cassey Ho decid­ed to expose this exhaust­ing cycle in a strik­ing way: by reshap­ing her own image to match the “per­fect body” of dif­fer­ent eras. The result is both eye-open­ing and unsettling—forcing us to ask: if per­fec­tion keeps chang­ing, does it even exist at all?

The Experiment: One Woman, Many “Perfect” Bodies

Cassey Ho, known for her Blogi­lates fit­ness plat­form, want­ed to chal­lenge the idea that women’s bod­ies need con­stant “upgrad­ing” to stay desir­able. Using dig­i­tal edit­ing, she reimag­ined her­self in dif­fer­ent his­tor­i­cal peri­ods accord­ing to the stan­dards that dom­i­nat­ed at the time.

The results were aston­ish­ing. In one ver­sion, she had the soft, round curves admired dur­ing the Renais­sance. In anoth­er, she was razor-thin, with sunken cheeks reflect­ing the 1990s hero­in chic. By com­par­ing side by side, she high­light­ed how arbi­trary these ideals are—and how much pres­sure they put on women to rein­vent them­selves just to be “good enough.”

A Timeline of Beauty Ideals

Before we break down each era, it’s worth remem­ber­ing that beau­ty has nev­er been a mat­ter of biol­o­gy alone—it has always been a reflec­tion of cul­ture, wealth, media, and pow­er. Each peri­od in his­to­ry car­ried its own ver­sion of the “per­fect” body, shap­ing how women dressed, behaved, and even felt about them­selves.

Renaissance (1400–1700): Wealth in Curves

Dur­ing the Ital­ian Renais­sance, beau­ty was syn­ony­mous with abun­dance. A round­ed bel­ly, gen­er­ous hips, and a full chest weren’t just attractive—they sym­bol­ized health, fer­til­i­ty, and social sta­tus. Being thin sug­gest­ed pover­ty, while full­ness showed priv­i­lege. Paint­ings from the era cel­e­brat­ed volup­tuous forms, set­ting the tone for cen­turies to come.

Redis­cov­er authen­tic beau­ty in Real Women – Beau­ty Through The Decades The Real­is­tic Way—watch now to see how beau­ty stan­dards tru­ly evolve!

he Flapper Era (1920s): Boyish and Androgynous Charm

Fast for­ward to the Jazz Age, and the mood com­plete­ly shift­ed. Women cut their hair short, bound their chests, and chose drop-waist dress­es that hid curves. The “flap­per” body was slim, youth­ful, and almost androg­y­nous. It rep­re­sent­ed lib­er­a­tion from Vic­to­ri­an ideals, but it also imposed its own pres­sures: to look thin and care­free at all costs.

The Hourglass 1950s: Curves Return with a Vengeance

By the mid-20th cen­tu­ry, curves were back in style. Stars like Mar­i­lyn Mon­roe and Eliz­a­beth Tay­lor embod­ied the “ide­al” with their tiny waists, full busts, and round­ed hips. Adver­tise­ments even pro­mot­ed weight-gain prod­ucts to help women achieve this look. The hour­glass fig­ure was framed as soft, glam­orous, and ultra-fem­i­nine.

The Heroin Chic 1990s: Skinny Dominates

The pen­du­lum swung again in the 1990s. Super­mod­els like Kate Moss pop­u­lar­ized what became known as “hero­in chic”—a look marked by sharp bones, pale skin, and a frag­ile appear­ance. Run­ways and fash­ion mag­a­zines glo­ri­fied this extreme thin­ness, push­ing women to pur­sue a body that often required harsh diet­ing or unhealthy habits.

Victoria’s Secret Era (Mid-90s–2000s): Tall, Slim, and Busty

At the same time, main­stream pop cul­ture leaned toward anoth­er ide­al: the super­mod­el body. The Victoria’s Secret Angels sym­bol­ized this trend—long legs, flat stom­achs, and aug­ment­ed busts. Cos­met­ic surg­eries for breast enlarge­ment sky­rock­et­ed, mak­ing this the most com­mon pro­ce­dure in the U.S. by 2010.

Explore “Beau­ty Stan­dards Around The World” to uncov­er how diverse cul­tures shape our ideals of beauty—tune in now!

Instagram Age (2010s–2018): Big Butts and Tiny Waists

With the rise of social media, espe­cial­ly Insta­gram, beau­ty stan­dards began to accel­er­ate. Influ­encers show­cased extreme hour­glass fig­ures, with tiny waists and exag­ger­at­ed hips. Butt implants and injec­tions surged by more than 50% between 2012 and 2014. Cos­met­ic sur­geons them­selves became social media stars, post­ing before-and-after trans­for­ma­tions to thou­sands of fol­low­ers.

Wit­ness the evo­lu­tion of ideals in “How Beau­ty Stan­dards Change Over the Years”—click to watch and see how beau­ty has been rede­fined through time!

Fast Fashion vs. Fast Beauty

One of Cassey’s most thought-pro­vok­ing com­par­isons was between fast fash­ion and fast beau­ty. Just as cloth­ing trends change overnight, body ideals now shift at dizzy­ing speed. But unlike a wardrobe, you can’t just throw out your body and buy a new one.

This cul­ture of rapid rein­ven­tion cre­ates a cycle of dis­sat­is­fac­tion. Yesterday’s “per­fect” fea­ture becomes today’s flaw. A thigh gap, once wor­shipped, sud­den­ly los­es appeal when curves come into style. A curvy fig­ure, once cel­e­brat­ed, becomes less desir­able when lean, ath­let­ic bod­ies dom­i­nate Insta­gram. And the cycle nev­er ends.

The dan­ger, as Cassey point­ed out, is that while clothes can be swapped, sur­gi­cal pro­ce­dures and extreme diet­ing come with last­ing consequences—physically and men­tal­ly. Treat­ing our bod­ies like dis­pos­able fash­ion items is not just unre­al­is­tic, it’s harm­ful.

Public Reactions and Conversations

Cassey’s project struck a chord with audi­ences world­wide. Many praised her for expos­ing the absur­di­ty of beau­ty stan­dards and remind­ing women that the pres­sure they feel isn’t their fault. In the com­ments, peo­ple shared their own sto­ries of strug­gling to fit into ever-chang­ing ideals—feeling “too skin­ny” in one era, then “too curvy” in anoth­er.

Some not­ed how men’s beau­ty stan­dards, though less extreme, also exist. Mus­cu­lar physiques, six-packs, and height expec­ta­tions can weigh heav­i­ly. But women remain dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly tar­get­ed by bil­lion-dol­lar indus­tries built on telling them they are nev­er enough.

Her visu­al time­line became more than just art—it became a start­ing point for much-need­ed con­ver­sa­tions about self-worth, cul­tur­al con­di­tion­ing, and the dan­gers of com­par­i­son cul­ture.

The Bigger Message: Learning to Love Your Body

In the end, Cassey’s mes­sage was clear: stop chas­ing trends and start embrac­ing your­self. Every body is unique, and real beau­ty doesn’t come from squeez­ing into a mold that was nev­er designed to last.

“Please treat your body with love and respect,” she urged her fol­low­ers. “Don’t suc­cumb to the beau­ty stan­dard. Embrace your body because it is YOUR own per­fect body.”

It’s a reminder that per­fec­tion doesn’t exist—it’s con­stant­ly rewrit­ten by fash­ion, media, and mon­ey. What does exist is indi­vid­u­al­i­ty, health, and self-accep­tance.

Final Thoughts: Beyond Beauty Standards

The his­to­ry of beau­ty reveals one truth: the “ide­al body” is nev­er per­ma­nent. It changes with cul­ture, eco­nom­ics, and tech­nol­o­gy, leav­ing gen­er­a­tions of women feel­ing pres­sured to reshape them­selves end­less­ly.

But the big­ger truth, the one Cassey Ho high­light­ed, is that no mat­ter the trend, you already own the only body that tru­ly matters—your own. Instead of chas­ing an illu­sion, it’s time to step off the tread­mill of per­fec­tion and rec­og­nize that real beau­ty has always been deep­er than size, shape, or sym­me­try.