Pleasantly Plump in 1891

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Sigh, I would have been so fashionable then.

The scary thing is that by today's insane standards, even the slimmer model on the left would be judged to be a "thick" body type.

Comments

[janenx01.livejournal.com]

Plump and Rosy with HONEST Fleshiness of Form.

It's like they know me.

[tresjolie9.livejournal.com]

Love seeing articles from an era before modern farming, when being plump was seen as a sign of prosperity.

[cuddyclothes.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[saikaro-x.livejournal.com]

Ha! This is great.

[furnacechant.livejournal.com]

While it's true that a plumper figure than today was desired, most erotic art of the period shows girls more like the thinner one, and $1 a bottle would have been VERY expensive stuff at that time...do you have a source for this? I have a feeling it might be a parody.

[jadorepop.livejournal.com]

I think they're legit, from the 1890s: http://www.emildevries.com/Fattenu.htm

[liadlaith.livejournal.com]

I think you're right. The copy looks like it's set in Futura, which was invented about 40 years later.

Also, there was a product called Fat-ten-u, but it was made by a company called Lorings, not Ritter and Co. Their ads look very different.

[kiwihunter8.livejournal.com]

Ooo good catch on the font issue. I'm going to print it out and pretend it's real, though :D

[pikkewyntjie.livejournal.com]

I agree about the font and the justification looks a bit too clean for ad copy from that time, but they could have had an ace typesetter. The Lorings ad (http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/ppmsca.05583/) you mention is real. (You hope the Library of Congress would be able to spot a fake.) As for the product name, I don't know. Maybe Lorings bought out Ritter and Co. or vice versa? Or one company stole the other company's product name. That happens, too.

I want this ad to be for real, but I don't know if it is or not. I would like to know more about it.

[jocelmeow.livejournal.com]

There's a color version of this that was once on Etsy (http://www.etsy.com/listing/73488046/fat-ten-u-foods-advertisement/favoriters).

While there were certainly products of this sort in this era (as we see with the Lorings ad with a product by the same name) this made me pretty suspicious because it seems almost expressly designed to push our buttons as modern viewers in a society with an obsession with thinness. It's a little too perfect.

Also, the style doesn't seem right..no corset, the patterned underwear? And the loose and flowing hair strikes me as unusual for the era...I'm not an expert, but I'd expect more of a Gibson Girl look.

[furnacechant.livejournal.com]

I knew there was something about that font that was ringing a warning bell, too! Also, "taken up Grecian Dancing and have leading roles in local productions"? Not, IIRC, something that respectable women would admit to in that era. Actresses were considered quite scandalous in general.

[bzul.livejournal.com]

A few other scrutinizers weigh in...so to speak.

http://ask.metafilter.com/151532/Slim-Chance-that-this-poster-is-a-Big-Fat-Fake

Assessments of clues, elements and period context for something like this are always interesting.

[moonjaguar.livejournal.com]

I thought I read somewhere it was a parody ad, like the infamous tapeworm diet ad.

[hydrozoa.livejournal.com]

i found this slight variation on the poster, for what it's worth:

http://www.tuscanfoodie.com/2010/11/get-fat-and-look-beautiful.html

[privacycat.livejournal.com]

"Makes despairing folks happy?" BUT I THOUGHT THINNER WAS SUPPOSED TO MAKE ME HAPPY.

[blokesomething.livejournal.com]

@ OP. Ironically, the general population was much thinner back then.

[singeaddams.livejournal.com]

Also much smaller. One of Jack the Ripper's victims was nicknamed 'Long Lil' because she was so tall. Her actual height was 5'3".

[bradygirl_12]

One of the complaints about Fenway Park (100 this year!) is that the seats are too small for modern bodies.

[blokesomething.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow that's unfortunate! Who is doing the complaining, the patrons or the park managers?

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I can attest to the small seats. I just barely fit, and I'm only a size 12 (which would have roughly equaled a size 16 in the 1970s)

[blokesomething.livejournal.com]

The seat may have been adequate at some point, I'm assuming. Unless had no intention of making them comfortable from the beginning!

[bradygirl_12]

I remember those small seats well! :)

[bradygirl_12]

The patrons. Fenway underwent renovations in the last ten years with the new ownership so they kept it pretty old-fashioned while updating the park. The seats didn't change, though, at least in size. ;)

[cindyanne1.livejournal.com]

I... I want to enlarge this and have it as wall art.

[mjspice.livejournal.com]

Ahh the god old days when being fat was considered being beautiful.

[zorinlynx.livejournal.com]

It seems that people find attractive what's hard to achieve.

Food wasn't as plentiful and available in the 1890s as it is today, so most people were skinny, and only those who were well-off could eat enough to get plump. Therefore, being plump was seen as healthy and desireable; it was very difficult to be plump.

Today, fattening foods are so plentiful that it's easy to gain weight! This means being slim becomes attractive in peoples' eyes, simply because it takes work to achieve.

I think it should be neither. Everyone should be happy with their appearance and not go out of their way to fit a societal "ideal".

[cremepuff.livejournal.com]

This.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Best comment ever. :-)

[blokesomething.livejournal.com]

I agree with the being happy part, but I do think people should go out of their way to be healthy if they care about themselves.

[shortsweetcynic.livejournal.com]

well said.

OP: faux or not, this was a great find. not sure if it made me happy or sad, but it did make me think.

[fornikate.livejournal.com]

man i woulda been so popular