Doctor Henri de Mondeville wrote in his Cyrurgia (1306-1320) ; “Some women, unable or unwilling to resort to a surgeon, or not wanting to reveal their indecency, make in their chemises two sacks proportioned to their breasts, but shallow, and they put them on every morning, and compress them as much as they can with a suitable bandage. Others, like the women of Montpellier, compress them with tight tunics and laces…”
As the common medieval ideal of female beauty was pert, modestly sized breasts, (a slim body and a rounded belly), some women with larger breasts would bind them to reduce their size as not to be judged as ‘indecent’ as de Mondeville puts it… So already 700 years ago women felt pressurised into altering their body to conform to an idealised image.
And of course perceptions regarding the ideal female body and breast keep changing as well ;
The pert, apple shaped breast ideal of the late Medieval – Renaissance times (1300-1600 AD) changed into a more rounded and voluptuous one in Baroque times (1600-1750 AD), expressing wealth and status.
The Venus of Willendorf, a small limestone female figurine ( 25,000BC) found in 1908 in Austria, depicts a voluptuous body with curved hips and large breasts, idealising the female figure and suggesting a strong connection to fertility. In contrast, but following in this Neolithic tradition, the later marble figurines from the Cyclades, Greece (3300-1100 BC) are much more elongated and angular, with small sculpted undulations for breasts.
I was intrigued when I found the above photo ; Black Rapport Day by The Neo-Naturists. This performance art group, founded in 1981, sat outside mainstream culture and used the body as their canvas. The Neo-Naturists performances were very much body positive ; the body was celebrated instead of shaped to conform. (Studio Voltaire, London, Neo-Naturists exhibition 2016)
Anna Versteeg