Skinny Venus appears on Vogue's Facebook Page

Scrolling through Vogue's Facebook page (Vogue's Official Facebook Page, 2013), I encountered something that was supposed to look like an illustration of 'The Birth of Venus'. I could not help but notice how Vogue's Venus does not look anything like Botticelli's (Web Gallery of Art, 2013). Only by comparing these two paintings, we can realize how much have the standards of female beauty shifted to the unhealthier side. Vogue's Venus has at least twenty kilos less, no breasts and barely any waist. The only thing that remains the same is hair; probably because its growth is not affected by food consumption. Perhaps this comment I found below Vogue's Venus on their Facebook page is not the most academically written one, but it does explain it all (Vogue's Official Facebook Page, 2013).

Vogue even dares to change art in its mission to promote objectification of women. Presenting the ultimate beauty, Venus, as a skinny and tall, model-looking girl, sends a message that this is how every girl should look. Promoting distorted and monotonous standards of beauty disrespects women on so many levels - it makes those that are not as skinny and do not fit in this small box of Vogue's less valuable. It also promotes the point of view that women are valuable only as look as they look good, that is, are skinny and tall. Hopefully, women should be emancipated enough by now to know that they are not objects to be put in boxes and should not let Vogue manipulate their minds.


Vogue's Official Facebook Page, 2013, Facebook, viewed November 21,
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151990523537279&set=a.71982647278.106317.42933792278&type=1&theater
'Botticelli, Sandro: The Birth of Venus', 2013, Web Gallery of Art, viewed November 21, http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/b/botticel/5allegor/30birth.html