The guitar-shaped body

Brazilian forms of beauty that spring immediately to mind are the painted and feathered extravaganzas Carnivale, and the salon-waxed, well-proportioned beach bums in bikinis. An exceedingly body-image concerned society with high rates of plastic surgery and use of other treatments, a look at what is requested is one way to reveal the beauty ideal there. Breast reduction is a popular surgery there as the emphasis is on the bottom half in Brazil, generally the reverse of Western societies. Known as “um corpo de violão,” literally the “guitar-shaped body”, the point of attraction was “the sweet swing” of her hips. In the past, this was even more so, and as in Western countries a look at the fifties shows a generally heavier, all over, body type thinning out over the decades. The heavier ideal, “fartura,” representing abundance, is still important in poorer and more tradional regions, however the Western ideal is penetrating the society deeper and deeper due to media, the fashion and modeling industry, movies, even children’s toys.