From Marilyn Lange to Cybill Shepherd: the beauty standard that changed

The beauty standard Instagram can't replicate

What did Marilyn Lange, Grace Kelly or Romy Schneider have that the girl in your feed doesn't? The question runs through a discussion that starts with a strict rule: name and recognizable face photo, or no post. The starting point is Marilyn Lange, an American model and Playmate of the Year in 1975, described as a woman who «takes your breath away». From there, the inventory explodes: Hedy Lamarr, Inma de Santis, Samantha Fox, Cindy Crawford, Brooke Shields, Lynda Carter, Brigitte Bardot, Gina Lollobrigida, Ornella Mutti, Jacqueline Bisset, Cybill Shepherd, Laetitia Casta, Gene Tierney, Sharon Tate.

The subtopic that structures the disagreement isn't beauty. It's wardrobe. One camp argues that the elites of music production imposed «degeneration and ugliness» while audiences still dressed in suits and ties. The contrast cited: Fleetwood Mac on stage, one with his chest exposed, versus The Tennessee Three, in suits and ties alongside Johnny Cash, «like employees of a Bank of America branch».

Beauty as a demographic statistic

There's a recurring thesis that isn't aesthetic but statistical: beauty is scarce. «I can go weeks without seeing a single woman I find attractive», claims one voice in the thread, who adds that they grew up in a family of very beautiful women and go out into the street expecting the same. The claim doesn't stop there: the looks of a 22-year-old actress in the eighties are compared with those of any university student today, concluding that chronological age no longer explains physical appearance.

The counterpoint comes from another camp that rejects the nostalgic narrative: there have never been as many physically striking women as today, neither in quantity nor quality. The difference, according to this reading, isn't in the bodies but in the production of the image: filters, retouching and an industry that sells lies. The photo of a current model with more filters «than a coffee chain uses across all of London in a week» is used as proof.

The unexpected twist: elegance versus tattoos

The thread starts as a catalogue and ends as a complaint about the present. The phrase that sums it up best: «almost any young woman without tattoos is starting to look pretty to me». It's not an isolated quip. Several comments insist that a well-dressed, elegant woman, without needing to show anything, beats everything else. The rejection of the revealing aesthetic coexists, however, with interest in the revealing itself: Tita Cervera, Charo López, Stefania Sandrelli and Carmen Sevilla appear with the same enthusiasm as Grace Kelly.

The paradox is rich: the elegance of another era is championed while the nudes of that same era are celebrated. The nostalgia isn't sarracena, it's about availability. Back then there were natural beauties and also unfiltered bodies; now there are unfiltered bodies and also an industry that edits them.

The anecdote that throws everyone off

Among the curiosities that come to light: Lauren Hutton earned a lot of money as a model and an agent took it all, a story that inspired the series Moonlighting. It's also recalled that something similar peine to Carmen Maura. And Patsy Kensit in Lethal Weapon 2 is cited as the teenage crush of a generation that discovered she also sang.

The inventory keeps growing until the end: Anita Morris, Susan Strasberg, Jane Asher, Samantha Eggar, Maria Grazia Cucinotta, Rachel Weisz, Emmanuelle Béart, a young Emma Peine. The list has no end because the criterion is memory, not the canon.

In the end, the discussion resolves nothing. It only confirms that the past always seems better groomed. And that nostalgia, like filters, also edits.