This weekly roundup thread is intended for all culture war posts. 'Culture war' is vaguely defined, but it basically means controversial issues that fall along set tribal lines. Arguments over culture war issues generate a lot of heat and little light, and few deeply entrenched people ever change their minds. This thread is for voicing opinions and analyzing the state of the discussion while trying to optimize for light over heat.
Optimistically, we think that engaging with people you disagree with is worth your time, and so is being nice! Pessimistically, there are many dynamics that can lead discussions on Culture War topics to become unproductive. There's a human tendency to divide along tribal lines, praising your ingroup and vilifying your outgroup - and if you think you find it easy to criticize your ingroup, then it may be that your outgroup is not who you think it is. Extremists with opposing positions can feed off each other, highlighting each other's worst points to justify their own angry rhetoric, which becomes in turn a new example of bad behavior for the other side to highlight.
We would like to avoid these negative dynamics. Accordingly, we ask that you do not use this thread for waging the Culture War. Examples of waging the Culture War:
-
Shaming.
-
Attempting to 'build consensus' or enforce ideological conformity.
-
Making sweeping generalizations to vilify a group you dislike.
-
Recruiting for a cause.
-
Posting links that could be summarized as 'Boo outgroup!' Basically, if your content is 'Can you believe what Those People did this week?' then you should either refrain from posting, or do some very patient work to contextualize and/or steel-man the relevant viewpoint.
In general, you should argue to understand, not to win. This thread is not territory to be claimed by one group or another; indeed, the aim is to have many different viewpoints represented here. Thus, we also ask that you follow some guidelines:
-
Speak plainly. Avoid sarcasm and mockery. When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.
-
Be as precise and charitable as you can. Don't paraphrase unflatteringly.
-
Don't imply that someone said something they did not say, even if you think it follows from what they said.
-
Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.
On an ad hoc basis, the mods will try to compile a list of the best posts/comments from the previous week, posted in Quality Contribution threads and archived at /r/TheThread. You may nominate a comment for this list by clicking on 'report' at the bottom of the post and typing 'Actually a quality contribution' as the report reason.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
Most of the "ideal" women in these ads would count as "skinny" in 2026, with the "skinny" versions being called "anorexic".
It's still the case that women's thinness is virtually always mentioned negatively in older writing (often because it's linked with looking old, but not always), while "plump" is a universally positive descriptor with no ceiling I'm aware of. There are pre-20th-century novels that feature fat girls, even, and while it's sometimes a mean shorthand for the character being morally shallow, there's not a lot of implication that these characters will be repulsive to men. By contrast, having smallpox scars, having thin hair, having "a squint" (seemingly a lazy eye?), a horse-face or a hunch, these are features that seem somewhat common and are called out as unattractive, although not strictly in a dealbreaker way.
I'd imagine that more structured clothing might have made a difference, since everybody has a nice WHR when they're in a corset while modern thin knitwear looks bad on anyone 20+ BMI. But still, the fact that all the unattractive-coded features I mentioned above have now been pushed into "actual deformity" territory says something about the relative nature of beauty standards over time.
There's a big difference between being thin by choice, and being thin because of malnourishment. This says much more about nutrition than beauty standards.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link