Appearances are everything

[FourBear]

Ayup, very true. The belief that fat = good persisted throughout history until more recent centuries.

This is off on a tangent a bit, but eating "white" breads and foods was seen as "good" and persists to today, despite the scientific research that shows the benefit of "brown" (whole grain, etc.) foods that were previously snubbed by the wealthy.

Maybe that is somehow tied to the plump = good thing. Many societies today find shapely women to be more attractive, like in Brazil.

 

[dong]

This, I think, is an allusion to connotations. Many societies have had this thing for white, all the way from the Romans.

 

[mamab]

Would that pertain to the lightness of people's skins, as well? I mean, in Elizabethan times you were expected to be "lily white" and they even used powder to give the illusion. It was a sign of being poor for a person to have any color to their skin, it proved they had to work outdoors for a living instead of being privileged and being able to remain indoors.

 

[mtatum4496]

Yep, that is true. Lily white skin indicated that you did not have to be out in the sun laboring with your hands, therefore you had to be either some sort of royalty or at least well off. Same with carrying some extra pounds - that meant you were well off enough to buy the food whenever you wanted.

Wasn't it like around 1920 that some public figure accidentally got a tan and started off a new craze that led to 20th century folks seeing a tan as being evidence of a healthy lifestyle?