Until puberty, our bodies look similar regardless of our sex, other than our genitals. When we hit puberty, a barrage of hormones—androgens like testosterone and estrogens like estradiol—reshapes our ...

Their feminine body shape, however, was different enough from the ‘normal’ women’s body to attract comments and stares from strangers. The comments from what the bodybuilders called ‘the general ...

Somewhere along the way, femininity became confused with fragility. Softness got mistaken for weakness. Sensitivity became something to hide, not honour. And for many women, being feminine started to ...

The foundations of the body: foundation garments and the early modern female silhouette -- The artificial body: courtiers, gentlewomen and disputed visions of femininity, 1560-1650 -- The socially ...