Is The Venus De Milo Manly?

[naomi24]

An image familiar to all but until watching a television programme about the statue the other night it had never occurred to me that apart from her breasts, how distinctly unfeminine she is. A toned muscly body, a bit of a six pack going on, big legs, a questionable face … all very suspicious.

What do you think.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_de_Milo

[Hymie]

She looks better than Tony Hancock’s master piece ‘Aphrodite at the Waterhole’ in the film ‘The Rebel’.

[ladybirder]

More like this one would be an improvement I think.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphitrite

[aelmpvw]

i think ladybirder's link depicts her before she joined the gym

[drmorgans]

She is quite statuesque ;-)

[jno]

those look like child-bearing hips to me. (The child would have been Aeneas.)

[sandyRoe]

Could she be described as Junoesque?

[Khandro]

She looks OK to me, but I think the sculpture is overrated.
My main criticism is that the head is too small, but that may be because of the low camera angle.

p.s. Aphrodite was Aeneas's mum.

[jno]

Khandro, this is a Greek statue, so it is Aphrodite rather than Venus; the French seemed to have identified her rather loosely. Unless it's Amphitrite, or maybe just the girl next door.

[Old_Geezer]

Women can exercise too, so, who knows ?

[douglas9401]

Bear in mind that chippys Dominos and McDonald's didn't exist back in the day.

[rowanwitch]

It's possible the model would have been a boy, just made feminine. Or it could just represent the feminine ideal of the time. What is desirable changes over time.

[davebro]

she looks like me - but my breasts are bigger & I've got no muscles!

[Untitled]

i think she is beautiful

ideas of femininity do change significantly over time… muscles were obviously not considered unfeminine at the time it was made