Gibson Girl was the personification of the feminine ideal of physical attractiveness as portrayed by the pen-and-ink illustrations of artist Charles Dana Gibson during a 20-year period that spanned the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the United States.
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From this combination emerged the Gibson Girl, who was tall and slender, yet with ample bosom, hips and buttocks.
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Gibson Girl's had an exaggerated S-curve torso shape achieved by wearing a swan-bill corset.
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Gibson Girl's was a member of upper middle class society, always perfectly dressed in the latest fashionable attire appropriate for the place and time of day.
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The Gibson Girl was one of the new, more athletic-shaped women, who could be found cycling through Central Park, often exercised and was emancipated to the extent that she could enter the workplace.
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Gibson Girl's could be depicted attending college and vying for a good mate, but she would never have participated in the suffrage movement.
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Gibson Girl's therefore managed to stay within the boundaries of feminine roles without too much transgression.
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Gibson Girl depicted her as an equal and sometimes teasing companion to men.
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Gibson Girl illustrated men so captivated by her looks that they would follow her anywhere, attempting to fulfill any desire, even if it was absurd.
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In drawings such as these there was no hint at pushing the boundaries of women's roles; instead they often cemented the long-standing beliefs held by many from the old social orders, rarely depicting the Gibson Girl as taking part in any activity that could be seen as out of the ordinary for a woman.
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The most famous Gibson Girl was probably the American-British stage actress, Camille Clifford, whose high coiffure and long, elegant gowns that wrapped around her hourglass figure and tightly corseted wasp waist defined the style.
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Camille Clifford, a woman known as the "ideal Gibson Girl", posed for various photographers and produced photographs that exemplified the physical characteristics of the Gibson Girl.
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Some people argue that the Gibson Girl was the first national beauty standard for American women.
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