Stiffness was an advantage. 
A local artist–I can’t remember her name–recently did a series of oil painting that were painted from 19th and early 20th century pornographic photographs. They were, for the most part, no more suggestive than classical nudes, and they were so much sexier than modern porn. The women looked beautiful and real (no boob jobs, obviously!), and as gaffa said, in many cases, they actually looked happy.
I wonder if part of it is simply that overt sexiness was not as acceptable or valued as it is today. While I might pose for a picture trying to look sexy, I can’t imagine most 1800s women trying for that effect. They might be trying to look sophisticated, or pure, or virginal, or demure or lady-like, or even serious and business like. Looking sexual (which in this day and age is sometimes synonymous with attractive) was probably not encouraged. I expect the university women in particular were striving to be taken seriously, so they posed in a way that looked somewhat stern and serious.
Yeah, they hadn’t invented the “fat girl MySpace photograph”, where you get in really close, look up at the camera, and make it blurry.
ETA - also, it has to be crooked.
She looks like my best friend’s girlfriend with the hairstyle/clothing of that time. And suffice to say that I would be completely thrilled if said girlfriend had a lesbian identical twin. 
I love old pictures of people. Even people who were probably not the beauties of their day looked nice in pictures then, because a picture was something you dressed up for and did your hair nice, as opposed to something that, half the time, is really casually shot when you’re chewing or yawning or something.
I collect postcards of Edwardian actress Isabel Jay and I don’t care what anyone might have say about her slightly weird teeth or anything like that…she was a beautiful, classy lady (and a really, really good opera singer by all accounts) and it shows in the pictures I have of her.
Definitely not always. I don’t want to put up any NSFW links, but you can google Josie Earp and “Kaloma” and see a fairly well known photograph which appeared on one or two psychedelic rock concert posters in 1960s San Francisco.
In less extreme contexts, I’ve seen numerous women and girls in photos of the era who looked attractive. At one time Los Angeles High School had some yearbooks from the early 1900s up on its website, and some of the girls were quite attractive. In some ways, the old fashioned hairstyles worked better than the bobs that became popular in the1920s. Much to my dismay, the yearbooks don’t seem to be there anymore, and I have contacted asking if they still can be seen online anywhere. They were fascinating ephemera of their time, and I loved looking at them. Which reminds me, if you see a fraternity or sorority from that era, they could be high school students, as Greek societies were common in high schools of the time.
Thanks for that link - you have a great collection!
Are you kidding me? Number five is stunning! Were we men of her time, I believe I’d cheerfully challenge you to pistols at dawn for your comment.
Something about number 5’s eyes reminds me of Linda Edelstein.
Sorry to say, those aren’t my pictures…just an example of her I found online.
I need to scan in my postcards since I have a few I’ve never seen online, including really sweet ones with her young daughter Cecilia in them.
They are sorority girls. They’re hung over.
Speak for yourself, pal. I look like I’m high as a kite in my passport photo.
Is it just my imagination, looking at the sorority pic…does there seem to be a little girl on girl action going on with top row #4 & 5 ? What’s she doing with her hand ? #5 seems to have a quizzical look on her face. Or maybe that’s just my imagination.
It’s more than just cosmetics. Male faces usually (though not always) have a more prominent brow, chin, and other features, leaving out of consideration ethnic and individual differences.
Even in infants one can often identify human gender; the babies that so many toilet paper companies use on their packages, for some reason, almost always seem to be boys.
Not just that, but as film got cheaper and cheaper, it became possible to take lots of pictures and only print/keep the most flattering ones. If you take a model today and can make only one or two photographs of her, chances are she won’t look her best, either.
Does anyone else aged over 35 remember those awful class photographs and passport pictures from our childhood? Same problem. Nine out of ten times, you looked horrible in them. (or like Sunspace’s proverbial criminals ). Such photo’s were taken professionaly, so the lighting etc would be adequate, but as there would have been only one take, it was anyone’s guess how you’d look in the pictures and if you looked bad, tough luck.
I’ll take your word for it. I don’t know about the average person being able to tell gender differences in babies, though. What about people all the time asking you “Boy or girl?” when looking at your baby? I’m reminded of a lady I knew who stuck gift bows on her baby girl’s bald head because strangers always thought she was a boy.
Are modern regular people really that much hotter, though?
Plus, I’d say that in terms of body shots/having a nice figure…modern clothes can be more…er, helpful, as others have pointed out. I have (by this society’s standards) a great figure, but I think I’d look downright boyish if my body were hidden by a long, drapey type dress, as opposed to a short skirt or tight tank top or cute sundress, or even shorts.
I’ve always wondered why on earth people care. My mom stuck velcro bows on me too because even in pink smocked dresses people would say “What a beautiful little boy!” What’s wrong with “My, that’s a baby!”
For sure! “How precious” is always good and generic too.
I guess it boils down to some people needing to put things in categories. The humoruous thing about my little story is that, this was before Velcro. So this lady used sticky-bows like you put on Xmas presents. 
I can’t do that, but I can produce a reasonable facimile.
Those Dopers who have been in the military will understand the depth of my zeal to fight ignorance when I say that I am about to link to… my boot camp photo.. Ugly hair, unflattering clothing, no makeup, no smile.
Despite the obvious evidence in that link, though, I was not an unattractive girl. In fact, although never a beauty (like some of the classic beauties who’ve been linked in this thread); I was considered by most to be pretty. This photo was taken around 6 months after the boot camp one. The cute (although now unfashionable) clothes and hair helped; but the real difference is the makeup and the smile.
