MPrufrock, I, too, found those standards and the history fascinating. The tyranny of numbers set by others is so prevalent.

I agree about the vanity sizing. I remember when I discovered, in the late 1970s, that at the finer department stores, clothes were marked a size smaller, at the same measurements. At the lesser stores, a dress marked size 12, would be a size 10 at the fancier department stores. That led to the vanity sizing that exists now.

I think the point you made about size and value is excellent food for thought, and points to how women are socialized to value themselves according to how some external "they" sees them. It takes much gumption to leave that behind.

Each new generation of women goes further into that freedom, it seems to me.