Before Leslie Hornby, nobody ever really heard of anorexia or bulimia. Not that we should blame her as such, but hers was the face that launched a thousand fad diets.

Leslie’s professional name was Twiggy. She burst on the scene in the late 1960s with her blond hair, big eyes and 90-pound, size-zero body. She was possibly the first supermodel and paved the runway for other waif-ish models like Cheryl Tiegs, Christie Brinkley and Elle MacPherson.

Twiggy also set the standard for beauty and sex appeal that doomed young women to decades of quick weight-loss pills, aerobic workout tapes and after-meal purging. In the post-Twiggy fashion culture, being skinny, even at the risk of your health, was as important as clear skin and shiny hair.

And as Americans, we often take things too far.

Gastric-bypass and lap-band surgeries were developed in the 1990s as important tools to help morbidly obese people lose pounds and grow healthier. But today, many normal-sized women undergo these procedures, simply because they want to drop a couple of dress sizes. This happens whenever we abandon our individualism and allow television and beauty magazines to decide what we find attractive.

Last week, columnist Alonzo Weston, aside from showing a little crankiness because everybody seemed to be poking him in the belly, wrote that he believes “full-figured” women can also be attractive. Many guys will second Alonzo’s opinion. It seems a substantial amount of male DNA is hard-wired to appreciate curves, particularly on women and sports cars. Despite this attraction, most women tailor their appearance to impress other women, not men.

Perhaps, though, that is changing.

The September issue of Glamour created quite a stir when editors published a photograph of a nearly naked woman on page 194. Plus-size model Lizzi Miller was shown seated on a bench with her belly hanging over her waistline and some faint stretch marks that somehow escaped the airbursh. You can view the photo at this Web site: www.glamour.com/health-fitness/blogs/vitamin-g/2009/08/on-the-cl-the-picture-you-cant.html.

Ms. Miller is 20 years old and says she enjoys belly dancing and softball. A size 12, she stands 5 feet, 11 inches tall and weighs 180 pounds.

One hundred and eighty pounds! Why, that’s exactly two Twiggys!

Thousands of readers responded to the photo. Most were “normal” sized women who were grateful to see someone with whom they could identify. Here’s an example of most of the responses:

“What an incredibly beautiful woman! I don’t care that she is regarded by the industry as a ‘plus size’ or that the rest of us see her as a ‘normal size.’ She is gorgeous, she is REAL, she is happy and she gives me hope that the fashion industry might actually be looking at — women. I want to see this beauty — and other real women like her — rise to the top of the ladder and smack the skinny off those unrealistic size 0s.”

It’s doubtful that a single 3-inch by 3-inch photo buried in the back a fashion magazine will strike the decisive blow that causes the fashion industry to cultivate a more realistic body image for our wives and daughters.

But it’s a start. Perhaps other magazines will publish more photos of normally proportioned women. For a lot of guys I know, this would be a welcome change. Men dream of the day when we can actually give an honest answer when asked “Does this dress make me look fat?” and not suffer physical consequences.

And maybe one day we won’t even be asked.

Steve Booher’s column runs on Mondays. He can be reached at steveb@npgco.com.