1. Foot Binding
The Chinese tradition of binding the feet of women who could afford the procedure and then afford not having to actually stand for more than a few minutes at a time started in the 10th century and was still practiced until the early 20th century by all classes of women whose husbands greatly enjoyed these tiny lotus-shaped feet. During the Qing dynasty, it was even common practice to involve bound feet in sexual acts, adding to the desire of men wanting women with bound feet. Before the arch of the foot was fully formed (before the age of 14), a young girl would have almost every bone of her foot broken before an extremely tight binding was wrapped around the now squished foot to have the bones repair themselves in this new, smaller form. A foot that was roughly three inches was the “ideal” size. The problem of this act, not only the restrictions of movement, was infection. While the wealthy could afford to have fresh daily bindings and inspections, the poor were restricted if they were binding their feet and would subsequently have more problems with infection. Toe nails were cut as short as possible before binding and routinely checked but in-grown toe nails happened anyway. Sometimes later in life a woman could have her feet unbound, but severe deformities would still prevail.
2. Neck Rings
Having a long, graceful neck is seen as beautiful in many cultures. The longest natural necks are generally seen in the women of the professional Russian ballet who start training early enough to lengthen their necks naturally through exercises that require holding one’s neck in a stretched position over and over. However, some subcultures in Asia (Burma, Kayan) and Africa take the idea to extremes by having women wear multiple brass coil rings around the neck to stretch it out. Usually, it begins with only a few rings as a young child and the number increases with age, meaning older women will have longer necks. This act of beauty is mostly an illusion though. The pressure of the rings causes the collar bones and upper ribs to be pushed down at a steep angle to make the neck look longer when the actual vertebrae are not elongated. Coils can be removed but the neck muscles are generally atrophied by that point, making the simple act of holding one’s head up without the assistance of the coils extremely difficult.
3. Lip Discs
The idea of piercing one’s lip isn’t necessarily a new one. Yet, taking this practice to the extreme by stretching out one’s lip (either upper or lower) with a plate or plug tends to be acted out by only a few select groups. The term “labret” is applied to any of these pierced-lip ornaments. The process of stretching a lip piercing is thought to be independently invented six times in the ancient world even though today it is only maintained by select groups around the Amazon River in South America and Africa. Because human skin, particularly the skin of a younger person, has an innate flexibility and ability to stretch itself the act of using labrets to lengthen a lip piercing is relatively easy as long as it is done slowly. Yet, the weight of large ornaments can be intense even if they are made from light weight types of wood. A young person (women generally do this in Africa while it is tied to men in most parts of Amazonia) will generally only wear them during ceremonies and special occasions once they have achieved the size they want, choosing to let the stretched lip hang on its own during everyday chores.
4. Corsets
Having a “wasp waist” refers to a woman whose waist appears segmented like the body of a wasp to the point where her upper (bust) and lower (hips) body halves look like separated parts. This was generally achieved through long term use of extremely tight corsets. The corset’s drastic form of reducing a woman’s natural waist size by seven to even ten inches was most prominent during the 19th and early 20th centuries but lesser forms can be seen from the creation of the corset in the 1500s. While corsets do help to flatten one’s stomach and help with a straight posture, “tightlacing” was used to create the “ideal” womanly hourglass form by starting girls in corsets very early and tightening the laces even more daily. The main problems though is that this hourglass figure was attained artificially, meaning the basic make up of a woman’s body was modified. Cracked ribs, displaced organs, and respiratory problems were common. Also, miscarriages and death during labor were very common to women who had extremely modified their bodies with corsets. To take corseting even further though, during the late 19th and early 20th century, some women would have their lower ribs surgically removed to get them out of the way of the corset’s work on their stomachs.
5. Head Binding
Modifying the physical structure of a human skull was quite popular in the ancient world. While rarely seen in modern times, ancient Egyptians, Australian Aborigines, North American native peoples, Huns, Maya, and some Germanic tribes were all peoples who practiced head binding or head shaping at some point in time. Yet, these vast array of cultures preferred different looks in their skull modifications. Native North Americans tended to prefer flattened skull shapes. Egyptians and the Maya liked backward elongated skulls during most of their head binding histories. Whatever shape was ultimately desired though was generally achieved the same way—using binding tools on the skull of a newborn baby. Parents would take the pliable skull of an infant, usually one month after birth, and tightly bind the skull for roughly six months. The act of shaping a skull that early and for a short amount of time was usually enough to cause the skull to grow the way it was shaped at such a pivotal developmental stage without much alteration needed afterward. It was thought to be aesthetically pleasing in addition to giving off the feel of being more intelligent.
Credits: Brooke Winsor — Copyrighted © roadtickle.com
So now dont you believe,
Beauty really is, in the eye of the beholder.
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