She is one girl, there is no one like her.
She is more beautiful than any other.
Look, she is like a star goddess
arising at the beginning of a happy new year;
brilliantly white, bright skinned;
with beautiful eyes for looking,
with sweet lips for speaking; she has not one phrase too many.
With a long neck and white breast,
her hair of genuine lapis lazuli;
her arm more brilliant than gold;
her fingers like lotus flowers,
with heavy buttocks and girt waist.

Her thighs offer her beauty, with a brisk step she treads on ground.

She has captured my heart in her embrace.

She makes all men turn their necks to look at her.
One looks at her passing by, this one, the unique one.

Extract from a 3,000 year-old papyrus.

The history of beauty is a cruel one. Although styles and trends have faded in and out through the years, in retrospect we can see how dangerous, unhealthy, and sometimes destructive history’s most popular styles have been. While today’s perception of beauty might seem completely ordinary to us, our modern-day trends may be just as ridiculous as some other styles have been throughout the ages.
The most common example that might come to mind is the Victorian corset. Though justified in its function, to keep the female body’s shape hard and intact for the fash- ions of the time, not many people today are aware of how dangerous the corset and it’s respective add-ons were to the woman’s body. Also called a ‘stay,’ the corset served as an undergarment for women that wanted to maintain a particular curve or skeleton underneath their clothing. The corset cinched in the waist dramatically, sometimes even down to 15 or 16 inches around. This would, in turn, temporarily collapse the ribcage, making it difficult for the wearer to breathe. For this reason, sporadic fainting was common for women during the Victorian Era.
Even prior to the corset, there were makeup trends popular amongst women that we would laugh at today, but in horror–because the materials they were composed of were potentially lethal chemicals. During the Elizabethan Era, many women used powders and pencils to paint their face a fashionable color. Though the style might look extrava- gant in portraiture, the execution was dangerous, as many of the materials women used were toxic. Ceruse, or white lead, was commonly used to re-create Queen Elizabeth’s pale complexion. Lead-based rouge was also used to cre- ate a “healthy” glow on the cheeks. Although almost everyone today knows that lead should not be put anywhere near your body, the men and women at the time weren’t so savvy, and used the dangerous chemical to achieve a trendy look.
It’s true that our longing for perfection and beauty can sometimes go too far: we want nice hair, flattering clothes, and clear skin. But where does it stop? It seems that our definition of beauty involves less enhancing and more altering, and there have been times where the quest to achieve a vogue look have actually touched on the unhygienic.
During the Georgian Era in history (think Marie Antoinette’s “Let them eat cake!”), women were adorned in decorative silks, satins, furs, feathers, and gold from head to toe. Their dresses barely fit inside the room and their hair practically hit the ceiling. Although the look that women achieved was elaborate, the hygiene involved in maintaining this look was very minimal. It was such a pain to get their dresses on that bathing was very rare, and the same rule applied to their hairstyles. Their sky-high hair, exaggerated by horsehair and wool padding, was decorated so cautiously with jewels, feathers, and the like, that it was inconvenient to wash the hair or even remove the decorations. The prolonged styles kept on the head were a nesting ground for vermin, such as head lice . If you think wearing the same pants two days in a row is unsanitary, imagine how these poor women felt.
Beyond the unclean aspects of styles such as those during the Georgian Era, there are also more than a few fashions that have touched on the freakish. In ancient China, foot binding was immensely popular. Since small feet were associated with a dainty demeanor, a bound foot was what made a woman desirable as a marriage partner. For nearly 1000 years, Chinese women altered the shape and size of their feet for the sake of beauty. They would cut their feet and tightly wrap them in cloth, almost like a cast. Because the bound foot was altered so drastically over time, the women who chose to bind their feet weren’t able to walk normally. They would hobble, displaying vulnerability, mak- ing women with bound feet more desirable to wed. Some call it sick and some call it weird, but at the time, it was categorized as beautiful.
But what about the styles of today? Are they equally as sick? Are they only acceptable because we haven’t moved on? What about the high heel, for example? There’s no doubt that the shape of the heel alters the alignment of the toes. Frequent wearers often suffer from foot pains, bunions, and calluses, but we continue to put ourselves through the suffering for the sake of…well, beauty. But is the heel no different from the corset, or in some respects, foot binding?
One day, today’s fashions will be history too. Historians and sociologists will look back and prod at our perception of beauty the way we do to the now-foreign eras of corsets and foot-binding. There are plenty of contemporary fashions that will make us look just as silly. Our flamboyant makeup, high heels, and even our constricting and rash- inducing wired bras are all part of our culture now, but who knows how people of the future will look at these styles? Will they appreciate them, study them for clues to our cul- ture? Probably. But will they think that these styles are as beautiful as we see them? Probably not.