Marina Ristic
HUP 102.7625
Prof Susan Dougherty
WHAT IS BEAUTY?
It is amazing what are women capable of doing in quest for beauty. They are willing to undergo
very risky surgeries and dangerous procedures in order to become more beautiful Since beauty standards
has been changing over the centuries women have manipulated almost every part of their body in order
to follow the ideal of a particular era’s fashion. In China, upper-class girls had their feet bound, hoping
they will not grow. In early 20 century in Burma the ideal of female beauty involved a greatly elongated
neck. The ancient Egyptians, Romans and Persians tried to make their eyes glitter by using drops of
antimony sulfide, whereas European women during Renaissance plucked out hairs from their natural
hairlines to enhance their foreheads.
The most notorious procedure was the foot binding of Chinese girls. In China small feet were
considered extremely feminine and beautiful. Beginning at the age of five upper class girls had their
feet bounded ensuring three to four inches long feet. Bandage was wrapped very tightly around girls feet
forcing toes down as much as possible. The child could not move without doubling over in a graceless
effort to walk without putting any weight on her feet. In order to keep the girls from tearing off those
bandages, many parents would tied up their daughters hands.
This horrible procedure that looks like a torture to me had many bad consequences. Girls were not
able to walk, to grow and develop properly. From healthy born children, they were making invalid
children. Their feet would loose all blood supplies and become blue. Sometimes toes would drop off.
They would squeeze girls’ feet into one fifth of an inch smaller pair of shoes than the pair before to keep
the feet stunted at the desired three inch “golden lotus” length. Finally, after couple of years feet bones
would become completely deformed. Two years ago , when I attended the Zoni Language Center, I met
one Chinese girl. She told me the story about her grandmother, who had her feet bound when she was
two years old. Since her grandmother was from the rich family, her parents were strongly persuaded that
no one would marry their daughter if she had a big feet. In her grandmother case feet binding had
extreme side effects and she ended up invalid. For the rest of her life she was not able to walk. That was
one of the most shocking stories I have ever heard. Why would we hurt the one we love the most?
Because of beauty?
Among the Padaung people of early twentieth century Burma, the ideal of female beauty was
achieved by elongated neck at least fifteen inches. This was accomplished by putting a series of brass
neck rings. At a very young age, girls began to wear five rings. By the time they grew up, they would
wear twenty five rings or more. This ancient tradition has unknown roots. Maybe those rings would
made Burmese women unattractive to slave trade and maybe they were against tiger bite. For those
women rings symbol of beauty and tribal identity. The rings ensure that women will marry only inside
their own tribe. Even today, Burmese refuges in northern Thailand continue to stretch their daughters’
necks, because it is the biggest tourist attraction.
When I looked at those pictures of young girls and women with elongated necks all I can think
about is the pain and tyranny. I also think about health hazards. This dangerous procedure causes
physical problems like broken ribs, vertebrae and spinal cord. The weight of those rings leads to
crushed collarbones and broken ribs. Vertebrae in the neck becomes stretched and weak. These women
need those rings because their stretched out necks become too weak to support and hold their heads.
The ancient Egyptian women wanted to make their eyes look shiny by using drops of antimony
sulfide. These eye drops would eventually destroy their vision. In sixteenth and seventeenth century
women used eye drops made of belladonna. These drops would cause stretching the pupil of the eye and
eyes would look bigger, shiner, more interesting and more seductive. These drops were extremely
dangerous. Women who were using them continuously exposed themselves to the potential blindness
and eye glaucoma. It is absurd how far women go in their pursuit for beauty. All of these were very
dangerous and irreversible procedures that caused physical and psychological problems.
Women have always wanted to attract men. Over the centuries women have manipulated almost
every part of their body endangering their well being and their health. Since most of the men are visual
types, most of all they are attracted to women because of the way they look. On the contrary, women are
looking for powerful and wealthy men. Women have a desire to be noticed, to stand out from the crowd,
to be strikingly unique and catch the eyes not just of men but also of other women to make them jealous.
While Victorian women had their bodies heavily corseted in order to flatten natural curves, the fashion
world today has seen all sorts of push-up bras that emphasize the bust. Where other generations of the
past had the feet bound tightly to keep them tiny, today’s women flaunt their pedicured feet often in
spectacular footwear. With all the attempts to be unique and original, there remains an obvious paradox.
In order to be beautiful and original women are actually blindly following trends frequently short-lived,
that are dictated by cash hungry market. They are hardly all that original. What is the worst they neglect
the real beauty which is hidden inside of us.