It has always been seen that women in different cultures try and apply different things on their bodies for beauty purposes. Although these things seem ugly to people who grew up with modern culture, according to some cultures, they reflect a beauty.
Lotus anklets, long neck rings, eyelashes and lip plates are just a few of the interesting procedures women have used throughout history to beautify.
Now let’s take a look at what these apps do to women for the sake of beauty. The lotus brace is one of the most striking among them.
Lotus anklets tell us how painful the feet of Chinese women in Hong Kong have gone through for centuries for the sake of beauty. This experience actually leads to crippling the feet of young women. The reason this tradition was practiced was for women to have a better marriage and a better life.
Women get this look with the cloth tied to the sole of the foot by breaking their toes and arches. The main purpose of this application is to please men. Because it was thought that men would be more interested in small feet.
It is thought that there may be other reasons behind why women do this.
An anthropologist named Bossen says there are some misconceptions about this tradition. According to Bossen, the torture-like tying of the girls’ feet and doing them with good intentions served another purpose. The goal is to ask girls to create a source of income for their families rather than sitting still.
It can be said that this purpose has an important place especially in rural areas. Because the source of income for families in the countryside consisted of items such as yarn, straw, shoes, cloth and fishing nets. Families asked their daughters to help with these tasks, and thanks to the lotus braces, the girls could do these things more easily.
Again, Bossen observed that women with lotus feet did not hesitate to show their lotus ankle straps, and therefore expressed his skepticism that this might resemble a fetish. Bossen says it’s a distortion of history to think that women go through such an experience purely on the basis of beauty. Women were working in industry, so cosmetic reasons weren’t the only reason women got their feet like this.
This tradition has started to be seen very little lately, due to the fact that much more useful and durable alternatives have emerged than the lotus foot binding tradition with the factory. In other words, we can say that this tradition has decreased as women have started not to produce goods such as cloth at home.
Lotus feet have a very ancient origin.
The lotus brace is a tradition that dates back to the Song (960-1279) dynasty. It is interesting that it started as a tradition practiced especially by the elite aristocratic people from the palace circle. It then spread to the countryside and became popular in almost all of China in the 19th century. It can be said that the lotus brace application decreased in the first years of the 20th century. The reason for the decline of the practice is the prohibitions brought by Communism.
In another beauty method, women lengthen their necks.
In the Kayan tribe, also known as the long-necked Karen people in northern Thailand, women stand out with the rings they wear around their necks. In this tribe, women wear twisted rings made by men. Moreover, these neck rings are made of brass and elongate women’s necks.
According to the belief of the Kayan tribe, the longer a woman’s neck is, the more beautiful she is. In the Kayan tribe, women start wearing these rings at the age of 5 to become beautiful. The older they get, the more rings are added to their necks. It is even said that they add a new ring to their necks every two years.
Originally from Myanmar, this tribe took refuge on the Thai border in the late 1980s, fleeing the war with Myanmar from rebel forces. These people, who were placed in refugee camps at the border, attracted great attention in a short time due to their long-necked women’s traditions.
One of the reasons why they stayed in Thailand was this tradition they practiced to beautify women. Because tourists thought that this situation attracted attention. It is even estimated that more than 40,000 tourists pay around $8 to $16 each year to see these women and have a picture with them. It is quite interesting that women do not take off their neck collars even when they are sleeping.
Women wear these rings called bobbins to beautify.
The people of Kayan say nothing concrete about why women wear these coils. However, according to the belief of the locals, these rings made of brass protect women from being abducted by other tribes. According to some beliefs, lanyards protected from tiger attacks.
Today, it is said that these rings are worn to protect the Kayan culture. It is stated that these rings are worn not only for protection or cultural purposes, but also for aesthetic purposes.
Kayan women are called “giraffe women” because of the long rings they wear around their necks. These neck rings are also called “Padaung”.
Extending the neck of women for the sake of beauty can lead to health risks!
Continuous use of rings in the neck area causes the vertebrae in the spine to collapse. For this reason, neck lengthening does not produce any positive results in terms of health. Neck coils have been known to sometimes weigh as much as 20 kilograms. Wearing such a heavy accessory against the fragility of the neck structure becomes one of the painful attempts made for the sake of beauty.
It also puts pressure on the rib cage as the weight of the coils pushes on the collarbone. In this context, the formation of deformations in the collarbone is inevitable. Women even stuff their necks with leaves while they sleep to prevent collarbone injuries. In this way, a gradual displacement process is applied to the collarbone.
In some sources, there are opinions that women wear these neck rings for financial gain. The reason for this is that the local people do not have a livelihood other than tourism. Men pressure women to wear neck rings because their refugee status makes it harder for them to find work. Women who think that they have no alternative to earn money other than their appearance, wear these rings and try to live at the expense of their lives.
The eyelash-free eye was a popular beauty practice for the forehead to stand out.
In the Middle Ages, women didn’t shape their eyelashes until the 18th century. This was because women gave more importance to their foreheads. Women were plucking their eyebrows and eyelashes to reveal more of their foreheads.
It was not welcomed for women to display their hair in public. Through several religious orders, the Catholic Church came to regard displaying hair as a sin, a crime against God and the church. In this period, make-up was again reserved for prostitutes. In women, hair was perceived as a feature that had an erotic connotation. With the prohibitions enacted during the Middle Ages, women were living with less hair. This is what caused the eyelashes to be removed. Women believed that beauty lies in being without eyelashes, and they had their eyelashes removed.
Plates worn to enlarge the lips of women in Africa are considered a symbol of beauty and dignity.
In the Surma, Sara and Mursi tribes in Africa, the lips of teenage girls are cut by their mothers and enlarged with plates. The reason for this application is to make women beautiful.
There are differences of opinion among the tribes about lip plates. While it is stated that it is for beauty in the Mursi tribe, it is stated that it is for bride price in other tribes. It is even thought that the larger the plate on the lips of women, the more money they will be given.
As you can see, women have gone through various practices that hurt their bodies for the sake of being beautiful throughout history. Even today, these destructive experiences created in the body for beauty continue to be inevitable.
Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
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