Have you ever heard of corsets? Today, corsets are seen as a classical and quick way to look slimmer. In the 19th century they were essentially used the same way, to make the tummy look slim, the hips look big, and give the bosom a healthy lift.
Example of corset, an attire that helps women appear slimmer. It was made by whale bones during the Victorian era. Whale? Whoaaa :O Courtesy of Google Image
While many women used corsets properly, like any others beauty practice some women abused them to the point of disfigurement and death. They tied the corsets as tight as possible. Do you know that some women tied the corsets so tightly that they fainted frequently from only being able to take shallow breaths. That's pretty tragic I think.
A Victorian woman tying her corset (what a tiny waist!) Courtesy of Google Image
However, wearing corsets may not be as simple as it seems, wearing it and voila! Here comes your tiny waist. Some experts claimed that corsets might cause overlapping of rib cage. To achieve a wasp-like waist the lower sections of the rib cage have to be pushed inwards. If the waist is made small enough the two sides of the rib cage will eventually meet in the middle and overlap. Not only that, it's also said that wearing tightly laced corsets can cause compression of internal organs, complications during pregnancy, and muscle death. One thing for sure, corsets must have caused those Victorian women extreme pain.
Internal organs tend to be shrunk after wearing corsets Courtesy of Google Image
Having a slender slim body is what makes a woman beautiful. Perhaps
that would be the case in many parts of the world. Girls (including me), have this
constant worry that if you eat too much, you’ll gain more weight, you’ll become
fatter, and that’s not good. Apart from that quite distorted perception of slim or thin is beautiful, however, I think it’s something just right to watch
what you eat, for health purpose. Being fat may make you get tired so easily,
you can’t walk or move lots without feeling extremely exhausted, but, at the same
time, I’m against ill dieting as well. No rice at all, calculating calories
every time you wish to munch on any food, ah wait, that’s way too much! If your BMI (Body Mass Index) is within a normal range, you actually have that healthy weight, so it's perfectly fine! Let go of that burdening supermodel's body-type aim. Just eat normally, stay healthy, and avoid obesity J
Enough with my nutritionist rambles. Here is another beauty story. It's just not easy to achieve that beauty standard effortlessly. It's somewhat amazing (yet horrifying) to see people wish to do just anything to be beautiful. In Mauritania that lies between Western Sahara and Senegal, big women (obese ones I'd say) are traditionally deemed as more beautiful and desirable. In order to find a husband, many of the women are being pushed to
dangerous lengths to gain weight from being force fed to taking pills that are
not fit for human consumption. Having a fat wife is desirable and is a sign of
wealth and prestige in the country where food is in short supply. The girls are
fattened up from the age of eight by their families in a practice referred
to as 'gavage' - a French word that means force feeding and is used to describe
the fattening of geese to make ‘foie gras’ (a food product made of the liver of a duck or goose
that has been specially fattened).
An overweight woman of Mauritania
Photo by BBC
Once they reach a marriageable age, girls are sent to 'fat camps' in the
desert where they are fed 15,000 calories a day. For breakfast, the girls
have breadcrumbs soaked in olive oil washed down with camel's milk. They then
have frequent meals throughout the day of goat's meat, bread, figs and couscous,
all with more camel milk to drink. Morton found that many refer to the
over-eating as torture and parents have been known to crush their
daughters' toes with pincers if they resist.
Mauritanian girls drink lots of camel's milk to gain weight
Photo by Corbis
However, since this fattening process makes them feel sick and takes much time,
the girls have also found another way to gain weight - taking pills. One local woman told Morton, a U.S journalist: 'Medication is the modern
form of gavage. Women use steroids and they are taking pills made from birds.
These pills are not meant to be used by humans. The women said the animal growth hormones end up giving the women who take
them a disproportionate body shape with a big stomach, face and breasts but
thin arms and legs. She said: 'The person now looks more like a seal than a human being. Women
can't have children because of this type of gavage. The big problem is this
often leads to heart failure, repeated heart attacks, rare are the ones who
escape. There are consequences - diseases, malformations and insanity.
What a suffering to be beautiful!
It is said that the 'big women' tradition has now become old-fashioned in the region
Photo by BBC
Beautiful teeth have always been an important asset of beauty all around the world. I have read about teeth whitening, dental surgeries, for example using braces to align and straighten teeth in the name of beauty, but the terms teeth chiseling is really something new to me. It's unique, yes, and it tells another story of how painful it is to be beautiful.
Do you know that for a group of people, beautiful teeth means chiseled teeth? A tribe of people in Indonesia, which is called Mentawaian, believed that chiseled teeth makes women look more attractive and beautiful, apart from the belief that the beauty ritual of teeth chiseling maintains the balance between the soul and body.
Chiseling the teeth makes their teeth become narrow and pointy. The process is agonizingly painful. Local sharman sharpens a crude blade as best he can to make the chiseling as least painful as possible. During the chiseling, crude instruments are used and there is no anesthetic at all. Using careful strikes, the blade carves the corner of the teeth, leaving behind pointed ends similar to shark teeth.
Mentawai woman, flashing her pearly, chiseled whites
Credit to Google
Here is a video on Mentawai chiseled teeth tradition:
