Thursday, July 27, 2023

Suffering for Beauty



Is risking your life to be attractive ever worth it? maybe, if you've been taught that beauty is the only thing you have to offer, or if everyone around you is doing the same risky thing, or if you have no idea how dangerous an everyday beauty regimen can be. Society has gone through many cycles of less-than-healthy beauty fads, from makeup made of lead and arsenic to eating disorders. Weird History focuses in on some unhealthy trends of the Victorian era, namely consumption chic, corsets, arsenic baths, and dangerous makeup ingredients. While we can look back and say "What were they thinking?" we also have to wonder what we are doing today that will cause people of the future, say a hundred years from now, to say the same about us.



2 comments:

Bicycle Bill said...

But do we learn?  Implanting silicone pouches, injecting botulinus toxin, carving out and reconfiguring parts of the body, placing plastic discs in the eyes to change their color, and using all sorts of drugs, creams and powders to lose weight, eliminate age lines, and hide perceived flaws — I would say 'No'.

-"BB"-

xoxoxoBruce said...

But you do have to appreciate the freedoms that allow us to abuse ourselves, or pay someone to do it to us. What a country.