Throughout history, women have done a lot of unusual and often painful things in the name of beauty. The idea of beauty, however, has changed a lot throughout history. What people think is beautiful is different in different parts of the world. Often, these ideas of beauty come in trends. In Europe, during the reign of Elizabeth I (1500s–1600s), having white skin was considered most beautiful. Women covered their faces in white makeup made from ground lead. Lead, however, is a poison. Women who used lead makeup ended up with longterm health problems. The makeup caused their skin to turn black over time. It also caused their teeth to rot, their hair to fall out, and a number of other gross side effects.

During the Victorian Era (1800s), wasp waists were the beauty trend. To achieve this look, women wore very tight corsets. The corsets actually squeezed in their rib bones. It gave a woman the appearance of having an incredibly tiny waist with a big bottom and big top—much like the way a wasp is shaped. To wear these corsets, women had to relearn how to breathe. These corsets played a role in the old idea that women would faint easily if excited. But if you are excited and wearing a corset that severely restricts your breathing, you’re going to pass out from a lack of oxygen.

In other parts of the world, people have different ideas of beauty that are often a part of their culture. In parts of Thailand and Africa, having an extra long neck is considered beautiful. In these areas, women put increasing numbers of weighted rings around their necks. They start wearing these rings as young girls. Over the years, their necks appear to grow longer. The rings don’t actually stretch the women’s necks. They change the women’s bone structure by lowering the collarbone. This makes their necks look longer. In some parts of Africa, women stretch their lips using round disks. Large lips are highly sought after marks of beauty.

The Chinese practice of binding women’s feet was both a traditional part of Chinese culture as well as one of the longest beauty trends in history. It lasted for more than a thousand years. Historians believe the trend started in the 12th century. They trace it back to a royal dancer named Yao Niang. She bound her feet in the shape of a new moon to dance before Emperor Li Yu. She danced on her toes inside of a giant lotus flower box. The trend took off afterwards, starting first with aristocrats and becoming widely popular in the rest of society by the 1600s. In time, women had to bind their feet if they hoped to find a husband. The smaller her feet were, the better a women’s chances of finding a good match. The highest prized foot size was called the golden lotus. It was only four inches long.

Sadly, binding feet came at a high cost for women. To keep the foot small enough, the binding needed to start when a girl was between the ages of four and six and was excruciatingly painful. To start, a girl’s feet were dipped into hot water and her toenails cut very short. Then all of her toes except the big toe were broken and bound flat against the bottom of her foot to make a triangle shape. Next, they bound her foot in such a way that the arch would break and her foot would be bent double. Adults would force the girl to walk long distances on her broken feet to encourage the arches of her feet to break. The ten foot long bandages would be replaced every couple of days to prevent infection and dead or excess skin would be cut away. The process of reshaping the foot took two to three years. But the girl’s feet would need to be bound for the rest of her life.

Foot binding made women’s feet look rather hoof-like. Women with bound feet suffered pain their entire lives. They could not walk far or do various types of physical activities such as dancing. Many agree that foot binding subjugated women. This means that it kept women subservient and dependent on men. Foot binding kept women close to home because they simply couldn’t walk far on their own. Women couldn’t run on bound feet, but walked with a slow tottering gate. Only lower class women who needed to work in the fields or on fishing boats had unbound feet. These big-footed women (whose feet were really just normal sizes) were considered highly unattractive.

Foot binding in China was banned in 1912, but the practice continued in remote areas until the 1950s. There are a number of elderly women today with bound feet, but their numbers are rapidly declining as these women grow older. For hundreds of years, women’s tiny bound feet were a source of pride for China. It was part of Chinese culture for an entire millennium and yet was also an extremely long-lived beauty trend. As far as beauty trends for women go, it was rather extreme. But perhaps it is no more or less extreme than women getting plastic surgery to alter their faces or bodies in various ways as is popular nowadays.