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What are the craziest beauty standards in history?
Thanks for asking.
In French, when someone is beautiful, you can say they're canon.
The word itself means a general law, rule, principle, or criteria by which something is judged.
But when it comes to beauty, it simply means a model that we've elevated to the level of perfection.
Except that this model has changed a lot over the centuries and across cultures.
Those who are considered canon today would have been considered ugly in another era, and some of the beauty standards of the past would probably look downright grotesque to us today.
Like what, for example?
Take a hoguru, which literally means black teeth in Japanese.
Today we prize straight white teeth, but in the Edo period in Japan, women of high status like samurai wives and noblewomen would deliberately stain their teeth black with a mixture of iron and vinegar.
And it wasn't just for fashion.
In folklore, demons were often shown with big white teeth, so darkening your smile was a way to look more human.
And Japan wasn't alone in altering teeth.
The Makondi people of Tanzania sharpened theirs into points, while the Mayans went as far as decorating theirs with precious stones.
Did people alter their skeletons in the name of beauty?
Yes, they did.
Many cultures practiced skull modification, usually to elongate the head.
The Mayans bound wooden boards to children's heads to flatten the skull and surprisingly, so did people in southern France.
For centuries, parents in Toulouse wrapped baby skulls with tight bandages.
Boys wore them until around the age of five, girls often for life.
This went on until the 1920s.
It's a bit like foot binding in China, where small feet were the ultimate mark of beauty.
Girls' feet were tightly bound from a young age, curling the toes under and breaking bones in the process.
The bindings had to be cleaned to avoid infection, but many still died from sepsis.
The practice was finally banned in 1912.
So it's mostly women who paid the highest price.
Exactly.
There's even a plant whose name reflects this, belladonna, which literally means beautiful woman.
During the Renaissance, noble women would drip belladonna extract into their eyes to achieve a doe-eyed look with wide, dark pupils.
And while it worked, it also caused blurred vision, sensitivity to light, rapid heartbeat and neurological problems.
Ultimately, beauty standards have always existed and always shifted.
And people have gone to extreme lengths to follow them, often at great risk to their health.
Today, social media pushes its own unrealistic ideals.
And while they may look different, some can be just as harmful.
There you have it.
Now you know some of the craziest beauty standards in history.
In under three minutes, we answer your questions and help you understand the true meaning behind the trends, concepts and acronyms that are making headlines.
Listen along and you really will know for sure.
