One Must Suffer to Be Beautiful
Professor Mathew Sarkowicz
ENG 101
28 September 2011
One must suffer to be beautiful
It became a rule or norm that a woman is the one who should look pretty. We, ladies, watch TV shows and see the popular magazines which are full of skinny models with perfect make up and well dressed celebrities. We want to be like them. Why? It gives us the status, comfort and perfection. It may seen unbelievable what a female goes through and what she is able to do to herself to be attractive to a man. The question is “Is this happening only in the modern world?” History gives us an answer and shows how ladies were suffering themselves to look beautiful in every century. Robin Marantz Hening, the Author of “The Price of Perfection” walks us through epochs and different cultures to show us how the trends were changing over the years. How women were trying to look perfect and what they did to themselves to obtain a perfect beauty.
In nowadays very popular are plastic surgeries. Women can fix almost every part of the “imperfect” body. Face lift, liposuction, breast implants, nose, ears, lips correction has become so popular that these kinds of manipulations are not too expensive and not limited to only rich people.
Back in times ladies had different methods to hurt themselves. A great example is China, where well-born girls were binding their feet to ensure the size of three- or four-inch long. Small feet represented the economic and social attraction. Foot binding starts at the age of five. Girl’s foot was folded in half and wrapped tightly with bandage. After a while the feet were turning blue, sometimes soles and toes dropped off. Every few weeks the feet were squeezed into a smaller size of shoe until it becomes about four inches. The bones were sufficiently mutilated and the poor girls were in so much pain.
Nowadays large breasts are very desirable. Back in 14th century, breast were hidden and tightly bound in corset. Corset was made of two pieces
ENG 101
28 September 2011
One must suffer to be beautiful
It became a rule or norm that a woman is the one who should look pretty. We, ladies, watch TV shows and see the popular magazines which are full of skinny models with perfect make up and well dressed celebrities. We want to be like them. Why? It gives us the status, comfort and perfection. It may seen unbelievable what a female goes through and what she is able to do to herself to be attractive to a man. The question is “Is this happening only in the modern world?” History gives us an answer and shows how ladies were suffering themselves to look beautiful in every century. Robin Marantz Hening, the Author of “The Price of Perfection” walks us through epochs and different cultures to show us how the trends were changing over the years. How women were trying to look perfect and what they did to themselves to obtain a perfect beauty.
In nowadays very popular are plastic surgeries. Women can fix almost every part of the “imperfect” body. Face lift, liposuction, breast implants, nose, ears, lips correction has become so popular that these kinds of manipulations are not too expensive and not limited to only rich people.
Back in times ladies had different methods to hurt themselves. A great example is China, where well-born girls were binding their feet to ensure the size of three- or four-inch long. Small feet represented the economic and social attraction. Foot binding starts at the age of five. Girl’s foot was folded in half and wrapped tightly with bandage. After a while the feet were turning blue, sometimes soles and toes dropped off. Every few weeks the feet were squeezed into a smaller size of shoe until it becomes about four inches. The bones were sufficiently mutilated and the poor girls were in so much pain.
Nowadays large breasts are very desirable. Back in 14th century, breast were hidden and tightly bound in corset. Corset was made of two pieces