Poison For An Aesthetic: Historic Beauty
Every time you open an app on your phone, there is a new trend. Each time, these trends treat human bodies as if they are made of clay, easily malleable, as if our bones do not break. This is not a modern issue– it has been happening for thousands of years. Humans by nature live in a pack-like mentality, forever evolving with what is perceived as “beauty” never to be shunned away like the rut of the pack. The dusty history books in your high school class never brushed up on exactly the lengths people were going to in order to achieve whatever beauty trend was circling at the time. I guess the imagery of leeches sucking on a Renaissance woman’s face is not the most pleasant for teenagers to envision.
Anne (1665-1714), Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland
Image Courtesy: Instagram
Pale skin was glorified beyond belief and seen as the highest level of status in history. It was believed that wealthy people could not get tanned because they did not work outside. The lengths people, especially women, went to in order to achieve their pale complexions are beyond belief. During the Renaissance, people would find leeches in the forest and let them suck their blood by placing them on different parts of their bodies. “Leeches will suck blood from host bodies and inject an anticoagulant, which keeps the wound open and bleeding for hours after removal” (Assem). Allowing many leeches to suck on an individual’s body, then removing them, led to infections and blood loss. Yet, this was desired because if you were sick, you would appear paler.
Image Courtesy: Instagram
They also would rub a whitening cosmetic named Venetian Ceruse all over their faces. This was made of water, vinegar, and white lead, which is highly poisonous. The product would cause hair loss, skin decay, organ failure, and death. People would also engage in a surgical procedure called bloodletting to remove blood from their bodies to give them a paler complexion. These people were essentially giving themselves anemia to seem wealthier. The craziest method was the creation and distribution of “Harmless Arsenic Complexion Wafers.” Arsenic was marketed as a safe and effective method to clear skin and gave a youthful, pale complexion. The digestion of this arsenic did give a paler complexion, but only because it would kill off red blood cells.
Image Courtesy: Instagram & Instagram
Eyelash extensions are not a new fad in beauty but have been around for a while. In the 1800s, a trained “lash expert” would thread a single strand of hair through a needle and sew the hair into the customer’s eyelid. I do not see a world in which this did not lead to many infections or severe disfigurement. There was also a desire for big, watery eyes. To achieve this, women used eye drops called Belladonna, made from the plant nightshade. Nightshade is extremely toxic and in large doses could cause blindness. This is one of the beauty trends where they knew how dangerous it was but continued to partake in it. Women would also darken their lashes with Lash Lure in the 1930s, which was created with aniline dye. This product held 30 times more aniline dye, than what was safe and advertised as a great dye to darken your eyelashes. This product would end up completely dissolving a woman’s ocular orbs and cause another blood poisoning from ulcerations in her eyes.
There were also strange metal contraptions developed to sculpt an individual’s face. The Dimple Machine was made in 1936 by Evangeline Isabella Gilbert and was worn over your checks, being advertised that if you continued to use this machine you would have the perfect pair of dimples. The device was extremely hard to wear and did not work, so the trend faded out. Similarly, there was a contraption called the “nose shaper”, which was strapped onto an individual’s nose. It would proceed to squeeze the soft cartilage of their noses to be smaller and straighter. During old Hollywood, Max Factor also created a metal calibrator called the Beauty Micrometer, to measure people’s faces and tell them just how off they were from the Hollywood standards of beauty.
Image Courtesy: Instagram
Beauty trends keep happening in our history time and time again. There is an expectation that as a human being, you should be able to easily contort yourself to the new passing trend, and you should put your health in harm’s way to please others because society has continually let it happen. All the beauty standards I mentioned remain in place today, including the pale skin, long lashes, and small nose that make the “ideal, true woman”. Honestly, I do not think the leech bite wounds and disintegrated eyeballs are worth the validation.
Strike Out,
Jessica Giraldo
Saint Augustine
Editor: Maya Kayyal
Jessica Giraldo is the Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief, Blog Director, Beauty Director, and Writer for Strike Magazine, Saint Augustine. Jess is addicted to her Revlon blowout brush and sweet little treats (especially mint Oreos). Check her out on Instagram: @jessica.giraldo and reach her via email: jessicagiraldobusiness@gmail.com
