Moments in History when "Beauty is Pain" Was Taken too Literally

We’ve all heard the phrase “beauty is pain.” It actually comes from a French saying that translates to “one must suffer to be beautiful.”

It sounds silly that one has to suffer but people, specifically women, have been suffering in the name of beauty for centuries.

In fact, I’ve been sporting a scab on my wrist for a week after burning myself with a curling iron. It felt as if my wrist took a trip to the fiery pits of hell, sacrificing skin for bouncy curls. But Beauty is pain.

Why stop at the wrist though? Both my ankles have some gnarly blisters after trying to break in new shoes over the weekend. With each step I feel the blisters rub against the back of my shoes. All to look good in a new pair of shoes. Because… beauty is pain.

Countless times I’ve almost lost an eyeball by accidentally poking myself with the mascara wand. My orb is bloodshot, and tears are running down my face just to have long, thick lashes. However, beauty is pain.

I’ve had lasers zap my body over and over again feeling like thousands of rubber bands are snapping against my skin at once. Why? Because beauty is pain.

Okay, let’s just call it like it is we’re slightly mutilating our bodies. But if you think that’s bad let’s take a trip to the 19^th century, otherwise known as the Victorian era, when women wore corsets so tight that it actually broke their ribs.

In the Middle Ages, women used leeches to suck their blood that way they’d appear paler because being pale was a sign of innocence.

Beginning in the 10^th century in China, girls were binding their feet because it was shown as a sign of status and attractiveness. The practice led to physical impairments and wasn’t banned until the early 1900s.

Now let’s hop over to Ancient Greece when having a unibrow was a symbol of beauty so females would dye goat hair and use tree sap to stick it to their face.

Okay this is going overboard. Broken ribs and feet, leeches, and a unibrow? No thanks. In the name of beauty, I will stick to wearing Spanx to suck in my fat and using hot wax to rip hair off my face. Even if it results in blisters bruises and Band-Aids. Because beauty is pain.