The Body Project Bradley Hall thebodyproject bradley. We tend to think of human bodies as simply products of nature. In reality, however, our bodies are also the products of culture.
That is, all cultures around the world modify and reshape human bodies. This is accomplished through a vast variety of techniques and for many different reasons, including:. Certain body modification practices, such as neck elongation or tooth filing, may strike Americans as strange and exotic, we must realize that we modify our own bodies in countless ways. Dieting, body-building, tanning, ear piercing and cosmetic surgery have long been common in the United States, and practices such as tattooing, body piercing and scarification are becoming increasingly popular.
While some seek to improve their body-image, this is not necessarily a motivating factor for everyone who engages in body modification. Additionally, some attempts at body modification can also have unintended negative consequences that might ultimately damage self-esteem. Two prominent historical examples of body modification are foot-binding and corseting. For hundreds of years, foot binding was commonly performed in China on girls, beginning between the ages of 3 and 7 and continuing throughout their lives.
All toes but the big one were broken and folded under. The foot was then wrapped very tightly. The bandages were changed frequently, maintaining constant pressure. Men reportedly found the tiny feet, swishy walk, and apparent frailty highly erotic.
When China was opened to the West, the process began to die out, and by the s it was largely a relic of the past. In Western nations during the Victorian era, women were expected to wear stiff corsets in an attempt to obtain the ideal curvaceous feminine figure with broad hips and tiny waists, cinched as small as 12 inches Riordan, Such corseting was, in fact, a form of permanent body modification.
