Who cares? Apparently we all do...

Catherine asked "Why do people do dangerous beauty rituals that could cause (or do cause) bodily harm? Also, if you know of a beauty custom that was once favorable but now is not or illegal, discuss it as you answer the question"

Her post really intrigued me- people really do go to extremes to make themselves be considered as "beautiful", but we don't even know why.  I honestly think it's just how society has grown to: just about everyone is self conscious, just about everyone wants to look like someone else, and just about everyone wants to be someone else.  It's all ridiculous!  People pay massive amount of money to tan their skin which poisons it, we mutilate and modify our bodies with tattoos and piercings (I'm guilty of this one), we inject our bodies with chemicals to make us look younger- all to fit in and be accepted by the world around us.

But Catherine raised a really interesting point, how different cultures physically hurt themselves to change their bodies (such as the Japanese foot binding).  There are women in Kenya and Laos that wear many neck rings, in which the removal could kill them- but it's part of their culture and I don't think we will ever fully understand that.

If beauty is really in the eye of the beholder, why do you think that people go to such extremities to modify themselves?