Changing Beauty Standards

I was lunching with a friend who mentioned having read a biography of Lucrezia Borgia, an Italian femme fatale, which described the extreme lengths women went to in order to have a ghostly white complexion, the epitome of beauty back in the 1400 and 1500s. Frankly, they make as much sense as  what women do nowadays to be thin. Here’s the skin beautifying description that Sarah Bradford provides in LUCREZIA BORGIA—LIFE, LOVE AND DEATH IN RENAISSANCE ITALY (page 146). “Foreheads were to be kept high, white and serene by hair removal, by applying a past of mastic overnight. Perhaps the most revolting beauty treatment for whitening the skin of the face, neck, hands and other parts of the body ‘whiter than alabaster’ was this…from Marinello: ‘Take two young white doves, cut off their necks, pluck them and draw out their innards, then grind them with four ounces of peach stones, the same of washed melon seeds, two ounces of sublimate mercury, a spoon of bean flour and ground pebbles which have been infused for a day and a night in milk; two young cabbages; a fresh cheese made that day or hour, fourteen whites of fresh eggs, half an ounce of camphor and an equal amount of borax; and four bulbs of the white lily, ground together and mixed together, put in a glass vial and mix with water and use at your pleasure.’ He continues with a further eight pages of recipes for whitening skin, considered so necessary for appearance of beauty.’”  W...
Source: Normal Eating - Category: Eating Disorders Authors: Source Type: blogs