6 Popular Fashion Trends (That Killed People)
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If we know our readers, then we're guessing fashion dominates your every thought. But how far would you go to be wearing the absolute latest and hottest looks? Would you wear something knowing it could, at some point, kill your ass? Through history men and women have been asked that exact question, and time and time again they shrugged and said, "Eh, I'll risk it." So we wound up with things like... #6.
The Crinoline
The crinoline is a hoop skirt that women in the 19th century wore under their actual skirts. It was made from horsehair and thread or steel, and the whole purpose of the huge apparatus was to make the skirt look more... skirt-like.
Also, since you were basically wearing a cage around your legs, you could probably use the crinoline to trap small animals and kick them to death. How It Could Kill You: The steel crinoline was actually so deadly it's amazing this thing was ever worn at all. Because of its design, it was quite susceptible to gusts of wind. There are tales of women on piers that were swept up and carried out to sea, where they promptly drowned due to having a fucking steel cage tied to their waists. It was also a bad idea to hang around cliffs or tall buildings in this sort of contraption.
The skirts would get entangled in the spokes of carriages, presumably dragging the women screaming down the street. Then there was the less obvious dangers, such as knocking over candles. Don't laugh; the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's second wife went up in flames this way, and she wasn't the only one. Wait, it gets worse. In 1863 in Santiago, Chile, between 2000 and 3000 people died in a church fire. When a gas lamp lit the veils on the walls, people tried to run outside, but the width of the women's skirts blocked the door, and crinolines with women inside piled up in front of the exit, making an escape impossible even for the people who'd been smart enough not to wear hoop skirts.
What the Fuck Were They Thinking? The crinoline, in making someone's ass look big, would also make their waist look smaller, and so women didn't have to wear a corset. Why would they take such extravagant measures to avoid that? Well... #5.
The Corset
The corset, if you're one of the small percentage of our readership not wearing one right now, was meant to suck in a woman's problem-areas with the small side effect of cutting off all circulation between their legs and head. The result was not so much an hourglass figure, but a body that became an actual hourglass. Queen Maud of Norway was famous for her very small waistline, and many of her gowns are still exhibited so everyone can view their beauty and not-at-all freakishness.
How It Could Kill You: The act of donning a corset didn't actually become truly dangerous until people started tight lacing them to the point that their insides were squeezed like a toothpaste tube.
Unsurprisingly, when tight lacing was fashionable people didn't breathe very well. With their liver in their throats and their lungs in their bellies, Victorian women invented "the heaving bosoms." Breathing the wrong way in one of these things could break a rib (a serious injury in the days before anesthesia) and cramming all of the organs inwards could cause internal bleeding. Female impersonator, Joseph Hennella, was doubly unfortunate when, in 1912, he first collapsed on stage as the result of the tight lacing from his corset, and then when The New York Times wrote the part about what killed him, they said it was his "increasing girth." In 1903, a woman died suddenly due to two pieces of corset steel that became lodged in her heart. Yeah, when your outfit fucking stabs you to death, it's probably a sign that you've made a bad fashion decision.
What the Fuck Were They Thinking? What else do you do when you live in a society that demands women have a shape that's physically impossible? They were stuck between wearing a thing that could snap ribs, or a ridiculous cage dress that could fling them into oncoming traffic at the first gust of wind. At that point, you just flip a coin and wait for someone to invent feminism. #4.
Footbinding
Footbinding, aka "lotus feet," was a custom for women in China from around the 8th century until the beginning of the 1900s. It began with one concubine (that's archaic for paramour) dancing around in front of the emperor with silk wrapped around her feet, and it ended with women whose feet were so disfigured they could only walk very short distances, never mind do the Hustle. How It Could Kill You:
In order to transform the foot from regular-shaped to crazy-in-the-head-shaped, women started early, at two to seven-years-old, when their feet were soft and their minds blissfully unaware of what would happen to their feet. First, their feet would soak in a bath that could be anything from herbs and water to urine and vinegar, depending on the family tradition. Then all their toes except the big one were folded down, and the arch of the foot bent back. The process would go on for a couple of years, with ever tighter bandages and recurrently disgusting foot baths, until the feet were about three inches long. Footbinding cut off circulation in the toes, and the procedure oftentimes lead to gangrene or other life-threatening infections. Gangrenous toes were actually considered to be a good thing, because that meant the toes might fall off. The ideal was a foot that wasn't a foot at all, but simply a continuation of the leg. If the woman happened to die in the middle of all this, that was a real shame, but at least she'd be buried with nice feet.
What the Fuck Were They Thinking? A woman with normal-sized feet was considered ugly and frankly, unwedable. We all know what that's like, when a woman who doesn't have hideously mutilated feet starts stomping about, walking all normal and shit. Would you want to marry that woman? Of course not. Women who didn't have bound feet were considered to be provincial, because only farmers needed to be able to walk and get work done. A real lady staggered on her heels or rode piggyback, because she was unable to put any pressure on her toes (if she had any). The foot itself was usually covered in sores, puss and gave off a repugnant smell, and if you happened upon a Chinese woman naked in the days of footbinding in China, the first thing she'd try to cover would be her feet. Not that you'd want to see those feet anyway; men actually never saw their ladies' feet without beautiful silk shoes on, but if they had, we're thinking that would ruin the mood pretty fast.
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heh... only one is for men (or rather, for men only, since make up was used on both sides). i sometimes feel embarrassed for my gender for our constant sacrifice of our lives and health to look good. perhaps we're not still binding our feet or severing organs with corsets but we still put so much stock in looking "right" (or, like non-human airbrushed and photoshopped supermodels) that i almost understand why some men have the idea that women are crazy or just simpleminded. it's not true, of course, and they forget that at least some of it comes down to giving in to the demands of men, but it's still a stupid thing to die for. a truly healthy (weight is a part of health, but not the end-all, be-all) and intelligent woman should be our ideal, not self-inflicted deformities. so much aimed to women involves physical beauty and we totally give in to the hype... then we wonder why men treat us like sex objects rather than equals.
What most people are missing about footbinding is the effect on a woman's *ahem* naughty bits.
Women with bound feet had no calf muscles as they did not walk like normal people (heel-toe) and instead propelled themselves forward with their hips and thighs. In this sense, it kept them quite tight down there while only allowing themselves to putter around the house. The shape of their legs, muscular hips/thighs that tapered dramatically was also seen as quite erotic.
Aside from what everyone has already mentioned about these women being trophy wives, it's also worth noting that it wasn't enough that a woman had bound feet, the shape was also important, with (if I remember correctly) a foot that created a lotus-shaped footprint most desirable. Traditions on size vary across regions, if only by a few centimeters. The quality of her shoes, which she HANDMADE, was also extremely important; most of these women were illiterate and they expressed their desires and hopes through motifs sewn onto their shoes.
However, what I think what footbinding conveyed about women was the sort of emotional, physical, and mental fortitude it took to survive it. It is absolutely ludicrous that anyone would suggest men didn't know about the intricacies of footbinding and how it crippled the women in their lives. When the Manchus swept through China, it was illegal for Manchu women to have their feet bound yet they wore long pants and shoes on small platforms to emulate Han Chinese women. Everyone knew yet they kept doing it and honestly, I don't think they would have if it weren't somehow extremely central to their lives. Compared to crinolines and corsets, which are comparatively young (three centuries at most?), footbinding existed for more than A THOUSAND YEARS, was initiated earlier in life, could not be removed, and played a major deciding factor in a woman's life, assuming she survived it. This was no mere "fashion trend."
This barbaric practise ended because both foreigners were quite horrified by this and Chinese people were educated overseas and realised how inhumane it was in different cultural contexts. The Communists abruptly stopped this practise but also did a great disservice to women who already had bound feet (you know, the ones they didn't kill for being too bourgeois in the first place) by forcing them to remove their bindings.
Well, the reason that foot binding went on for such a long time (at least my theory why) is because the consequences of NOT doing it were so high. I mean, no one's going to not marry you if you don't wear a crinoline-but if you didn't get your feet bound you'd be considered a peasant. You'd basically say goodbye to a good marriage, which for a young Chinese woman, or hell ANY woman was EVERYTHING. Good life = Good Life (or at least that's how it seemed)
So at first women did it to get a one up on the competition, and after a while it became a necessity. You didn't really get to choose, your mother did it for you, because she wanted you to marry well. I know that if the choices for my daughter were 1. healthy feet and a life of terrible poverty Vs. horrible disfigured feet and a 'normal' life....well...I'd think about, but I'm pretty sure I'd eventually go for the latter.
The Footbinding thing faded out when the communists took power-at least that's what I think. I could be wrong.
I'm reading a book right now where the girl was footbound. Women in China apparently weren't allowed outside the house for more than a few minutes at a time, and were made to walk on their feet until the bones actually broke. A women was doomed to be a servent of her family or a maid with unbound feet. Now I'm wondering why the only fashion item for men here was the stiff collar...
You're missing the modern version of this: suntanning. Melanoma kills millions of people every year.
@Hades: Depending on the size of the crinoline, they either didn't or they lifted the entire ensemble up before sitting down. I've worn one before; not only are they uncomfortable, they're incredibly complicated.
...I'm.....
.......Wearing a corset right now. Because I have a very thin waist as it is. Because I'm freaking tiny.
With regards to the feetbinding part, the reasoning behind it was to prevent the woman from wandering too far from her husband, and because it looked erotic from the way they have to take small and swaying steps to walk (considered graceful). Funny how those men never thought of the fungi and sweat that accumulated in the binds.
How does a woman sit down while wearing a crinoline?
Much like anything, this sites thrill is wearing off. Articles like 5 most badass presidents, 14 most bizarre animal mating rituals, 9 most devastating insults from around the world, and 6 raunchiest most depraved sex acts from the bible got me hooked. Wheres that caliber of entertainment now?
Corsets aren't dangerous at all, provided the person wearing one is careful and does his/her research beforehand. The only way a corset is going to break a rib is if you've got it laced too tight, and your body will provide ample warning (in the way of intense, I'm-about-to-break-a-bone pain) before anything serious happens.
Yeah, I heard of some guys who cut their ears off when they looked down because of those stiff collars.
And you should have added ARSENIC. People smeared their lips in arsenic mixed with water, and also powdered their whole faces with arsenic. There were 600 something reported cases of "kisses of death" in Italy in 16...60 I believe.
How could you leave off the most deadly garment of all: the Starter Jacket. Wearing the wrong team jacket in the wrong neighborhood was an invitation to a shootout.
That foot looks disgusting.
Corsets should really be #1. Come on Uterine Displacement! That's right the pressure of a corset literly squeezes the uterus out of the vagina. Don't believe me http://books.google.com/books?id=vdx-Nzouh-kC&pg=PA117&lpg=PA117&dq=victorian+uterine+displacement&source=bl&ots=Jgbm66lLAj&sig=OW0QBmYFw3xX6NE0GDKIVeOTWKw&hl=en&ei=7MWLSdXUBJicNffTka4L&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result
Ok, I just read about the foot-binding and hurled.
Thanks, Cracked.
I thought that stovepipe hats were on here.
In victorian times, fashionalbe men wore big ass top hats.
They were a status symbol, and they were also made with f*****g mercury.
Ever heard of Alice in Wonderlands 'Mad Hatter?' Well, the people who made the hats, or hatters, would go mad from the mercury fumes. Also, when you wore the hats amd sweat in them it caused mercury to rub off onto your forehead and enter your blood stream.
what about the thong? OUCH!
Ummm... corsets today are made differently than back then. They were made of f*****g steel back then
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It seems to me that humanity never learns how to properly respect the bodies they posses!