This story includes descriptions of disordered eating that may be distressing to some readers.
I was always fascinated by my body. Confused by it, betrayed by it, mostly disgusted by it. But then we humans, more than any other creature, are captivated by bodies. What they can make and what they are made of, what we can put in them, what they can endure, and how easily they break.
But it is how they look that has always attracted the most attention and experimentation.
Todd Sampson hacking his body to bits beguiles us. Survivor contestants undertaking unbearable tests of endurance captivates us. The Kardashians doing…well, just about everything money can buy, keeps us keeping up.
Watch: Body shapes are not trends. Story continues after video.
Who hasn’t been hypnotised by an improbable mass of muscle pumping iron? Or puzzled over a passerby whose hips/waist/chest ratio seems to defy physics? Who hasn’t squeamishly thumbed through an Encyclopaedia Brittanica bewildered by what so many have volunteered to inflict upon their bodies in the pursuit of beauty or religious observance?
I’m not talking painting yourself in team colours or forgoing red meat for Lent. I’m talking teeth filing, elongating necks as a symbol of hierarchy, plates in lips to assert fertility and desirability. Confronting, right? Gigantic rings through ears and noses, tattooing, piercing, female circumcision, neutering, ironing the skin of the breasts to melt them flat, binding the feet to make them small.
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