Body Sculpting: Neck Stretching, Cranial Shaping, Penis Stretching, Corseting and More

Body sculpting has been going on since the beginning of human history. Over the centuries there has been a mind-boggling range of techniques used for altering the body's shape.

Non-Western Forms of Body Sculpting

The women of the Padaung tribe of Burma were famous (until recent times) for having their necks stretched by means of the gradual addition of brass rings, one on top of the other. This technique began in childhood and once the neck was fully stretched the rings could never be removed, as unaided the neck would be incapable of supporting the head.

A more widespread but less known technique (and equally as amazing) for modifying the body is cranial shaping. This is practiced by a wide range of peoples including the Mangbetu tribes of Central Africa, the Chinook peoples of the north-west coast of North America and the ancient Egyptians. This technique can only be performed on newly born infants whose skull is still comparatively elastic. Cranial shaping is accomplished by either wrapping the skull tight with fabric to force it to grown in a more conical shape or by means of securing cradle boards to the baby's head front or back to produce a flattening effect. A less extreme form of cranial shaping was performed in rural France until the 18^th century.

Other techniques of body shaping practiced in non-western societies include the use of tight bands to restrict either the biceps or the calf muscles in order to produce a pronounced bulge above and below the constriction, the stretching of the penis with weights (until it becomes dysfunctional) among certain Saddhu religious sects India and, of course, the well-known foot-binding of the ancient Chinese.

Body Sculpting in the West

Although, the above techniques of foot-binding, cranial alternation, neck stretching etch have not been practiced in our society we have had and still do have methods of customizing the shape of our bodies. In particular, 'foundation garments' (corsets, bustles and more recently girdles and bras) have served to transform women's bodies into a closer approximation of fashionable ideals throughout much of Western history.

Currently enjoying a revival is the corset. Back in the 17^th, 18th and 19^th centuries a corset was a necessary part of a respectable woman's attire. In fact the term 'loose woman' originally applied to an uncorseted woman.

Corseting garments have a fascinating history, swinging back and fort between accepted fashion and, conversely, fetishistic innuendo. In Gt. Britain during Victorian times the corset managed to be both 'strait laced' on one hand but when carried to extremes of tight-lacing tipping over into provocative and controversial eroticism.

Non the less the corset remained very popular even de rigeur in certain circles, becoming much longer in the 1890's when it served to thrust the chest forward and the rear backward to produce a distinctive 'S' shape when viewed from the side.

However, by the 1920's the ideal woman's body was boyish, the corset gave way to elasticized girdles and breast flatteners designed to minimize feminine curves.

Immediately after the 2^nd World War, a yearning for a return to a more traditional definition of femininity brought Dior's popular 'New Look' with its pinched-in waist and voluptuous curvaceousness. To achieve this look a form of small corset known as a 'waspie' was often necessary.

By the 1960's things changed yet again, in part propelled by the 'Youth Revolution', and a straight up and down girlish figure undermined the desirability of any curve-accentuating garments.

Dieting to Reshape the Body

Dieting has also been used in many cultures and societies to alter the shape of the body. Usually in the West we diet to loose weight and take on a thin look, but in some societies the opposite is true.

In parts of West Africa girls, whose families could afford it, were sent to a 'fattening house', where, after months of eating weight-inducing foods and taking as little exercise as possible, they emerged to face inspection by potential husbands.

Although it seems strange, these societies equate plumpness with beauty and in societies where food is scarce fat is therefore a status symbol.

But, plumpness is not desirable everywhere outside the West. To achieve a trim, slender waist, corsets have long been used by some tribal peoples from as far afield as New Guinea and Africa. Interestingly, here it is usually the men who wear the constricting garments rather than the women. For example, amongst the Dinka peoples of Sudan the men day in and day out wear beautiful, long corsets which are made of thousands of colorful beads, which flare up dramatically in the back to a point above the shoulders and are actually sewn onto the men's bodies. These are then replaced by one of a different color to indicate a change of age status.

Are there any body changing techniques that are used only in the West? Perhaps body building and plastic surgery would apply here. Many westerners are drawn to a physical ideal which harks back to earlier, more physical ways of life and, to compensate, have developed extraordinary technology and exercise/dieting regimes specifically designed to 'pump up' muscle tissue. In the process, champion body builders, male and female, have created forms of physical development, which have never existed before.

Source: The Customized Body - Ted Polhemus & Housk Randall