conditioning of the body

Women of the Kayan Tribe use the practice of wearing heavy brass coils around their neck at a very young age. As they grow, more coils are put on their necks compressing their collarbones and upper ribs. This creates a long and slender neck that is considered very beautiful in the Kayan culture.

In Imperial China, both in the upper and lower-class, young girls fell into the custom of foot binding, because men found it highly attractive. A young girl would have her feet placed in a special soak, where she would then receive a foot massage followed by every single toe being manually broken then bound tightly in cloth. The foot would be unwrapped and re-wrapped tighter until her feet reached 4 inches long. It would assure that these women would never have to work, as they would become either a wife to a working man, concubine to a rich man, or married into a wealthy family. But, it would also assure that the women had to remain fully dependent on their male counterpart, and could not leave the house on her own to participate in normal social events.

the foot binding inspires me to looking to bending and breaking materials against what they should be doing such as when plywood first came out in the 1920s when designers would go against the material and make it look like wood.

emma recommended going to this museum as it has information on the tallest man etc.
http://www.ripleys.com/blackpool/#odditorium