Original Sin

Vanity finds its literary celebration in the Myth of Narcissus. But history, too, gives a detailed account of man's thirst for physical beauty. Archaeological evidence reveals that the use of cosmetics to enhance the face and preserve its youthful features was a popular practice among the Ancient Egyptians, Ancient Greeks, and Romans, with the first recorded usage at 4000BCE. In the East, the Japanese Geisha were famous for their use of flower essences and wax to paint their faces to perfection. In the west, make-up was very much in vogue among the upper classes of the medieval period. However, when cosmetics became very popular with actors and prostitutes in the 1800s, Queen Victoria banned its use among the elites.
Even the human body became an object of obsession. In medieval England, the corset was used to give the illusion of the perfectly-shaped body, in conformity with the fashion of the times. Because society dictated that women with smaller waists were considered to be more beautiful, there was a clamor for hourglass corsets, which shaped the torso in such a way that the bust and hips looked more pronounced while the waist remained small and flat. However, looking sexy according to medieval standards came at a heavy price. Corset-wearers risked breaking their ribs and twisting their nerves, not to mention incurring indigestion and respiratory damage.
Given the severe difficulty of wearing corsets, people sought a more natural way to achieve the perfect silhouette. Today's popular practice of dieting was first developed in the 17th and 18th centuries. One of the first successful target diets ever recorded was William Banting's low-carb diet in 1863. Exercise regimens, such as vigorous ten-mile-a-day walks and ten-minute lung gymnastics supplemented corset-wearing and dieting.