History Hash Outs: Deadly Beauty Fads

What’s the true cost of beauty?

Join Assistant Director and Adjunct Faculty member Yasmeen El-Ghazaly for a talk that explores the disturbing beauty trends practiced throughout history and across cultures. From arsenic complexion tonics and foot binding to neck rings, lip plates, nose plugs and even practices like female genital mutilation, this talk examines the dangerous extremes people have endured in pursuit of beauty.

Who defines beauty standards, and how have they evolved? What drives individuals—especially women—to risk their health, safety or even lives to feel beautiful, accepted or desired? Where does consent fit into these traditions, and do the rewards ever outweigh the risks?

Let’s explore the shifting boundaries of beauty and question how far any of us might go to meet society’s ideals. Don’t miss this eye-opening discussion.

El-Ghazaly holds an MA from the Cynthia Nelson Institute for Gender and Women’s Studies at AUC. Her research focuses on global feminist perspectives and the implications of non-secular social discourses on women’s lives in Egypt. She has published widely, including in journals by Wiley-Blackwell.