Reality in Period Shows

2/4/2016

I watch a lot of television shows set in older times.  And when I watch these shows, I question whether women had pierced ears, as one example, back in the 1800's.  So, off to the Internet I go to look for answers.  I know you guys are glad that I'm here to answer such burning questions!

Pierced ears goes back about 5,000 years ago. Pearl earrings were famous from the 1500s to the 1800s.  I am currently watching a period television show on PBS, set in the 1800s.  The women depicted on that show are wearing pierced earrings as was fashionable in the 1800s.

My own personal history of pierced ears was probably in 1973 or 1974.  In those days, and maybe they still do it today, you went to the department store and sat while your ears were pierced.  It's been a long time ago, but I do remember the sheer dread of willingly submitting myself to pain.  I don't have a large collection of earrings, and I don't wear any heavy or long ones - I don't want to have droopy ears!

Of course by today's standards, I'm sort of an oddball.  It seems as if the world has gone mad for piercing, and I'm not just talking about one in your ear.  People have multiple piercings in their ears, some in their nose and tongue (I can't even imagine what that feels like, but it gives me the shutters) as well as their belly buttons.  

I can remember one time I was being prepped for surgery and the surgeon asked me if I had any piercings that he couldn't see, as in my "nether" regions.  I thought the question odd at the time, but today it is probably a reasonable question to ask.

You see often, men and women with really large stretched ears to accommodate earrings.  The ears look terrible and I can't help but wonder what their ears would look like without the earrings.  Let's say you're 80 years old and have removed your giant earrings.  What do you ears look like now?  Scary I bet.  

I will go against the flow of piercing anything and everything as well as the thought that bigger is better, which is simply not always the case.
 
Here's two examples of big earrings and big ears.  Apparently, you can when you tire of this look, can undergo a surgical procedure to put your ears back to normal.  I don't know why people do this to their body.  It must make quite an impression on a job interview.

P