25 Things You Wouldn’t Believe Your Eyes That Were Actually Scandalous A Hundred Years Ago (3 of 5)

Lack of pubic hair

If we consider the early Romans and Greeks as exceptions, then a bushy pubic region was a norm. It was such a culturally accepted thing back in the day, that in 1450s, when the prostitutes had to shave off the pubic hair, they were asked to wear merkins – a wig for the lower body! Imagine that with the modern-day, when reportedly 84 percent of women shave off their pubic hair.

Bikinis

When bikini was invented by the French creator Louis Reard, using only thirty inches of fabric, he was unable to find even one fashion model who would wear his invention in public. Finally, he found a nineteen-year-old stripper who decided to don his new invention, as wearing a fabric on the body was actually a career promotion for her. In fact, Modern Girl magazine went on to state that any sane and decent girl or woman would not wear ‘such a thing’ ever. That, obviously, didn’t turn out to be true and we have women from all across the world wearing bikinis now.

Purple color

You wouldn’t believe the fact that Boston Globe published an article in 1903 titled ‘list of colors that would drive your brain to madness’! The article went on to describe the color purple as the most dangerous color – ever. According to the article, if a person was to be locked in a room having purple walls and red windows for a month, he would go mad and would never return to normalcy! Now of course we know that it is not true. In fact, purple as a color is a lot of people’s favorite one.

Horseless carriages

Go a hundred years back, and you would end up reading people advocating the use of horse carriages instead of cars. One such article in a leading newspaper went on to compare the price of harness with the tires used in cars! The article went on to argue for horse-driven wagons stating that unlike cars, a horse doesn’t have a carburetor that is out of order all the time! Further, it goes on to add that a horse carriage is the right way to travel – whether it is snow or mud.

Radiation as a drink!

Well, adding to the list of bizarre things people a century ago consumed, radiation is another thing. Yes, if you told anyone that radiation drink wasn’t exactly a healthy smoothie, they wouldn’t believe you – especially steel mogul Eben Byers. His story was covered in The Wall Street Journal, which noted that he drank three bottles of radiation a day until he finally died! The headline, which the newspaper ran was ‘The radium water actually worked until his jaws came off’!