Nero's wife — hundreds of lactating donkeys
Nero's second wife bathed daily in donkey milk to eliminate facial wrinkles, requiring hundreds of lactating donkeys to supply the bath.
Snapshot · Fin vs History
Big Botticelli Gyal (with Paddy Young!) | The History of Beauty Standards (Part 1)
Explore episode
Jul 20, 2026
Where this was said
Dream Job
At 21:19 · chapter starts 19:28
The Dark Ages arrive with a brutal irony: when religion declared vanity a sin, the beauty standard became 'look as ugly as possible'. For men this meant genuine ugliness as a virtue; for women it manifested as the medieval ideal of a tiny mouth, small hands, and an enormous forehead achieved by plucking the hairline back as far as possible. The hosts spend a delightful tangent imagining builders leering at women's foreheads, Fin noting Harry Maguire would have thrived as a medieval woman. Then the Islamic Golden Age arrives, and geography makes beauty standards diverge dramatically: while Christian Europe raced toward ugliness, Northwest Africa's Berber people developed leblouh — older women physically punishing girls who refused to eat, forcing them to consume up to 20 litres of camel milk and 2 kilos of millet mixed with butter daily. The hosts calculate this at nearly 21,000 calories — exceeding a sumo wrestler's intake — and marvel at its distance from any beauty standard they can conceive of.
Roman Bushes and Donkey Milk Baths
Rome brought the bush back. After Egypt's hairless obsession, Romans saw vanity as weakness — the hairier and smellier, the better. Meanwhile Nero's wife bathed daily in donkey milk to fight wrinkles, requiring hundreds of lactating donkeys on staff.
The Dark Ages: A Race to Look as Ugly as Possible
Christianity made vanity a sin — so Medieval Europe turned beauty on its head. The ideal woman had a huge plucked-back forehead, tiny mouth, and small hands. Looking good was morally suspicious. Harry Maguire would have been a medieval pin-up.
Beauty standards pendulum speeds up over time
The hosts observed that beauty standards have historically swung like a pendulum between fat and thin, ugly and fit — but the pace of change has accelerated dramatically, with complete reversals now occurring within 10–15 years.
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