People have always been motivated and encouraged to modify how they look in order to feel more appealing and attractive towards the others. Whether it is getting a haircut, a liposuction, or foot binding, people tend to modify themselves to feel welcome and accepted in their communities. I find it shocking that some societies required (and might still do) extreme and very painful modifications,such as foot binding, to make its habitants feel accepted and attractive. Foot binding was common and was the acceptable thing to do in order to look and feel attractive (at least for women) because that culture and society made it that way. That society saw such modifications as beautiful art and something that should be highly encouraged and appreciate it. If that same society did not find foot binding acceptable, then people would had not felt the necessity to modify their bodies in such a way.
Every culture is different and as time passes, people's perspectives change. Foot binding, which was seemed as a beautiful art in the past, seems now as a odd, weird, and gross practice (or at least in our society). Although foot binding was something that many men found very attractive in the past, it is a practiced that has decreased as the years pass, and is no longer as attractive (or not attractive at all) in our society. From our culture's perspective, foot binding would be an odd practice that would have people judge you and critique your view on art and beauty. Such body modifications are just not common nowadays and someone who would practice foot binding would have trouble trying to fit into our society. It is something that people (or at least the people that I know) no longer find as an attractive feature.
Although foot binding is not as a common body modification, we still have a lot of body modifications that are acceptable in our society. We have plenty of techniques today to modify one's body without the extremely long and painful methods that were used in the past. Plastic surgery is a very common way to modify one's body in a short time period and painless. It is also acceptable and sometimes encouraged by our culture (unless it is a surgery of something that will not be adequate to the society like adding an unnecessary limb).
I am not a big fan of extreme body modifications like foot binding or a plastic surgery to change a face feature when is not really necessary, and i believe such types of body modifications should be practice only when really needed (like fixing a disformed body feature). Although some people might find art in modifying their bodies in an extreme way, I think one can find art and beauty in the natural body that was given to us.
Extreme modification is dependent as you note on the cultural context. The issue is where does one start on the spectrum of interest. For example, parents are given great latitude on the choices they make for their children. We can brace a child's teeth and perform sclerosis surgery. Yet some parents might refuse a life saving blood transfusion for their child. The point here is what is extreme to one is not to another.
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