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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsHow Tuberculosis Shaped Victorian Fashion (Smithsonian)
By the mid-1800s, tuberculosis had reached epidemic levels in Europe and the United States. The disease, now known to be infectious, attacks the lungs and damages other organs. Before the advent of antibiotics, its victims slowly wasted away, becoming pale and thin before finally dying of what was then known as consumption.
...
During that time, consumption was thought to be caused by hereditary susceptibility and miasmas, or bad airs, in the environment. Among the upper class, one of the ways people judged a womans predisposition to tuberculosis was by her attractiveness, Days says. Thats because tuberculosis enhances those things that are already established as beautiful in women, she explains, such as the thinness and pale skin that result from weight loss and the lack of appetite caused by the disease.
...
Preventing the spread of tuberculosis became the impetus for some of the first large-scale American and European public health campaigns, many of which targeted womens fashions. Doctors began to decry long, trailing skirts as culprits of disease. These skirts, physicians said, were responsible for sweeping up germs on the street and bringing disease into the home.
...
Corsets, too, came under attack, as they were believed to exacerbate tuberculosis by limiting the movement of the lungs and circulation of the blood. Health corsets made with elastic fabric were introduced as a way to alleviate pressure on the ribs caused by the heavily boned corsets of the Victorian era.
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Mens fashion was also targeted. In the Victorian period, luxuriant beards, sculpted mustaches and extravagant sideburns had been all the rage... But facial hair was also popular in the United States where razors were difficult to use and often unsafe, especially when not cleaned properly. But by the 1900s, beards and mustaches themselves were deemed dangerous.
There is no way of computing the number of bacteria and noxious germs that may lurk in the Amazonian jungles of a well-whiskered face, but their number must be legion, Edwin F. Bowers, an American doctor known for pioneering reflexology, wrote in a 1916 issue of McClures Magazine. Measles, scarlet fever, diphtheria, tuberculosis, whooping cough, common and uncommon colds, and a host of other infectious diseases can be, and undoubtedly are, transmitted via the whisker route.
...
During that time, consumption was thought to be caused by hereditary susceptibility and miasmas, or bad airs, in the environment. Among the upper class, one of the ways people judged a womans predisposition to tuberculosis was by her attractiveness, Days says. Thats because tuberculosis enhances those things that are already established as beautiful in women, she explains, such as the thinness and pale skin that result from weight loss and the lack of appetite caused by the disease.
...
Preventing the spread of tuberculosis became the impetus for some of the first large-scale American and European public health campaigns, many of which targeted womens fashions. Doctors began to decry long, trailing skirts as culprits of disease. These skirts, physicians said, were responsible for sweeping up germs on the street and bringing disease into the home.
...
Corsets, too, came under attack, as they were believed to exacerbate tuberculosis by limiting the movement of the lungs and circulation of the blood. Health corsets made with elastic fabric were introduced as a way to alleviate pressure on the ribs caused by the heavily boned corsets of the Victorian era.
...
Mens fashion was also targeted. In the Victorian period, luxuriant beards, sculpted mustaches and extravagant sideburns had been all the rage... But facial hair was also popular in the United States where razors were difficult to use and often unsafe, especially when not cleaned properly. But by the 1900s, beards and mustaches themselves were deemed dangerous.
There is no way of computing the number of bacteria and noxious germs that may lurk in the Amazonian jungles of a well-whiskered face, but their number must be legion, Edwin F. Bowers, an American doctor known for pioneering reflexology, wrote in a 1916 issue of McClures Magazine. Measles, scarlet fever, diphtheria, tuberculosis, whooping cough, common and uncommon colds, and a host of other infectious diseases can be, and undoubtedly are, transmitted via the whisker route.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-tuberculosis-shaped-victorian-fashion-180959029/
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How Tuberculosis Shaped Victorian Fashion (Smithsonian) (Original Post)
IcyPeas
Mar 2022
OP
The ICK factor in the paragraph about beards is great! 'Amazonian Jungles ..."
flying_wahini
Mar 2022
#1
flying_wahini
(6,542 posts)1. The ICK factor in the paragraph about beards is great! 'Amazonian Jungles ..."
And ordinary people didnt bathe that often