the Consumptive Beauty

We all saw Scarlett O'Hara do it in Gone with the Wind, pinching her cheeks in the mirror.....

The Victorian Era was full of strange customs. One of which was the odd fascination of the Consumptive Beauty. Art and literature of the time confirmed this bizarre obsession with how the fatal symptoms of consumption aka tuberculosis became entwined with the ideal version of femininity in the late 18th and early 19th century. So how is it that a disease whose symptoms included emaciation, relentless diarrhea, fever, and coughing up blood became a sign of beauty and nearly considered a fashionable disease? Well, stupidity mostly. Pale skin, 'fairness', the wasp waist and being rail thin were a desirable look for Victorian women. The large skirts, the bustles, and the wasp waist created by corsets were a highly sought after look by women between the mid to late 1700's though the Victorian Era. During this period nearly 25 percent of all deaths in Europe were due to consumption. What appearance did it produce in the inflicted? Paleness. Rosy Cheeks. Ruby red lips. That oh so coveted thin body. Sparkling eyes. All the continuous signs of a low grade fever. The use of the word tuberculosis didn't enter the picture until 1835. Until that time it was known as consumption, scrofula, hectic fever, and graveyard cough. It was an epidemic that crossed all classes, but it was most attributed and remembered by those who were more upper class as there was a strange belief for many years that it was triggered by too much dancing, entertaining or mental exertion because those who possessed these attributes were born with an inclination to it. What happened that lowered the transmission rates of consumption? Intelligence on the part of the medical community for one thing. Koch discovered it was a germ. Dresses no longer touched the ground which helped to eliminate bringing in diseases on the clothing dragging on the street. Men stopped the practice of luxurious waxed mustaches and wearing beards when it was discovered exactly how many germs could exist in an unwashed and unkempt beard or stuck to mustache wax. Sadly, the consumptive beauty of the Victorian Era still holds sway in what is still considered beautiful in the fashion world. Now it's called 'heroin chic.' Sometimes we humans just never learn.