The Myth of Tuberculosis Fashion : Victorian History Debunked

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When Consumption peaked in the early 19th century, there was a panic over how to manage the growing numbers. It wasn't a predictable disease- hopping from person to person with months or years before symptoms appeared. Which led doctors to believe that it wasn't contagious, but instead fueled by their family history and activities. It was a disease that could be found in the upper classes, affecting young and seemingly healthy people. So they looked to fashion and fashionable activities as the culprit. Everything from corsets to reading novels took the blame, and we've never recovered from the stereotypes. The idea that women are vain and obsessed with fashion solidified with the propaganda, as did the unfounded fear of corsets, the modern concept of purity and modesty, and so much more.
Today it's common to see fashion cited as one of the exciters of consumption, despite our modern knowledge that it's a bacterial infection. It's not because we blame their thin shoes or high collars, it's because we've been taught they were so silly about vanity that they endangered themselves to achieve it. Using poisons, starvation, and more to achieve the "look". But, the reality is, the romantic nature of consumption in the era wasn't due to fashion, it was due to the ideals of the time expecting young women to be frail and demure, expecting young men to be intellectual and modest. Tuberculosis excited these features, bringing the victims closer to their ideals of heightened sensitivity and religious dependence.
All to say, by also blaming fashion for the romance around tuberculosis, we ignore the actual reasons which are still with us today. We still have an "ideal" of womanhood that includes personality traits and activities that aren't healthy. We still treat illness as a form of redemption or punishment. We still blame those who are ill (especially chronic) with not doing the right things to stay healthy, while also making those things difficult to achieve. Just think about how much healthier (physically and mentally) a population who had safe ways to walk around every day would be! But instead we blame people for not getting in their car, driving across town, paying a monthly fee, and spending hours inside at a gym.

Crash Course Lecture @crashcourse : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7D-gxaie6UI

Recommended Reading
Consumptive Chic: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/consumptive-chic-9781350009400/
American Beauty: https://amzn.to/3yex29e

Thesis: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/textilesdiss/12/

Image Sources
https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/
https://www.loc.gov/
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection
https://library.yale.edu/
https://wellcomecollection.org/

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00:00 Contagion & Confusion
06:26 Predisposition
10:04 Beauty Ideals
15:23 Fashion as Villain
23:38 Lasting Consequences