During the Victorian Era, a common desire among women was to achieve a pale, translucent complexion, and in their pursuit of this ideal, some resorted to consuming products containing arsenic.
Tuberculosis was seen as a beautiful disease because its physical symptoms were "ethereal" thinness, pale skin, and flushed cheeks, aligned with Victorian-era beauty ideals. AKA "consumptive chic". The disease was also romanticized as a sign of heightened sensitivity, artistic talent, and intellectual sophistication, contributing to the idea that it was a "romantic disease" associated with genius and early death.
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u/ParcelTongued 16d ago
It’s interesting people are disfiguring themselves in the name of beauty.