When Tuberculosis Was Considered Attractive, The Reality Of The Disease & Victorian Sanitation...

 

Marie Duplessis, below, a Parisian courtesan and celebrity was a striking Victorian beauty, her glossy black hair framing a beautiful oval ivory skinned face with sparkling dark eyes. But, she was short-lived. She was afflicted with tuberculosis, which killed her when she was 23, in 1847.

...WHAT???!!!, --- you might say. How could being sick possibly be attractive? Oh, but you're considering what is appealing from a 21st century viewpoint. Back in Victorian times women were prized who had the palest skin possible. T.B., with accompanying weakness did often give it's sufferers an interesting, ghostly pallor, plus T.B. fevers added a "lovely" light pink flush to the cheeks. It was also considered feminine to be delicate and frail and in great need of sturdy, strong male protection. AH-HUM!!!... 

However, it was important to avoid dying, while being fashionably tubercular. Of course, spitting up blood was thought icky. Women who were very chic sometimes starved themselves too, to become wasp-waisted, admirably thin. Naturally, only upper class women could afford to do this because being chicly thin and weak would mean a woman couldn't work for her living, not having enough vitality to do so.

Tuberculosis truly was a scourge of Victorian times and all five gifted Bronte children, including Charlotte and Emily, died of it. Perhaps, life out on the damp, cold and windy moors had something to do with that. Who knows?