The Myth of Tuberculosis Fashion : Victorian History Debunked

Get $20 off your Brooklinen order over $100! Just click here https://bit.ly/nicolexrudolphyt and enter my promo code nicolerudolph. This video is kindly sponsored by Brooklinen. 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 b