TUBERCULOSIS: EFFECTS ON 19TH AND 20TH CENTURY FASHION, CULTURE AND SOCIETY

Abstract

Tuberculosis was a prominent disease in the 19th and 20th centuries during the period in which the Western world as we conceive it today was created. In the USA and the UK, tuberculosis affected societal structure, fashion trends, and beauty ideals through media and literature. Women in particular were extremely affected by conceptions surrounding tuberculosis, which affected the popular silhouettes in fashion and popularized the ideal figure as archetypally pale, thin, and weak. Germ theory and the discovery of the tuberculosis bacilli in the 1880s led to a revolution in public health and how people thought about disease. The proliferation of tuberculosis led to medical advancements and inventions such as the sanatorium in an effort to curb the spread of the disease prior to the discovery of effective antibiotics in the 1940s. Tuberculosis has left a lasting impact on our culture and much of our media carries the legacy of fashions and culture that originated with the widespread reach of consumption.