
The Poisonous Beauty Advice Columns of Victorian England - samclemens
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-poisonous-beauty-advice-columns-of-victorian-england
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sandworm101
This isn't all that different than today's beauty regimes. Talk to teenage
girls and models, the toxicity now goes far deeper than makeup.

Acne is caused by bacteria. You would be shocked at how many young celebs
basically live on antibiotics year after year. What that does to their immune
system isn't good, but the shock it does to their digestive systems probably
helps keep the pounds off. Clear skin is also a function of hormones,
specifically estrogen. Estrogen is found in birth control pills. Many a young
girl is on 'the pill' for that benefit rather than for her reproductive
health.

At the truly shocking end are the models that use diabetes and insulin to
manipulate weight. The poster girl for this is Halle Berry. She is/was a true
diabetic, but it is also clear she used her insulin dependency to keep thin. A
former Mr Universe was the male face of this practice.

[https://www.diabeteshealth.com/scrawny-boy-with-
type-1-diabe...](https://www.diabeteshealth.com/scrawny-boy-with-
type-1-diabetes-becomes-mr-universe/)

~~~
escape_goat
Could you elaborate more on how one would use an insulin dependency to "stay
thin"? I am aware that many diabetics maintain a rigorous control over their
diet in order to moderate the effects of their disease. This is often
associated with thinness. After reading your remark, I did some reading, but
was unable to turn up any suggestion as to how one would go about deliberately
using either excess or insufficient levels of insulin to reduce body weight.

Many a young girl is also on 'the pill' because she has discovered that
menstruation is like being very slowly kicked in the balls over and over again
for nearly a week while walking around with a mess in your pants.

Despite this, I am sure that they will give your suggestion that they ensure
the treatment is being used for its intended purpose the most solemn and
serious consideration.

As a health concern, the risks associated with maintaining an abnormal
estrogen cycle appear to be statistically significant, even at modern dosage
levels, but they are in a completely different league than the risk that would
be posed by chronic antibiotic use. With regards to which, it would be good to
see an actual figure for how many young celebrities use antibiotics in a
chronic fashion for acne control, so that I could judge whether I would indeed
be shocked or not.

~~~
DanBC
"Diabulimia" is one search term you can use.

[http://www.joslin.org/info/Eating_Disorders_Diabulimia_in_Ty...](http://www.joslin.org/info/Eating_Disorders_Diabulimia_in_Type_1_Diabetes.html)

> > Women with eating disorders and [type one] diabetes typically struggle
> with symptoms similar to those of women with eating disorders who do not
> have diabetes. However, they exhibit a very dangerous symptom of calorie
> purging in the form of insulin restriction.

> but was unable to turn up any suggestion as to how one would go about
> deliberately using either excess or insufficient levels of insulin to reduce
> body weight.

Well, if you think about it in terms of "eating disorder" rather than "staying
thin" it makes more sense. People with eating disorder do a bunch of stuff
with the aim of staying slim that doesn't have that affect. People with
bulimia tend to be overweight; we know that laxatives do nothing to promote
thinness; etc.

------
supersan
> Victorian beauty ideals were unsurprisingly obsessed with pallor: upper
> class white women chased even whiter skin, a symbol that their privilege
> never left them working in the sun.

You won't believe how true this still holds in India. Skin lightning creams
are a huge deal here (and I'm guessing almost all of Asia like Malaysia,
Thailand, etc where I've seen this marketed heavily too). These creams contain
stuff like Hydroquinone which is a known carcinogen. I'm sure they contain
many other chemicals too.

But people still use it. It's a huge industry. Recently, there have been
lightning creams for private parts. It's so weird that someone would actually
consider that. The funniest thing though is that white people who come here
spend a lot of time sun-bathing to get their skin tanned otoh :)

------
solidsnack9000
There is an element of self-sacrifice implied by beauty regimes -- sacrifice
of time, of health, of wealth. Perhaps this is a critical function of beauty
regimes -- it allows them to function as a display behavior: as a means of
demonstrating discipline and self-control and as a way to demonstrate
deliberate and purposeful adoption of certain values.

------
kweinber
It is interesting how pervasive this still is: from the Botullism toxin
injections to the notions of femme fatales and songs about girls being
"toxic", "poison", or having that sickly "heroin chic" look.

What do you think the root of it is? Is it a fear of the potency of female
sexual power?

~~~
sandworm101
Don't overthink it. Clear young skin, a near-universally accepted standard for
beauty is rooted in nature. Young fertile women have clearer skin. So that's
the goal. To get there women want to ether cover over blemishes (the painted
woman image of the op) or basically peal off a layer of skin to expose the
more youthful skin underneath (the "natural" look popular today).

a) Anything that peals of skin chemically, rather then abrasively, is going to
be toxic. The high PH of the ammonia dissolves fats and oils ... ie living
tissue. Google "chemical peel" for today's version. But dissolving skin is a
very localized injury without long term side effects. You can wreck your face,
but ammonia isn't going to give you cancer.

b) The painting-over approach requires something that can sit on the skin for
a period of time without either dripping or being absorbed into the skin. You
need something that can block light when spread in a very thin layer. And it
needs to be shelf-stable. So you are looking for metal compounds, the heavier
the better. If you want white, that's lead or zinc oxide. Lead is cheaper. Its
toxicity, its general eagerness to play havoc with all biological reactions,
keeps it from rotting away in the jar. So the usefulness is directly tied to
it being a toxic heavy metal.

~~~
simoncion
To nit-pick: "peel", rather than "peal". :)

