The Poisonous Beauty Advice Columns of Victorian England | Hacker News Reader

The Poisonous Beauty Advice Columns of Victorian England

atlasobscura.com

36 pointssamclemens15 comments

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...

The Mr. Universe article says he adjusts the insulin according to activity and diet, and that it can't be manipulated to help him past what a functioning pancreas would do.

"People sometimes give him the eye, thinking that insulin might be advantageous in competition, but insulin is of no use to him in that respect because if his insulin ever goes high, he can’t shed body fat and get lean enough to compete."

That's BS. Non-diabetic advanced body builders/strongmen/powerlifters/juicers frequently use insulin (termed "slin" in those circles) to achieve super-human results that even typical steroids by themselves can't provide.

The guy is basically just saying he doesn't abuse it, because he's not allowed to. There is a massive wink involved.

You may by right; I was just reading the posted resource. You may consider posting one with fewer winks next time.

Sure, but you apparently know nothing about this topic, not even how to vet whether a source is trustworthy or not(Not that there's anything wrong with not being an expert on body builder steroid habits).

Perhaps it should be on you to not just post random statements you find when you have no means of judging the accuracy of the statements.

Interesting that would call your linked references "random".

> This isn't all that different than today's beauty regimes.

Not just beauty regimes, but basic personal hygiene products as well. Just look at the EWG ratings for all the bestselling soap, shampoo, deodorant, sunscreen, moisturizing lotion, face soap, toothpaste, fragrance, etc.

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.

There are different schemes based on whether or not a person is diabetic to begin with. The simple answer is that insulin regulates the absorption of sugars. If your body, for whatever reason, cannot handle that by itself then you have to manually manipulate your own insulin levels. This gives you a physical control over what normally is an automatic process. Leverage it one way or another and you can artificially drop/gain weight as needed. It isn't healthy, but it is done.

"Diabulimia" is one search term you can use.

http://www.joslin.org/info/Eating_Disorders_Diabulimia_in_Ty...

> > 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.

> 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 :)

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.

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?

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.

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

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