"The tapeworm diet, however, has always been surrounded by a thick air of urban legend. As horrifying and bizarre as it sounds, this really happened for decades."
"In the race to Victorian perfection, various toxic practices were documented, such as inhaling ammonia, consuming arsenic and wearing corsets."
"The idea for the scene did not just spring from the mind of the film's creators. Every so often, the gruesome tapeworm tactic resurfaces on the internet."
"The aesthetic model was inspired on symptoms of tuberculosis: pale skin, shining eyes, rosy cheeks, intense lips and a silhouette so delicate that it smacked of exhaustion."
The film The Ugly Stepsister includes a shocking scene where the main character, Elvira, consumes a tapeworm egg for weight loss. This practice, rooted in 19th-century beauty standards, reflects the extreme measures women took to achieve a dangerously thin appearance. The Victorian era idealized fragile bodies, often resembling symptoms of tuberculosis. Historical accounts reveal that women resorted to toxic methods, including swallowing tapeworm eggs, to conform to societal expectations of beauty, despite the practice being steeped in urban legend.
Read at english.elpais.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]