Fashion in deformity : [a discourse] / by W.H. Flower.

  • Flower, William Henry, 1831-1899.
Date:
[1880]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Fashion in deformity : [a discourse] / by W.H. Flower. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    Professor Flower on Fashion in Deformity. [May 7, 1880. and 18), one acknowledged by all the artistic and anatomical world to be a perfect example of the natural female form, to be convinced of the gravity of the structural changes that must have taken place in such a form, before it could be reduced so far as to occupy the space shown in the second figure, an exact copy of one of the models now held up for imitation in the fashionable world. The wonder is not that people suffer, but that they continue to live, under such con- ditions. It is quite possible, or even probable, that some of us may think the latter the more beautiful of the two. If any should do so, let us pause to consider whether we are sure that our judgment is sound on the subject. Let us remember that to the Australian, the nose-peg is an admired ornament, that to the Thlinkeet, the Botocudo, and the Bongo negro, the lip dragged down by the heavy plug, and the ears distended by huge discs of wood, are things of beauty; that the Malay prefers teeth that are black to those of the most pearly white- ness, that the Western Indian despises the form of a head not flattened down like a pancake, or elongated like a sugar-loaf, and then let us carefully ask ourselves whether we are sure that in leaving nature as a standard of the beautiful, and adopting a purely conventional criterion, we are not falling into an error exactly similar to that of all these people whose tastes we are so ready to condemn. The fact is, that in admiring such distorted forms as the con- stricted waist, and symmetrically pointed foot, we are simply putting ourselves on a level in point of taste with those Australians, Botocudos, and negroes. We are taking fashion and nothing better, higher, or truer for our guide; and after the various examples brought forward this evening, may I not well ask, “ Seest thou not, what a deformed thief this fashion is?” [W. H. F.] Printed by william clowks and sons, limited, stamford street and charing cross.