.ADvent Calendar Day 3
.The three female figures in Figuroids’ publicity were designed to illustrate the product’s promise:
‘If you are like the STOUT girl—you will become like the MEDIUM girl—and finally like the DAINTY girl—by taking Figuroids.’
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Launched in the UK in 1907 by Canadian doctor George Dixon, Figuroids used a veneer of scientific language to disguise their construction of obesity as a source of shame. Pamphlets like this one from c.1908 (picture courtesy of Wellcome Images) were inserted in magazines such as the Girl’s Own Paper to appeal to young women, who were presented with questions such as ‘Can stout women wear the sheath gown?’.
Find out more about Figuroids in The Quack Doctor: Historical Remedies for All Your Ills.
The ECA/ECY stack will actually do what that ad says it will. What was in Figuroids, anyhow?
That’s one of the bits of info in the book – but it wasn’t an ECA or ECY stack.