Historical context

Skin disease throughout history has been associated with contagion and dirt. This is at least partially due to the fact that many contagious diseases had skin manifestations (e.g. the plague) so that the relationship between some skin rashes and infectivity were indeed real. It is also thought that the natural human response of scratching has evolved to ensure that humans are made aware when something unpleasant is on their skin and the scratching is a way of getting rid of it. These two facts seem to be deeply buried within the human psyche. Thus it remains a common reaction to recoil from someone who has a visible skin condition and someone who scratches may be viewed as somehow dirty or unclean. Indeed this almost instinctive response to skin disease is very often totally out of proportion to the objective manifestation of the condition. The media and entertainment industry seem to play on this deeply held ‘fear’ making the ‘bad guys’ in films appear with facial defects such as acne scars or severe burns, thus reinforcing our instinct that ‘bad’ skin equals evil and thereby of course that ‘beautiful’ skin equals good.