mandi_c69 asked
One of the greatest restrictions placed on women has been corsetry. Severe lacing restricts movement and can damage internal organs and impair health. Female emancipators of the early 20th century used pictures which showed the position of the female internal organs with and without corsetry. Pictures of deformed rib cages also illustrate how breathing was impaired. They used the evidence to support their arguments for condemning the corset. Recent medical examinations of females corseted today in actual Victorian corsets show how the women had no energy and lacked breath when given lung tests. Once the corset was undone the women felt energised again. The test is not a fair test as women did not simply lace immediately to a 16 inch waist, they trained the waist over a period of years. Over 2 years a 22 inch waist can be gradually reduced to a handspan by gradual increments of the lacing. It would take about a year of not wearing a corset for the internal organs to settle back to the natural position. But back they would go. Corseting has existed for thousands of years. The first recorded corset came from Crete. The Cretan woman stands proudly bare breasted and the corset is obviously a decorative part of her underwear. Madonna's imagery and use of bustiers is not new, it is merely a revived fashion which has had mass media coverage and so become universally adopted. However she was astute enough and clever enough to put the style across in the 1980s and make it her own in the 20th century.
168 answers · 0 comments
Answer this yourself in the app
See how this splits by age, gender, and region in the app.
