What If Everything You Knew About The Corset Was Wrong?
November 22, 2009 by Deanna
Filed under Don We Now Our Gay Apparel
It’s fashionable these days for folks to denounce the historical use of corsets as akin to Chinese footbinding.
Corsets and tight lacing are said to have controlled women to their physical detriment; corsets have been blamed for breathing problems, broken ribs, curvature of the spine, hunchbacks, prolapsed uterus, miscarriages, hysteria and other mental illness, fainting spells, epilepsy, and even fatalities. Supposedly, in 1859, a 23 year old Parisian woman at a ball was “proved to be the envy of all with her thirteen inch waist; two days later she was found dead.”
As one who has held antique corsets in her hands, I find some of this a bit hard to swallow. Holding antique corsets which have been worn, one sees the evidence that the human body is not so easily molded; along with stretched fabric and folds from human flesh, there are torn seams and broken boning, all proof that female forms made the corsets conform to them.
But you don’t have to take my anecdotal word for it; there’s an ephemera trail of advertisements to prove this too. This 1874 ad for Thomson’s undergarments features The Unbreakable, which by its claim that it “greatly reduces the risk of fracture, while permitting the use of most highly-tempered steel,” proves that women’s bodies forced damages on corsets and their structures.
But you don’t have to take this to heart either — you can, at least for now, remain as firmly fixed on the idea that corsets were bad as you believe the horrible contraptions were on the female forms they mangled. You wouldn’t be the first…
In 1653, Dr. John Bulwer wrote in Anthropometamorphosis, Man Transform’d (aka The Artificial Changeling, London 1650), that ’straight lacing’ was said to be the cause of “stinking breath” leading to “consumptions and a withering rottennesse.” (Bulwer also was anti-circumcision, but that’s another ‘piece’ altogether.) However Bulwer’s B.S. (consumption, for example, was tuberculosis and not caused by corsets; halitosis is rarely, if ever, a result of stomach issues, rottennesse or otherwise), is generally aimed to ridicule and condemn female vanity and following of fashion than it is aimed at helping physical ailments.
Fashion, especially women’s dress, has always reflected the the morals, values, and dynamic changes of society. And fashion (as well as its icons) have also been used to sway public opinion and create changes in society to reflect new norms. Which part of this rule, reflection of or tool used, is the corset?
Am I to believe that by the late 19th century the medical community — which was still neither treating female patients nor studying their physiology — suddenly cared about women? Even if they seemed to agree with the feminists of the time, the suffragettes, they seem too much like the proverbial odd bedfellows to me…
Let’s start by looking at the facts about where the so-called medical evidence of health problems from wearing corsets (such as in The New York Medical Journal, November 5, 1887) came from.
Fact: It was (and still is) easier to obtain permission to study the bodies of the lower and working classes. As with any ’scandal’, the wealthy have the privilege of privacy — both in their lifetimes and afterwards. Not only are the wealthy protected from any examinations, but from stories about their lives and deaths — real or fanciful. Publicity could and would bring lawsuits. The poor or not-wealthy have less might to preserve any rights; prostitutes and others who either dropped dead on the streets or otherwise would have had their bodies dumped in pauper’s graves (and mass burials) have virtually no rights at death. These are the bodies science used. As a result, the information available would be skewed at best, completely false at worst..
Fact: The health of the lower classes was (and comparatively still is) horrible. Among the anecdotal examples of the corset as undergarment of death and destruction:
- A 21 year old prostitute who died of syphilis, consumption, and corsets while sitting in a police station.
- A chambermaid who was found dead after suffering from extreme stomach pains. Upon her death, her stomach was found to be nearly severed in half “leaving a canal only as narrow as a raven’s feather.”
These stories are horrific, yes; but are they accurate?
Clearly dead women had health problems, but from corsets alone? When you read such things (which are said to be documented in Fashion and Fetishism by David Kunzle), you simply have to consider the alternatives to “the corset did it.” These deaths are more likely attributed to general health problems of the poor and working class. Diseases such as TB, syphilis (and other STDs), reproductive problems from multiple pregnancies, dietary deficiencies such as rickets, etc. were incredibly common.
It’s more than possible that these stories have been exaggerated or even made up (Who would question the ‘findings’ or rush to the defense of a prostitute or a chambermaid?) to further an agenda. But if the stories were made up, why? What was the motivation, the agenda?
Come back Monday, for more…
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while i agree with most of what is said here you also have to take into consideration that corsets are still harmful to the body. working in theater like i do I have to wear replicas of the corsets used in the Victorian and baroque era very often. it is not only one of the most painful experiences. I have often experienced shortness of breath which causes arrhythmia, extreme nausea, inability to keep food down, constipation, headaches, and severe cramps. I’m not saying it will kill me but i also don’t bind my torso every day. statistically women were extremely likely to die during childbirth if they conceived during their mid to late twenties which is why women were married off so young… let’s brake it down… a girl of sixteen had probably only been wearing a corset for two years tops in those days meaning that while there was already some damage being done… she hadn’t gone through the same physical devastation a girl of say 24 or 25 has gone through…what physical devastation u ask…well not only were they distorting the organs causing them to be constricted meaning they might grow inappropriately meaning their lower bodies get weaker. the constriction of the lungs made it a lot harder for them to breathe making the lungs weaker and thus harder to push like they needed to during delivery. not to mention how malnourished they must have been avoiding most foods because it made them nauseous and the stuff they could keep down were things that were very high in cholesterol and attached itself to the body or things like bread and pastries that expand when they reach the stomach which would have made them nauseous but its a lot harder to throw up. I’m not arguing that corsets probably weren’t the sole barer of blame for a lot of women’s early deaths but facts and statistics aside its common sense… when corsets broke they were likely to be replaced and the more they were replaced the more they would bind and binding anything in your body to the point where it creates physical distortion is not healthy…although it looks amazing
Dear Folks,
I am researching 19th century New Orleans. I have run across two women who died suddenly in their late twenties. One woman died after a long train ride and the other thirty days after childbirth.
Both women had no apparent health problems. The woman who died after a train journey, the cause of her death was unknown.
It was Henry Clay’s daughter Anne Brown Clay Erwin who died after childbirth. Anne was up and around and in the kitchen when she suddenly dropped dead. The doctors guessed her death was caused by a blood vessel rupturing in her brain.
Anne Brown Clay Erwin was twenty-eight when she died.
I suspect both deaths were caused by corsets. I have no proof of this but only suspicion. After seeing the deformities caused by corsets, I am satisfied that my theory is based in reality.
Question: Are there known references from books to this anomaly? Please write.