beauty defined by 18 inches...

This item might seem like an interesting piece to your wardrobe; however, the corset was an instrument of women's oppression. "Historians argue that especially during the the Victorian era, corsetry functioned as a coercive apparatus through which patriarchal society controlled women and exploited their sexuality" (Steele 2007). Women of this era would tight-lace their corsets to 18inches crushing their internal insides. This is when the ideal that pain is beauty came about. Corsetry was a way for women to be beauty because it concealed the "problems" that were considered not to be "beautiful." Women believed that corsets gave them a better shape. Slender waists were associated with youth and beauty. Most people believed that the the corset exaggerated a natural difference between men and women that is women have a more pronounced waistlines" (2007). In the advertisement during this time, beauty ideal propaganda was perpetuated to women. Advertisement pieces would show that women looked unattractive if they didn't wear a corset.(Look at the emphasize of today's society one being young and beauty). The English began to link morality to tight-lacing. Women whose dress was loose represented loose morals. "Moralist declared if you want a girl to grow up gentle and womanly in her ways lance her up tight"(2007). The corset began to stand for beauty, youth, respectability, self discipline, and morality. Women were being defined by an entrapment that tortured their bodies. Women would typically measure 27-29 inches around the waist but would not grow themselves beyond 24 inches. Thousands of women were laced at 21 inches or 20 inches. The medical consequences for this was a weaken back or lower back pains,women would faint, deformities, or death.

How would you feel to be defined by an 18in waistline?

How do you feel about the idea of beauty being correlated with pain?

how does this make you feel?

Feel free to comment on whatever you want these are just some questions to get you thinkING!!!

Steele, Valorie. The Corset; a Cultural history. Yale university Press, London