What Corset Wearing Women had to contend with
Some Negative Viewpoints
An opponent writes:
By lacing, the internal organs of women are crowded out of their
positions. There is scarcely a tight laced woman that is thoroughly
healthy. The majority of these women have numerous ailments. Many
are troubled with weaknesses of most distressing nature. These fashionably
dressed women cannot transmit good constitutions to their children.
Some women have naturally small waists. But rather than regard such
forms as beautiful, they should be viewed as defective. These wasp
waists may have been transmitted to them from their mothers, as the
result of their indulgence in the sinful practice of tight-lacing,
and in consequence of imperfect breathing. Poor children born of these
miserable slaves of fashion have diminished vitality, and are predisposed
to take on disease. The impurities retained in the system in consequence
of imperfect breathing are transmitted to their offspring. (Health
Reformer Nov. 1, 1871)
'But my waist is naturally slender,' says one woman. She
means that she has inherited small lungs. Her ancestors, more or less
of them, compressed their lungs in the same way that we do, and it
has become in her case a congenital deformity. (Health Reformer Oct.
31, 1871)
A negative view on the corset's effect on health:
The internal organs are much softer than the bones in the rib cage,
and can be forced to a much greater degree. The lungs, for example,
can be crushed to the point where the miraculous little sacs that
collect oxygen for the body's use will not inflate. The stomach can
be squeezed down to a flat little envelope that will accept very little
food, resulting in heartburn and indigestion. The bladder can be kept
to a very small size resulting, of course, in reduced capacity. All
of the major organs in the torso are eventually affected by this phenomenon,
and in every case their function will be impaired.
The total effect of an overlapping rib cage and compressed
internal organs would be of extreme discomfort and of uncertain health.
Women who haplessly followed the fashion trends in the heyday of the
corset often found themselves spending a great deal of time with their
physicians. Many doctors tried unsuccessfully to convince their patients
to loosen their laces as a way of relieving their aches and pains,
but women were often as fondly attached to their corsets as some modern
women are to their make-up. These women demanded pills, powders, and
potions to relieve their discomforts. The effect on women of multiple
medications on top of the existing difficulties caused by their corsets
can only be imagined.
An emotional but incorrect view, not backed up by facts.
Modern medical research has repeatedly confirmed that there are no such effects, and that gradual
corseting is completely safe.
A neutral view:
The rib cage has a great deal of flexibility. This fact is one
of the human features which makes waist training practical. To mold
the body into the hourglass shape, the lower sections of the rib cage
are pushed inward by the corset. The two sides of the lower rib cage,
normally separated by a space, approach each other as the waist is
progressively constricted. Eventually, of course, the twain must meet.
It is erroneous to suppose that further body modification is then
not possible, however, because the two halves of the rib cage can
and will overlap with continued tight lacing.
Some voice of reason on Waist Training:
Your first corset will probably be only about 2 inches smaller
than your natural waist measurement. If you close the lacing entirely
you will probably feel a little bit of discomfort, but you'll be well
able to stand it, I'm sure. Some weeks later you will notice that
it is no longer tight, you'll in fact hardly notice anything any of
it. Now the time has come to put on a tighter corset, which has a
waistline of about 4 inches less than your unlaced waistline. It will
probably feel a bit uncomfortable again, maybe even more than with
the first corset. But after some time you will have got accustomed
to this corset as well. Principally you could go on like that, but
judging by experience I can say that the waist of a woman should not
be laced in smaller than by 20-25% of its natural measurement at the
beginning of the lacing to maintain a tolerable level of comfort.
