Victorian Corsets and Health Risks

Paper Summary:

This paper looks at the use of corsets by women during the Victorian age and discusses the role the corset played in idealizing the image of the Victorian woman. The author describes how young Victorian girls would be gradually prepared for the tight lacing required for wearing the corset and explains how by narrowing the woman's waist as much as possible, the corset was designed to transform the body into a symbol that was much sought after for women in that era - a sick feeble persona that was perceived as erotic. The paper examined the health risks that physicians from the Victorian age thought resulted from the tight lacing of the waist and concedes that while the direct health risks are hard to ascertain even with today's technology, the corset most definitely held indirect health threats as well as threats to a woman's integrity and independence as an individual as it imposed restraint, pressure and pain.

From the Paper:

"Corsetry throve in an era in which any open display of sexuality was repressed and condemned. The Victorian Age was a puritan period, which ferociously quashed sexuality as a taboo. In this context, the society prescribed a definite gender role for women: they had to be demure, passive, fragile and even languid. The corset played a definite part in this idealized image of the Victorian woman. First of all, the corset was much more than a simple garment. It was a designed to emphasize the feminine form by narrowing the waist as much as possible, and thus transform the body into a symbol."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Klingerman, Katherine Marie. "Binding Femininity: An Examination of the Effects of Tight-Lacing on the Female Pelvis". http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-04072006-115441/unrestricted/Klingerman_thesis.pdf
• Kunzle, David. Fashion and Fetishism. New York: Sutton, 2005.
• Steele, Valerie and Colleen Gau. "Corset." Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion. Ed. Valerie Steele. Vol. 1. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2005.
• Summers, Leigh. Bound to Please: A History of the Victorian Corset. New York: Berg, 2001.

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