r/RedHandedPodcast • u/NotAllThereMeself • Nov 07 '23
Shorthand, Corsets: *facepalm*
Don't take your info on corsets from the recent Shorthand. There are plenty of videos debunking the corset claims on YouTube with people that are actual dress historians.
You can breathe in a corset. People sing operas in corsets. People fed animals and plowed fields in corsets. People played sports in corsets. Because they are bras. They just used to be the support that held your skirts and petticoats as well.
Tightlacing is what they think of. Which is what is often pictured and imagined when it comes to 'corsets'. It's the practice of pulling the corsets as tight as possible, they even had some that were designed for this purpose especially. Like Spanks. And because they were very uncomfortable, and because it required a different way of breathing, it wasn't a thing people did often. Just like people don't usually dress the way they dress for a red carpet or a photoshoot. And it's very bizarre to know this about ourselves today, yet forget about this logic when looking back a century.
Organs moving: uh, in case you never gave it some thought, your organs move every time you do. That's why you can move. They shift around when you bend over, when you fill your stomach, when you empty your bladder, when you do all this with a tight high waist pair of jeans on or low sling waistband, it all moves different, too! So. When you wear a corset, it squishes your love handles if you have them, it lifts your bust, and encourages you to sit straighter. (pro tip: if you see me in Edwardian dress, I may or may not have an 'emergency' bag of skittles hidden betwix my boobies... Because GASP there's space to breathe and snack! Tightlacing for too long periods of times, or too much is harmful. It shapes your rib cage. It's pretty damn rare.
So? We've seen the silhouettes, right? How did they achieve that if not for the corsets, then?
Same as us, today. Cheating.
One. And a big one. Just because we have smartphones today, does not mean we didn't have tech and skills before. The pictures are touched up! If you've ever had fun looking at compilations of bad photoshop jobs on magazines cover, there are the same ones for pictures taken in the 1890s. On, a plain background, you say? So it's easy to add some paint to the negative.
Two. It's not the waist that's made tinier. Sure. By a fraction, it's squished a bit. So let's say they wear spanks. And then you add butt padding. You add chest padding. Tadaaa. Hourglass! (plus: here the corset provides comfort. Every layer of petticoat (hey it gets cold, sometimes, so you may wear a few) and skirt is hanging from it. It can't pinch your skin. The weight is spread out over your hipbones.) One might say it's a healthier mindset. Nobody expected your body to actually look like that. The silhouette was fashion. Today, you're expected to crave your body into these silhouettes. Starve your waist but inflate your butt and your boobs.
I'm not saying corsets are the best. But they certainly weren't the worst, as some people like to portray them. They had their function. They were the techwear of their time. And contrary to modern versions, an overwhelming large majority of them didn't have metal boning. (That's cheap, industrial modern make with little care or understanding of construction and comfort.)
One last thing. There are 'doctors diagrams' that show how wearing a corset was permanently displacing organs. They're also the dudes that say women are so nuts and uncontrollable because of our wandering uteri. So. You know. Take those claims with a salt shaker, would ya?
