The Corset
and its consequences on women's behaviour and rights.
Women wore
corsets because of the fashion but we can see that it is a part of
their bond : the corset is a physical proof of women's compression.
We can note that slavery was abolished in 1833 in the British Empire
but in a certain way, the more the population was free the more the
women pressed their corsets. Indeed, more than underwear, it became a
part of their body without which they felt “naked”. The bond
became a habit and men were paradoxically sometimes more alarmed by
the consequences on their body than women themselves.
The
fact is that the corset by itself is an interesting clothe and I
experienced that feeling when I went to the Victoria and Albert
museum. The first impression I had when I went to the fashion section
was “What a beautiful dress” with sparkling eyes : the fabrics,
the decorations, the cut, everything made women look like princesses
and I think it is because of the corset which gives that shape to
women. I noticed the same reactions from other people : “It must
give so much inspiration for people who study fashion”, “Look at
the corset!” and it made me wonder; why such a painful clothe could
retain our attention that much? Even in the 21th
century, while women's right changed, we are still attracted by the
corset.
When I
started to think about the corset I thought I could find a lot of
stories about the pain and the consequences for women who wore
corsets but the thing is that I didn't find so many testimonies and I
found it even more interesting. Even Florence Nightingale, who wrote
about women's conditions didn't say a word about the corset while she
was really close to that subject in Cassandra.
Here is a quotation which called out to me : “What form do the
Chinese feet assume when denied their proper development?” I think
we could ask the exact same question for the corset and women's
waists but we can note that she choose to pick a example which
doesn't belong to her country and habits. Yet she describes women's
behaviour as a “farce of hypocrisy”, which complicates our
present topic : women put themselves in that situation, and I found
three different examples of the danger of wearing corset, seen by men
or women.
“Hygiene
of the corset” in The morning post, Wednesday May 18, 1842, p. 6 by Gazette Medicale de Paris.
As I said, I
found interesting the fact I couldn't find too many testimonies about
women wearing corsets, and most of the time, men were writing about
that subject in the newspaper more than women. From a scientific
point of view, we can see how “evil” the corset could be : “One
never would believe that women were capable of enduring such torture,
if one did not actually witness it. How is it that a body so soft,
tender, and with such delicate springs in appearance, can suffer so
cruel and so constant a ligature!”.
The
scientific who answers is making a great point when he writes : “it
orders them to crush and to compress the chest, to prevent
respiration, digestion, walking and running, and nobody opposes it.”
because we can see how paradoxical it is to be fashioned if it's
prevent you to live. He is also saying that women themselves did
nothing to stop the phenomenon and it shows how much they were
constrained in their actions. The corset made them weaker than they
could have been.
“Melle
Lucile, your daughter, is approaching an age when a wish to please is
quite natural; but it is possible to please without an elancé shape,
or, in other words, without the corset which forms and delineates
it?” the scientific answers to a mother which is worrying about
her daughter who might soon wear a corset, but in the answer he is
actually denouncing the fact women think they need a corset to be
attractive, and today I'm wondering why women had to do such things
to pleased men and the corset is a good example of what the society
commanded to them. It is all the more complex that women themselves
thought it was compulsory and couldn't live without that article. He
tries to convince the women of the natural beauty “Rest assured
that the absence of a corset destroys neither the elegance of the
shape, the fulness of its lines, nor the harmony of its movements –
far from it.”
“The
Cholic” by George Cruikshank, 1819
This drawing
was made in the early 19th century but the corset was
already an important part of fashion and I would introduce this
picture with a quotation from the precedent text which suit perfectly
to the situation.
“for you
may well conceive that the human body is not to be obstructed in its
organs and functions with impunity. It is defying nature, who soon or
late will be cruelly revenged.”
The New Corset – chap. I “The Corset Fitted”, in The World of Fashion, Wednesday December 1, 1841, p. 269, by Louise Lurine.
In this
fiction, the author describes how the Marchioness of Simioni is
forced to cancel her apparition to a masked ball because of a
powerful headache. Let's compare two passages of the extract edited
in the newspaper : the first from the beginning and the second from
the end.
At the
beginning, she is getting ready for the masked ball by her servant :
“That happy corset was made of satin, broidered with gold, and the
inventor of it boasted that it was made on a new system, which would
at the same time give a new grace to the most beauteous figure, and
even make an ugly waist look attractive. The corset, I am quite ready
to admit, was a chef-d'oeuvre in its way ” we can see how beautiful
the underwear seems to be, and it reminds me my reactions in the
museum, but also a kind of irony which comes out the word “boasted”.
The narrator doesn't believe that it could really work and the end of
the days shows it : “But there was another grief to be endured by
her, greater than all the rest ; for, as she advanced to a mirror to
look at herself for the thousandth time that evening, it seemed to
her as if, in the course of ten minutes, she had grown ten years
older, and she thought herself ugly – abominably ugly”.
So, women
don't need it to be pretty in that way and it is even unhealthy to
wear corsets, but the social pressure and the fashion made the women
wear corsets and be stick to it, as if they weren't allowed to live,
despite of it's glamourous appearance, the corset was more a death
instrument than a useful and effective accessory.
I really like how despite not being able to find many texts that speak about the corset, you still managed to find many examples that supported the idea that this piece of clothing was very much part of a woman's body during the Victorian era. Especially the painting that you chose, which effectively shows the agony and the suffering that women had to face when wearing the corset. It can represent the authority that society had on women. Really nice blog post Arya!
ReplyDeleteI really liked your blog post! Your mentioning of slavery in the introduction really caught my attention, and I like the way you managed to highlight the use of corset from different angles! As Kae mentions above, you use images which are very describing in terms of the sufferings women felt when wearing corsets. Your emphasis on details, such as the animals in the image, and well chosen quotes makes the blog entry very exciting to read!
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