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May 12, 2015
Everything You Know About Corsets Is False
Steele says women wore corsets quite on their own volition. Men, in fact, regularly protested corsets, claiming they caused hysteria and the other health problems mentioned above. Women wore the corset because it made them feel attractive and properly dressed, she says, two important indicators of status. However, they were intended to reshape the natural body to what women perceived as the most ideal figure—meaning the most youthful and sexually desirable. Men might not have oppressed women by demanding they wear corsets, but women certainly wore them to impress men and assert their rank among other women. | Collectors Weekly
Posted by gerardvanderleun at May 12, 2015 7:19 AM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.
Your Say
This was the topic of my first Common Knowledge piece; the confusion and misunderstandings around corsets. Mostly that people think they were so tight they'd cause people to pass out and were destructive, but they weren't.
Posted by: Christopher Taylor ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://americandigest.org/sidelines/nav-commenters.gif)
at May 12, 2015 9:52 AM
Artificial abs
Posted by: Leslie at May 12, 2015 10:24 AM
So fainting couches never were?
Anyway, scratch the surface and you'll find history is usually not what they told you it was.
Posted by: ghostsniper at May 12, 2015 7:32 PM
Same can be said for women trying to be ridiculously thin. It's not men who demand it.
Posted by: DonRodrigo at May 13, 2015 12:17 PM