I will always assert that corsets improve an indifferent figure and add to the beauty of a good one, and I will even admit that for a woman who aspires to look fashionable something might be said for tight lacing in moderation. The editor of the "Women's Chats" section of the West Australian advocated "tight lacing in moderation" I have been in corsets ever since I was eight years of age, and I am now past my teens, and though I am five feet four inches tall and broad in the shoulders, I only measure nineteen inches, and I am in capital health. The sensation of being laced in tight is an enjoyable one that only those who have experienced it can understand. I would not give up my well-made, tight fitting stays for anything. All who have tried tight-lacing speak approvingly of it. The fun of it is, all the condemnation comes from those who don't wear stays, either from men or from women with hobbies and without waists. I am glad that the subject of figure training is under consideration, because so much nonsense is talked on the subject of tight-lacing. Those who have been systematically laced up in proper stays from their childhood are the only ones who are capable of forming a right judgment on this subject and I hope you will allow tight lacers the opportunity of defending themselves against the enemies of trim little waist.Ī reader wrote to The Toronto Daily Mail insisting that only those who had experienced tight lacing could understand its pleasures People who write against the practice of tight lacing are either those who have never been laced and have never take the trouble to inquire into the pros and cons of the subject, or those who have, perhaps been once lace up very tightly in badly made, ill-fitting stays with the settled determination of finding them most awful instruments of torture. I myself have never felt any ill effects from nearly 30 years of the most severe tight lacing, nor have I yet found any authentic case of real harm being done by stays, even when laced to the utmost degree of tightness, both day and night. Yet some women professed to enjoy the practice.
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And in order to look stylish, thousands of women wear dress waist so tight that no free movement of the upper body is possible indeed in numbers of instances, ladies are compelled to put their bonnets on before attempting the painful ordeal of getting into glove-fitting dress waists. the tight lacing required by the wasp waist has produced generations of invalids and bequeathed to posterity suffering that will not vanish for many decades. It is difficult to imagine a slavery more senseless, cruel or far-reaching in its injurious consequences than that imposed by fashion on civilized womanhood during the last generation. THE SLAVES OF FASHION, through Long Centuries Women Have Obeyed Her Whims One such appeared in the Chicago Tribune Fashions that required a tiny waist were deemed oppressive. Some of the slender young debutantes affect the picturesque princess bodice, with the whalebones inserted in every seam. There is not a single fashionable woman who does not wear a corset. The Saint Paul Daily Globe wrote of corsetry:
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A corset, used to constrict the waist and create slenderness, also accentuated a full skirt through comparison. Prior to the common wearing of the crinoline, several petticoats were worn in order to provide this fullness. The dominant aesthetic of the mid-nineteenth century called for full skirts. Throughout this period, advertisements in the same publications promoted the sale of corsets with enthusiasm.
However, the issue surfaced long before and continued long afterward. The flow of articles and letters waxed and waned over time, reaching a crescendo in the late 1860s, which may be taken to be the peak of the frenzy. Of particular concern was the issue of tight lacing. Known as the "corset controversy" or the "corset question", the controversy spilled over multiple publications, countries and decades. Newspapers and popular journals became the media for the exchange of hundreds of letters and articles concerning the corset.
Women made their voices heard, sharing their experiences and their opinions, some in favor of the corset and even tight lacing, and some in disfavor of the restrictive garment.
The one-sided denunciation of the past turned into a dialogue. However, by the 19th century, women were writing letters to publications expressing their views directly and articulately. Jean-Jacques Rousseau denounced the practice in The Lancet while cartoons of the period satirized the practice. Wearing corsets has been subject to criticism since the era of tight lacing during the prior century.
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