Dear Sir,–Your correspondents on the subject of tight-lacing seem to have entirely neglected the moral of the whole system, which is briefly this:
Perfection is only attained by great pain and tribulation. Bodily pain was considered nothing as long as a satisfactory result was obtained, and the pain was a necessary incident to the achievement of a perfect figure.
The uses of the old-fashioned corset were primarily three.
First, they were to improve the figure. Secondly, they were to be a surgical support. Thirdly, a form of discipline closely allied to corporal punishment.
For the first purpose, the girls of the late nineteenth century went to terrible extremes and suffered intensely before they achieved that perfection of sliminess demanded by fashion. That descendant of the rack, the stretching frame, pulled the female, body to its most attenuated shape before the long moulding corset was tightened mercilessly around it, until it was as rigid as a statue from arm pits to thighs. The screwed belt used at the waist to obtain the greatest possible pressure; the long unbending sleeping stays sometimes made to screw on, and always incredibly tight; the “stove-pipe” and “taper” corsets–all these were used to obtain a fashionable figure.
The second use of the corset was in consequence of the first. Tight stays used from early childhood- murdered the body muscles so that the body had to be artificially supported by heavy bones and steels.
Having once worn tight stays for any time, they become an absolute necessity to the wearer, and can never be left off. Often when tight-lacers had been forced to abandon their stays, they had to live with their bodies in a steel frame on account of their weakness.
In England young girls, were the sufferers of very severe tight-lacing from a very early age, to make them ladylike and quiet: while if they were disobedient, they were punished by the use of “Punishment” stays made very long in the skirt, very narrow, and boned to the point of rigidity
With the addition of shoulder-length gloves, fitting very tightly, strong back brace, and long tight boots with high heels, the girl was rendered unable to sit, eat, walk much, or enjoy herself in any way, while she was generally in considerable pain till released from these appliances.
No wonder Victorian ladies were so very good and quiet. They lived night and day in their corsets, till they could not do without them; and though the pain was great, they considered the result justified it.
In conclusion, let us have a number of your paper devoted to this subject, which is one of the most interesting ones discussed in your pages. Let us have photos of corsetted beauties, stories, articles, and a drawing or so by your artist of an old-fashioned corset saloon, etc.
Yours faithfully,
CORSET HISTORIAN.