In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 57.3 (2002) 363-364



[Access article in PDF]

Book Review

The Corset:
A Cultural History


Valerie Steele. The Corset: A Cultural History. New Haven, Connecticut Yale University Press, 2001. vii, 199 pp., illus. $39.95.

“The corset is probably the most controversial garment in the entire history of fashion.” So begins Valerie Steele’s fascinating book, The Corset: A Cultural History. Throughout its history, says Steele, the corset has been condemned as an “instrument of torture,” a “major cause of ill health and even death,” and above all, as a “coercive apparatus through which patriarchal society controlled women and exploited their sexuality.” Drawing upon a wealth of visual and textual sources, including numerous material examples of this notorious device, Steele attempts to “challenge the reductiveness of this picture, which frames the history of the corset in terms of oppression versus liberation, and fashion versus comfort and health” (p. 1).

Steele convincingly argues that while the nineteenth-century women’s rights movement was linked with campaigns for dress reform, it is incorrect to conclude that “female emancipation went hand in hand with progressive reform of female dress” (p. 143). Not all women’s rights advocates supported dress reform. “Stick to your stays,” wrote Lydia Becker, editor of the Woman’s Suffrage Journal (p. 59). Conversely, not all critics of corset wearing were feminists. Steele show that “attacks on corsets were often linked to ideological campaigns in favor of motherhood, reflecting fears that if women broke away from their domestic sphere, the entire social order would be threatened” (p. 76). Physicians blamed corsets for the declining birth rate among the white upper classes, and some even claimed that tight lacing was an “addiction” that contributed to hysteria, nymphomania, and other “nervous complaints” unique to women who dared venture beyond their proper sphere.

Steele also attempts to modify views of the corset as an instrument of male oppression by showing the role women themselves played in the acceptance of the corset as a fixture of female dress. She argues that while women did object to the physical discomfort of the corset, most women also considered less restrictive forms of female clothing advocated by Amelia Bloomer and other dress reformers unfeminine and downright ugly. At the same time, Steele acknowledges that women’s allegiance to fashion reflected the limited opportunities for women in the nineteenth century. Although corset wearing and other symbols of high fashion provided women with a socially acceptable means of self-expression, the practice also reinforced traditional notions of femininity by focusing attention on women’s physical appearance rather than their accomplishments. [End Page 363]

Even as women’s opportunities expanded in the twentieth century, Steele writes, this emphasis on physical beauty did not disappear, although the corset gradually fell out of fashion. In her concluding chapter, Steele shows that while women were liberated from the Victorian corset, fashion trends imposed new forms of bodily discipline upon women. As Steele writes, “the corset did not so much disappear as become internalized through diet, exercise, and plastic surgery” (p. 143). At the same time, the corset itself has taken on new roles in contemporary society and reappeared in couture lines during the past decade. Popular culture icons like Madonna have transformed the corset from “a symbol of female oppression” to “a symbol of female sexual empowerment” (p. 166). Yet the traditional role of the corset persists, as evidenced by the appearance of a new generation of body shapers that try to emulate the wasp waists of the Victorian era.

Overall, Steele does a fine job of providing a finely nuanced history of the corset and its various cultural meanings. Occasionally, Steele’s attempts to provide a balanced story go to extremes. For example, in chapter 3, Steele describes research she conducted with cardiologist Dr. Lynn Kusche that tested nineteenth-century claims about the deleterious effects of corsets by using modern-day reenactors. Although Steele is probably correct that warnings about the medical dangers of corsetry were exaggerated, she fails to consider whether...

pdf

Share