Just wanted to write a thing on corsets and costume history and how we perceive women’s place in history.

Anyway corsets have a really bad reputation as a symbol of like… the oppression of women, and I think that’s actually pretty weird (as a costume history geek), because like, they’re portrayed as these torture devices and they really aren’t.

Okay let me explain, tight lacing (lacing very tightly so as to modify the shape of your ribcage over time) isn’t super comfy, but it’s also not super uncomfy and no it’s not as bad for your health as the Victorian health alarmists would have you believe. That said most women didn’t tight lace (especially not working class women, who did in fact also wear corsets) most women laced their corsets tightly enough to keep their boobage in place and not much tighter because that was the real function of corsets.

Now if you’re busty (whether through nature, or like me through the surgeon’s art) you know that bras are necessary but in many cases fucking uncomfortable, and that your boobs cause you back pain aplenty. Now here’s the interesting part, corsets (custom-made, properly fitted, real steel or imitation whale boned real corsets) support your titty weight off your strong hips rather than off your weak shoulders, and keep your back straight which for a lot of people with a lot in the boobage department… is kind of a godsend in terms of reducing or eliminating back pain, they also sort of force you to bend at the knees rather than at the waist which is better for your back in the long run.

Incidentally, the crusade against corsetry was initially lead by men who hated the things (the would have shown up on a late Victorian “trends men hate” list TBH) before rational dress folks got ahold of them.

Anyway basically I’m tired of pop culture treating a fairly practical garment that developed to support what needs supporting so it doesn’t flop around and cause trouble and discomfort being treated as a torture device.

Also it somewhat irritates me when people talk about full skirts as if they were super restrictive and cumbersome. People forget that the trousers of the past were often stiff with little give. Hoop skirts certainly were dangerous as fuck in a world full of open flames, but like a full skirt with a few petticoats is warm and allows you honestly, a really large amount of freedom of motion (more than most modern lady pants honestly), I’ve worn long (not floor length, but ankle length) skirts hiking through rough terrain and they’re honestly quite practical, though knee length with high socks works a little better if there’s a lot of stuff to get caught on. Not to mention that although upper class women were highly restricted through most of history through most of the world, a lot of the time your average subsistence farmer would be surprisingly egalitarian (although women typically did the cooking and laundry and “inside” work more and men did the “outside” work more, everybody was doing work that was directly necessary to not dying and so it was pretty different from like the upper-class idea of the woman who was mostly decorative and was utterly reliant on the men around her, basically proles were interdependent, bourgeois and aristocratic folks had dependent women and independent men if that makes sense)