Caption "Modern day corsets" with the backdrop of a pink pinched in corset
Health, Politics & Equality

Modern day corsets

Smelly Socks and Garden Peas

Warning: I’m feeling a bit ranty. If you disagree with this post, please don’t take it as a judgement or personal attack. I use my blog as an outlet for random thoughts and this is one of those posts.

I’ve been seeing these adverts all over on Instagram lately. Adverts for body shaping solutions, basically either absolutely massive pants that go from your thigh to your ribcage or else modern day corsets. Like this (just one example):

Corsets? Yes, you read that right

I mean seriously, that what that contraption is right? Its a corset.

Here we are in the 21st century over a hundred years since Victorian and Edwardian corseting went out of fashion. Since then we’ve had female emancipation, the vote, the support of nations through wars by their women (not for the first time), equal workers rights, burning bras, the arrival of a sense of women working after they have kids as “normal”, upheaval to rape law (can you believe it used to be legal for a man to rape his wife?), and the “me too” movement. Our forebears and members of our own generation have been through these huge fights so that we can grow up and live in a much more equal and fair world than came before.

Everywhere I look, there are memes and reminders that the only one who’s opinion on your body shape that matters is you. Big is beautiful, freckles are gorgeous, killer curves, going grey naturally. Initial acceptance and eventual admiration of our quirks and individualities are the natural results of women’s empowerment.

So how have we got to this?

Butt Enhancer Shaper Silicone Panties

Our bodies are ours

I’m sure I could point fingers at where the templates come from for these tiny-waisted, massive-arsed silhouettes. I’m not going to, because it doesn’t matter where the example is set. My point isn’t that these shapes are inherently wrong.

My point is that who cares what shape our bodies are!

My body is pretty slim and boyish, and that’s fine. Your body might be hourglass shaped, that’s OK. You body might be round and squidgy, that’s absolutely perfect.

Why are we being sold these “solutions” to make our bodies into something they aren’t?

Undermining

There is nothing anyone can do to make my body into that hourglass shape and I don’t like the feeling that I ought to want to be that shape. I don’t want to. All these ideas about how a “perfect” body – whether its tiny or curvy, fair skinned, or blemish free – will lead to happiness are just a bunch of crap. Our happiness doesn’t depend on the number on the scales or the tags on our clothes, or on the ratio of our “vital statistics”.

Paying attention to, or worse being influenced by, these ideas of the perfect body undermine all that hard work for equality and fairness.

</rant>

Published by Smelly Socks and Garden Peas

Rants, rambles, loss, gin, guests, recipes, funny kids, occasional poems, and a bit of running.

56 thoughts on “Modern day corsets”

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  4. This is such an interesting read! I have naturally got quite an hour glass figure but I would never dream of using a corset and my man wouldn’t know what one was if it slapped him in the face. Society needs to change when it comes to how female bodies are seen and treated!

    Rosie

    loverosiee.co.uk

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  5. Pingback: Modern day corsets – With Brave wings she flys

  7. I’m with you here. I have a mombod, I can’t go back to my pre-pregnancy body, and I don’t really care anymore! We need to learn how to love our bodies!

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  8. It’s crazy how the media paints the perfect shape to us and causes insecurities and comparison with young women because they feel they don’t have the perfect shape or look and it’s crazy because we are perfect the way we are. There’s no need for butt enhancer or any other.

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  9. It’s definitely ridiculous how many advertisements there are out there on this and it’s so sad that this kind of mentality continues to be pushed throughout media.

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  10. All these are marketing efforts, in line with what body shape goes to the front cover of the magazines, TV ads, billboards, and all that sort. And so if this affects one’s confidence, she will be inclined to do everything in this world to achieve that body shape. Or maybe sometimes, on special occasions you want to fold some curves. Trust me! I can’t breathe well, nor eat well and enjoy the party with that corset! Who cares?!!!

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  11. Great post!
    My personal opinion: Should it be advertised and putting pressure to look a certain type of way…no.

    However, I buy a lot of Colombiana corsets and the underwear and bra…why? Because I am a mom of 4 girls who were all born at 10lbs. My body has been through the ringer…now do I feel pressured to have this kind of body that’s advertised? No, but I do want to love the way I look, yes! I do it for me because I love me and I want to be happy. I am not looking to have an hour glass figure to fit into some image, I am looking for a happy medium. I don’t ever expect to have “My body back”, but I do look forward to feeling good about how I look.

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    1. Brilliant! I’m glad you have a way of feeling good about your body. I’m not complaining about folks doing what they need to feel comfortable in themselves, just about these extreme adverts for turning our bodies into an unnatural shape that no one could ever possibly have without them.
      (PS 10lb babies are a killer! My second was 9lb10 and that was bad enough. You’re a goddess!)

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  13. I 100% agree with everything you’ve said in this post! It makes me so angry to see these adverts as it just feeds into this constant pressure that women have to look a certain way. That body shaped genuinely looks like it could do some damage – it can’t be good for your organs to be squished into that!

    http://www.samsnacks.com | SamSnacksUK

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  14. WOW I haven’t seen ads for this but omg! All of this is so unnecessary and damaging to how we as women see ourselves and others. Our bodies do not deserve that kind of torture

    Liked by 1 person

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  15. I haven’t seen any ads like these. I’m so surprised people are out there buying them. More power to people if they want one, but I agree with you. My body is perfectly fine the way it is.

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  16. You are so right! It is ridiculous how many of these types of products there are. Shockingly in my late teens, I used to wear something similar because I was very conscious of the weight I’d put on (I’d gone from a size 8 to a 10 eye rolls at myself) and guess what? I ended up causing myself physical pain. There’s a reason that women don’t wear corsets anymore – because they squish all of your organs together and can cause irreparable damage.

    And like you said, all bodies are perfect. There’s no one size fits all and its so toxic that that mentality is pushed on us our entire lives. Will it ever change? I’m not sure. But it’s shocking that it’s even allowed given how strict our consumer and advertising standards supposedly are? Sigh. So yeah, 100% with you on this.

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  18. I agree, it feels like we have two ends of the spectrum colliding – talk about a confusing message for young women everywhere!! If we are going to back the idea that EVERY body is beautiful (which I believe that we should), we have to stop trying to push the idea of an ideal. That being said, I’m cool with corsets, for example, being made available for those who may feel a connection to that time period or that it fits their style – but it should be because they WANT that not because they are made to feel that they NEED it.

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  19. I couldn’t agree with you more! Gosh as if their very existence alone was not infuriating enough, I cannot fathom how celebrities actually go on to promote these ‘waist trainers’ to their young, impressionable audience who may not realise that these simply cannot be good for you and promote a warped message about women’s body image. Thank you for sharing!

    Gabija | EveryLittleThing Blog

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  20. I totally agree with you. It’s shoved in our faces that majority of our bodies are wrong and need to be fixed and that’s what’s wrong and unhealthy.

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  21. Seriously, does anyone actually wear that?! Of course it wouldn’t suit me anyway but they look like they are just pushing bits where they really shouldn’t be. Glad to be a man sometimes!

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  23. Literally what the hell are these products! So sad theres a market for them in this day and age! I believe in self-love all the way ❤ and finding the way to love the body you are in ❤

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  24. LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS!!! Why do women feel they have to conform to someone else’s ideal of what their body should look like? We should be encouraging acceptance! I can’t believe this is even a thing. I am so glad my daughters aren’t into this kind of stuff. They must take after me because there is no way in HELL I would wear one of those things.

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    1. Thank you so much. I think it’s a slippery slope from the every day push up bras, hair dye and high heels, to false eye lashes and tattooed eye brows, fillers and fake tan and then these sorts of things and surgery. I have no problem wanted to feel like I look nice, just not to this sort of extreme.

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      1. I agree. It’s great to want to look nice and care about your appearance. But, when you put yourself through pain and possible risk to your health, you need to stop and think about what you’re doing and wny!

        Liked by 1 person

  26. I agree.
    I would rather stick pins in my eyes than wear those corsets!
    It’s the 21st Century, for God’s sake, not the 19th!! Women in those days became deformed because of wearing them. 😠

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  27. Absolutely agree with you! I won’t ever wear any of this stuff and if anybody has a problem they can kiss my (fat) uncorsetted ass 😀

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  28. So sad that many people seem to think that it’s no harm if the female body goes through this kind of tortures. Even sadder that some (or many?) of those people are women themselves. I honestly do not get it!

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  30. Absolutely agree with you! Why would we torture ourselves with these contraptions. I am happy and proud to say I definitely do not want or need arse-enhancing pants!🤣

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