Corset controversy

The corset controversy was a moral panic and public health concern around corsets in the 19th century.
Corsets, variously called a pair of bodys or stays, were worn by European women from the late 16th century onward, changing their form as fashions changed. In spite of radical change to fashion geographically and temporally, the corset or some derivative beneath an outer gown shaped the body or provided structure.
There were brief periods in which corsetry was not part of mainstream fashion. In the 1790s, there was an abrupt change to fashion as the Empire silhouette became fashionable. During the following Regency era, the highly supportive corsets of the early Georgian era were dismissed in favor of short garments worn primarily to support the breasts, leaving the waist and hips in their natural shape.
Beginning in the mid-1820s, women's fashion returned to the full skirts of the prior century. In a repudiation of the Empire silhouette, the waist became the central focus of female dress and the corset evolved to encompass the waist and hips. In addition, the advent of steel boning, clasps, and eyelets allowed wearers to lace their corsets tighter than ever before without damaging them. Doctors and much of the press deplored the garment in spite of continued use.

Media

Wearing corsets has been subject to criticism since the era of tight lacing during the prior early 18th century. Jean-Jacques Rousseau denounced the practice in The Lancet, while cartoons of the period satirized the practice. However, by the 19th century, women were writing letters to publications expressing their views directly and articulately. The one-sided denunciation of the past turned into a dialogue. 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. Newspapers and popular journals became the media for the exchange of hundreds of letters and articles concerning the corset.
Known as the "corset controversy" or the "corset question", the controversy spilled over multiple publications, countries and decades. Of particular concern was the issue of tight lacing. 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. However, the issue surfaced long before and continued long afterward. Throughout this period, advertisements in the same publications promoted the sale of corsets with enthusiasm.
In the United Kingdom, publications in which the controversy raged included The Times, The Lancet, Queen, The Scotsman, Ladies Treasury, The Englishwomen's Domestic Magazine, and All the Year Round. In the United States, the Chicago Tribune commented that English journalists discussed both sides of the controversy "with very great fervor and very little common sense," though it published its own contributions. Other American newspapers and periodicals also participated, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, the Hartford Daily Courant, the North American Review, and The Saint Paul Daily Globe. Other parts of the English-speaking world joined from time to time, reprinting articles from England and America, as well as contributing their own. Even provincial newspapers such as the Amador Ledger of California, the Hobart Town Courier, the Otago Witness, and the Timaru Herald of New Zealand had their say.
This eruption of published discourse on this topic was a break from propriety norms at the time; particularly noted was the series of "corset correspondence" in The Englishwomen's Domestic Magazine, which ran from 1867 to 1874. This volume of correspondence has become influential in later perception of the practice of tightlacing, and corset usage in general, although doubt has been cast on the veracity of the letters, which were submitted anonymously. In this series of letters, a number of extreme tightlacing practices were described in salacious detail, including use of corsetry as punishment, resulting in waist sizes as low as 13 inches.

Criticism

The line between wearing corsets in general and tight lacing in particular was never drawn precisely. Many detractors denounced both, obviating the distinction, while many advocates endorsed both. Additionally, many women who wore corsets denied that they tight-laced, adding confusion to the controversy. The West Coast Times wrote that "consequences of tight lacing are universally admitted," yet ladies' denial persisted. They preferred to claim that their small waist was "a gift of Nature" and that they wear a corset for "comfortable, if not necessary support."
Although the discussion around this topic ran to the extremes at times, ultimately most agreed that some degree of corseting was beneficial and necessary, as women's bodies were believed to be weaker than men's. However, the degree of reduction and the regimen used to achieve the reduction were highly controversial, with many doctors blaming mothers for pushing their daughters to corset too early or too tightly, and many mothers bemoaning their daughters' insistence in tightlacing despite their warnings. Few openly claimed to tightlace; the accounts from The Englishwomen's Domestic Magazine of proud tightlacing practitioners drew much ire and controversy. Only a few argued that corsets should be entirely discarded.

Corsets and fashion

The dominant aesthetic of the mid-nineteenth century called for full skirts. Prior to the common wearing of the crinoline, several petticoats were worn in order to provide this fullness. A corset, used to constrict the waist and create slenderness, also accentuated a full skirt through comparison.
The Saint Paul Daily Globe wrote of corsetry:
There were countless denunciations. Fashions that required a tiny waist were deemed oppressive. One such appeared in the Chicago Tribune:
Yet some women professed to enjoy the practice. A letter to the Boston Globe reads:
A reader wrote to The Toronto Daily Mail insisting that only those who had experienced tight lacing could understand its pleasures
The editor of the "Women's Chats" section of the West Australian advocated "tight lacing in moderation"
A corsetiere described how women might attain the desired waist size

Medical criticism

Many doctors railed against the practice of tight lacing as decidedly harmful. Some women responded to their claims, saying that tight lacing was actually beneficial as well as enjoyable, but most women didn't agree and found tight lacing impractical since they had to work. Others cited their own negative experiences with the practice. The following exchange, which took place over ten days in 1869 in the pages of The Times of London, gives a flavor of the discourse that volleyed back and forth for decades. The exchange was initiated by a note in the British medical journal, The Lancet, which was reprinted in The Times.
A reader signing herself "Not a Girl of the Period" wrote a letter to The Times in reply
A reader, signing herself "Anti-Slavery" countered
The Lancet felt compelled to reply as well, expanding on its medical arguments
Other readers wrote to extol the virtues of tight lacing
The distinguished anatomist William Henry Flower in 1881 published a book demonstrating by text and illustrations the deformities caused to female anatomy by corsets. This did not prevent his wife and four daughters from wearing them.

Mothers and daughters

Women were expected to wear corsets, and introducing daughters to the practice was considered part of a mother's duty. Just how and when might depend on the mother, the daughter, the place, and the time. However, some things were much the same everywhere. Three examples, one from the American frontier of 1880, another from London in 1907, and a third from 1883 are variations on the theme.
Laura Ingalls Wilder was an American author who wrote a series of children's books based on her childhood in a pioneer family. Little Town on the Prairie is set in 1880 in South Dakota in an area recently settled. Despite being on the frontier, the women were expected to behave according to the norms of the times. Its 1941 publication date takes it out of the "discussion" period, but as it was written as a children's book for girls, its account is unlikely to be spurious or a fantasy, so it serves as a reliable testament of some of the more curious practices such as sleeping in corsets.
The family had four daughters, Mary, Laura, Carrie, and Grace, the youngest. Mary, the eldest, tries on a dress that is found not to fit until her corset is laced more tightly, leading to the following exchange:
Readers wrote to The Gentlewoman describing personal experiences with tight lacing. For example,
In publishing this and other letters, the editor of The Gentlewoman admonished the writers:
There was no shortage of others who condemned mothers and daughters who participated in the practice. For example:

Childhood

In some cases, mothers started their daughters wearing corsets in early childhood. The New York Times described the practice in its Fashion section.
An account from a young lady reads:
Mothers wrote letters describing their version of the practice. The following, published in the English periodical Queen, is typical.
Another letter, in the Boston Globe, is similar:

Teenage years

Mothers typically put their daughters into serious corsets in their teens or sometimes in the pre-teens. Some were uncertain as to when and how to begin tight lacing. They sought advice in their local newspapers, giving rise to heated discussions. One such exchange took place in the pages of the Toronto Daily Mail, from April to June 1883, in the Saturday section, "Women's Kingdom".
A reader signing herself, "Corset", inquired:
The next Saturday, "Staylace" offered her experience:
A few weeks later, "Staylace" submitted excerpts from her niece's diary from the prior year.
Girls would seek relief from their stays at night and mothers would seek to prevent it. One reader, signing herself "Mother", wrote
"Kingston" offered her remedy:
"Common Sense" offered her own alternative:
Other readers took strong exception to these extreme measures. One expressed her indignation, while describing her own daughter's wearing corsets from the age of eleven, but in the "daytime only":
Another objected entirely to corsets until the very end of the teens:
Other newspapers carried similar accounts. In fashionable London, tight lacing of teen aged daughters was a serious affair. The New York Times wrote:

School

In fashionable society, a girl was expected to have a suitably small waist. Girls' schools were preparation for society and some headmistresses treated that attainment as part of the girls' schooling. As the girl was not yet an adult, her opinion was not considered. A reader wrote to the editors of The Science of Health describing her experience.
The West Australian printed excerpts from the diary of a school girl describing how figure training was accomplished.
How I shall be able to eat and move about I can't think; but Madge O—, who left last term, and who was that size, said you feel awfully smart, and, in fact rather a pleasant sensation when you get used to the pulling in.
Three letters form a thread that illustrates the volleying back and forth. The first was written by a mother, surprised that the school acted on its own.
The daughter herself continued the account. Rather than deplore the practice, her remarkable conclusion was that tight lacing should be started at an early age.
A woman signing herself as a schoolmistress defended the practice as an "elegant article of dress". Her solution agreed with that of the young lady, commencing the practice at an early age.
One young lady looked back upon the practice with affection. Today, one might read these accounts with skepticism, but contemporary advertisements describe corsets as small as 15 inches.
That tight-lacing was enjoyable is a recurring theme. Dress historian David Kunzle theorized that some enthusiastic fans of tightlacing may have experienced sexual pleasure when tightlacing, or by rubbing against the front of the corset, which contributed to the moral outrage against the practice, although such issues could not be discussed openly due to the propriety standards of the time.
The following is an example of one fan of tightlacing:
Others were proud of their training and saw it as the source of a fine accomplishment;
However, other young ladies recalled the practice with little fondness.

Marriage

There are many articles admonishing girls to abjure the custom of tight lacing and assuring them that no man they would want to marry had any interest in small waists. Typical of these is:
Another, entitled "The Absurdity of the Custom as Well as the Effect upon the Health of Slaves to the Fashion", begins:
Other articles suggested more dire consequences. A "Doctor Lewis" wrote
Although precisely what was meant from this warning is impossible to ascertain, reformist and activist Catharine Beecher was one of the few to defy propriety norms and discuss the gynecological issues resulting from lifelong corset usage, in particular uterine prolapse:

distortion brings upon woman peculiar distress: The pressure of the whole superincumbent mass on the pelvic or lower organs induces sufferings proportioned in acuteness to the extreme delicacy and sensitiveness of the parts thus crushed. And the intimate connection of these organs with the brain and whole nervous system renders injuries thus inflicted the causes of the most extreme anguish, both of body and mind. This evil is becoming so common, not only among married women, but among young girls, as to be a just cause for universal alarm.

Whatever the doctors and reformists might say, young ladies would lace down in preparation for their wedding, as evidenced by contemporary photographs. Moreover, some women laced down after their marriage to please husbands who fancied the practice. One such wife wrote:
These, with the assistance of my maid, I put on, and managed the first day to lace my waist in to eighteen inches.
A ladies maid recounted a similar situation:
A husband who fancied the practice wrote:

Fashion establishments

Girls working in "fashion establishments", as they were then called, wore corsets to suit the dictates of their employers. Tiny waists were required of employees to sell the then-current fashions, much as size zero models are frequently used in fashion shows today.
The editor of "The Ladies Page" of The Western Mail wrote
Fashion establishments were much the same in Paris:
The practice was described by a shopgirl:
Various writers condemned the practice, for example:
Another wrote:
One such shop girl certainly had her objections:

The dress reform movement

Advocates of dress reform deplored the impractical and restrictive fashions of the time. The bloomer dress was a mid-century attempt at rational clothing for women. It attracted considerable ridicule in the press and relatively few adopters. Other attempts at dress reform fared no better.
Various dress reformers turned to the printing press. In 1873, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward wrote:
Louisa May Alcott devoted Chapter 18 of her 1875 young adult fiction, Eight Cousins, to advocating for dress reform in the form of the "freedom suit," which is described as being different from and more socially acceptable than bloomers. The young main character, Rose Campbell, is under the guardianship of her physician uncle Alec. However, her aunt Clara wishes Rose to dress appropriately to her position as an heiress, and one day gives her a fashionable outfit to try. Rose ultimately rejects it in favor of Alec's freedom suit, consisting of close-fitting pantaloons and shirt under a long-skirted petticoat and dress. Earlier in the novel, Rose had been wearing a tight belt to keep her waist small, which Alec insisted she stop doing for the sake of her health. When Clara tries to convince her to wear a corset, Alec is furious.
But dress reform had little mainstream impact. Fashion continued to emphasize the waist and, so long as it did, the corset continued to be regarded as an indispensable of dress. An unusually perceptive reformer described the situation in an address to the National Christian League in 1895. Her speech was reported in The New York Times:
It seemed that change would be glacially slow at best. A year later, The New York Times wrote:

End of the controversy

From 1908 to 1914, the fashionable narrow-hipped and narrow-skirted silhouette necessitated the lengthening of the corset at its lower edge. A new type of corset covered the thighs and changed the position of the hip, making the waist appear higher and wider. The new fashion was considered uncomfortable, cumbersome, and furthermore required the use of strips of elastic fabric. The development of rubberized elastic materials in 1911 helped the girdle replace the corset. This was the huge turnaround for the history of the waist trainer.
The corset controversy changed in the early 20th century when the world of fashion circled back to styles reminiscent of the Empire silhouette. Fashionable dress was fluid and soft, with flowing lines. What rational dress reform was unable to accomplish in decades of rhetoric, the wheel of changing fashion brought about almost overnight. The waist became unimportant and the waist-restricting corset lost its significance.
Paul Poiret was a leader in this movement. He replaced the corset with the hobble skirt, which, while equally restrictive, was different and thus readily adopted in an era eager for change. In his autobiography, Poiret wrote
The hobble skirt lasted but a few years, but its adoption marked the beginning of the end. Other designers such as Madeleine Vionnet, Mariano Fortuny, and Coco Chanel soon followed with simple comfortable fashions that freed the entire woman. With their adoption into mainstream fashion, the corset controversy receded into a historical curiosity while the controversy about bras had just begun.