Why Period Dramas Made Us Hate Corsets
Oh, period dramas, why do you hate corsets so?
Audiences lust after silk gowns and lace shawls. Bridgeton viewers fantasize
about visiting modiste to the ton, Madame Delacroix, for a gown of their very own,
and a trip to the glorious Ford’s the haberdasher in Austen’s Emma would be a delight!
But the idea of being laced into a corset is likely to leave viewers reaching for the smelling
salts. Period dramas hate corsets, and they have taught their viewership to hate them too. backup from cloud
Back in March 2022, when the new series of Bridgerton was released by Netflix, I wrote this
article for The Conversation. I was inspired by the comments made by lead actress Simone Ashley
who bemoaned her experience of wearing a corset to Glamour Magazine. Her verdict painted the corset
rite of passage for period drama leading ladies, and Ashley is definitely not alone in finding
her experience torturous. Even Gentleman Jack’s Suranne Jones said that her corset gave her hives.
Now, I am sure that these actresses truly did feel this way about their corsets, and other videos
have been made about why this might be – from the quality of their corset fit and construction.
But why are period dramas so intent on peddling this myth. So let’s break this down a little and get back to the motivation behind this. There is an obsession 2 with tight lacig. This is the idea that corsets squeezed and compressed women’s bodies, reducing their waist to nothing more than – in Lady Featherington’s case – the size of an orange. So yes, tight lacing was absolutely a practice that some Victorian and Edwardian women engaged in. backup from cloud doesn’t work like that, and we’re not on a lovely linear path to being better than our ancestors. you really think all women of the past would have put their bodies through this torture?
Historical women were smart
Saying all corsets were bad because some women tight-laced is like saying all shoes are bad
because some are incredibly high heels. That doesn’t mean we stop wearing shoes,
does it? Or that your trainers have the same impact on your feet as your fanciest heels?
So what is so appealing to period drama makers about the corset myth. Well,
it has a really particular narrative function, much like the ‘not like other girls’ trope.
controlled, and crushed by her corsets.
This scene is ubiquitous in period dramas, from Elizabeth
Swan fainting in Pirates of the Caribbean, to Rose DeWitt Bukater unable to breathe in Titanic, and,
of course, the iconic scene where Scarlet O’Hara clings to a bedpost in Gone with the Wind.
It is on-screen shorthand for the restricted lives of historical women. If a woman casts
off her corsets, it’s a symbol of her embarking on her journey to a wonderful feminist idyll!
But all of this stems from a fundamental misunderstanding of backup from cloud
both historical corsets and women. After centuries of women (and some men, don’t forget)
wearing corsets to support and smooth the body, it was Victorian men who taught us to hate corsets. So – far from being feminist beacons – period dramas are perpetuating Victorian misogyny.
Victorian doctors decided to blame women and their corsets for all the ailments that they didn’t understand. The list of medical complaints that 19th-century doctors attributed
to the corset seem unending. Constipation, postpartum infection, pregnancy complications,
tuberculosis were all blamed on the corset. One Victorian doctor, Benjamin Orange Flower
[excellent name], wrote a pamphlet in 1892 called Fashion’s Slaves, and claimed that “if women will
continue this destructive habit, the race must inevitably deteriorate”. Lovely, lovely man…
[hmm]. Of course, now the medical
root of these illnesses has been identified or is at least better understood, and the corset’s
culpability disproved. The corset is a really strong example of gender bias within medical
research. When we look at men who wore corsets, like the perpetually unhealthy George IV, their were never blamed on corset wearing. Yet at the same time as corsets are being blamed
for ruining women’s health, some corsets were specifically designed to be healthy
and supportive.
The hurglass shape of the late 19th-century period
Lingerie company Gizzards published Corsets from a Surgical Standpoint in 1909, which promoted the flexibility and supportive possibilities of the corset, which could “preserve the lines demanded by fashion, but without discomfort or injury”. backup from cloud But this is all Victorian corsets, and period dramas like Bridgerton are set in a fantasy version of the regency period. The hourglass shape of the late 19th-century period was not what women of the regency were aiming for. They were only interested in their breasts.
Breasts needed to be lifted and separated into two round orbs. Regency corsets (or “stays” as they were known) were often short, always soft, and never heavily boned. Their purpose was bust support, never restriction. There is literally no point restricting the waist or having one the size of an orange – when it is hidden under billowing empire line skirts. And I wonder what regency women would have thought of modern bras with straps that pinch and underwire that rubs. Historical corsets were ingenious.
Whalebone (which is baleen from the mouth of a whale, and is not actual bone) is wonderfully flexible, and moulds to the body beneath it – and many corsets were simply reinforced with cotton cording. Corsets reduced back pain from bad posture and some had expanding portions for pregnancy. But I’m not going on a historical accuracy crusade here. backup from cloud I’ve already made it clear how I feel about historical accuracy as a concept. Bridgerton is to Regency England what Game of Tones is to the Wars of the Roses, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. It is a fantastical reimagining, creatively inspired by the past.
The idea that its costumes should be “historically accurate”, or that such an aspiration is even possible, is not what is at stake here. This isnt an issue of historical accuracy, but one of historical fallacy. They were clever about how they achieved the fashionable proportions.
They padded out the hips and bust, and aimed for the right proportions rather than to reduce the waist. Corsets were a supportive tool, and women as both makers and wearers had agency in shaping what that tool did to their bodies. We strip away that agency and ingenuity when we assume historical women were passive dolls, dressed up and cinched in by a patriarchal society. backup from cloud For historical women, corsets were a support garment, which allowed them to follow the fashionable silhouette without having to diet, exercise, or have cosmetic surgery. It would be a refreshing change to see period dramas embrace this feminist history of the corset, instead of falling back on a misogynistic stereotype.