Of course, everyone has heard of the horrors of historical corsetry in modern media, especially corsets of the Victorian era. All too famous scenes of Elizabeth Swann dramatically fainting from her restrictive 18th century stays in Pirates of the Caribbean or Scarlett O’Hara gripping her bedpost as Mammy yanks the laces tight on her corset in Gone With the Wind have convinced much of the population that surely, women must have fainted from the heavily structured death traps that certainly crushed ribs and induced fainting spells. And even disregarding modern media, there are sundry photographs of Victorian women with impossibly tiny waists, further proving that the female population once crammed their delicate torsos into medieval torture device-looking contraptions on the daily. Right?
Surprisingly, no. In fact, the “corsets were killers” myth is a modern fallacy conjured up by a storm of poorly constructed modern corsets, the cunning deception of Victorian women who strategically padded their dresses to their content, and old-timey Photoshop methods. Yes, Photoshop. The modern concept of waist slimming, skin smoothing, and altering of the human form in manipulated images actually was long ago employed by photographers of the 19th century, further confusing those living over 150 years later how women managed to have seemingly pencil-thin waists.
French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce took the world’s first permanent photograph in 1826. Though it would take about 15 years for this technology to become more widely available, by the 1840s and 50s, photography studios were popping up quickly in Europe and America. “Getting your portrait taken” became a commonality for the Western population, and as images trumped painted portraits in popularity due to their greater accessibility, photographers began to learn and widely apply photo manipulation techniques to their images throughout the late 1800s. Books regarding such techniques were published, such as A Complete Treatise on The Art of Retouching Photographic Negatives by Robert Johnson, published in 1898. In his work, Johnson describes in great depth how raw images, or negatives, of people could be altered to give the illusion of unwrinkled, flawless skin, delicately thin necks, sloped shoulders, and veinless hands. Such methods to achieve the desired photographic manipulation may have been the use of paint, oil pastels, or pencils to lighten shadows, erase blemishes, or extend the amount of negative space behind the subject. Such methods were surprisingly common, employed by a great many photographers towards the turn of the century.
When many Victorian portraits are observed, the evidence of photo manipulation becomes obvious upon inspection. Before and after images also exist, giving the modern population insight into the reality of Victorian faces and figures.
In addition to image manipulation, the clothing itself worn by Victorian women gave the illusion of thin waists and sloped shoulders, especially when the “S-bend” waist silhouette became popular in the 1890s. Strategic padding of the chest and hips, delicately tailored dresses, and frilly corset covers that accentuated the bust allowed women to achieve the swan-chested, wasp-waisted figure considered desirable at the time without cinching their corsets into oblivion.
So then… can the corset be let off the hook, or is there truth to the widespread claims of the fainting, skin chafing, shattered ribs, displaced organs, and inability to eat apparently caused by the garment? With the reconstruction of historical corsets, consideration of historical context, and research regarding the daily lives of 19th-century women, the accuracy of such claims crumbles. The Fashion Museum of Bath in England examined over 1000 Victorian dresses, compiling data on the waist sizes. The research concluded that the smallest waist size was 21.5 inches, but the average was around 26-29 inches: a far cry from the “18-inch waist” myth. Tightlacing to achieve a waist in the lower 20-inch range occurred quite rarely, considering the majority of the female population needed enough mobility to rear children, complete chores, work jobs, and perform day-to-day activities comfortably. Furthermore, to say merely putting on a corset caused fainting and breathing issues ignores the many women who were tennis players, cyclists, hockey players, mountaineers, archers, and fencers, who performed strenuous exercise all while wearing corsets- and not collapsing while doing so!
Corsets never were the death traps they are so often believed to be by the modern population; rather, they were an essential part of every woman’s wardrobe and meant for chest and back support. Each was tailored to comfortably fit the woman wearing it– not to squeeze, push, and flatten her body all in the name of beauty standards. Corsets have been criminalized by those of us in the modern era. But, when examining the evidence of photograph manipulation, the athletes, the actual waist sizes, and the lack of medical records naming the garment as an injury-causing culprit, the case against corsets proclaims their innocence.
Works Cited
“Exposing Victorian Influencers Who ‘Facetuned’ Their Photos. (Photo Manipulation was EVERYWHERE). YouTube, uploaded by Bernadette Banner, 17 July 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYGUfg_NJzg&t=472s.
“How Victorian Men Taught Us to Hate Corsets.” YouTube, uploaded by Karolina Zebrowska, 28 March 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNwTqanp0Aw&t=656s.
Johnson, Robert. “A Complete Treatise on the Art of Retouching Negatives.” HathiTrust. Retrieved 9 April 2022, from https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=gri.ark:/13960/t0rr3325w&view=2up&seq=1&skin=2021.
Settje, Cynthia. “That Waist! Photo Editing at the Turn of the Century.” Red Threaded, 13 June 2017. Retrieved 9 April 2022, from https://redthreaded.com/blogs/redthreaded/that-waist-photo-editing-at-the-turn-of-the-century.
“Victorian “Photoshop”: Portrait Manipulation.” Victorian Roses Ladies Riding Society, 23 May 2018. Retrieved 9 April 2022, from http://vrlrs.blogspot.com/2018/05/victorian-photoshop-portrait.html
“When Was Photography Invented? – Everything You Need To Know.” Nashville Film Institute. Retrieved 9 April, 2022, from https://www.nfi.edu/when-was-photography-invented/#:~:text=The%20French%20inventor%2C%20Joseph%20Nic%C3%A9phore,in%20the%20history%20of%20photography.