Essay on Women’s friend: The Popularity of Shapewear

John King Fairbank, the renowned scholar of Chinese history from Harvard, in his essay ‘Footbinding’ talks in detail about the social malaise that dominated Chinese society for almost 1000 years. He says, “Foot binding spread as a mark of gentility and upper class status” and was a means to “preserve female chastity.” But I agree with his opinion that it was ultimately the manifestation of the oppression of women. Since ancient times, women in China were considered chattels, born to serve the men in their lives, their fathers, brothers, husbands then sons. Foot binding was a custom started possibly during the reign of the T’ang dynasty to reinforce their subjugation.

Fatema Mernissi’s essay “Size 6: The Western Women’s Harem” shares her experience when she enters a department store in New York and is told she is too big when she can’t find a skirt her size. After being told she is too big, Mernissi continues on to question the sales lady. The sales lady then tells her that being a size six is a “normal” size. Immediately, it is noticeable that Mernissi isn’t too fond with the sales lady comment. The theme in Mernissi’s essay is the idea of women accepting the fact that men and society tell them how they should look in order for them to be beautiful. For example in the essay Mernissi questions as to why women accept this and how exactly does this work. By this, Mernissi shows her concern as to why women not only accept it, but also practice it.

Fashion is very important in modern day society, and can be seen all around. Most of what people know about fashion today came from the fashion during the renaissance. From the vibrant fabrics to the spectacular jewels, renaissance fashion has been thoroughly threaded in the fashion of modern society. Modern day women often wear shorty, fun gowns, tightly fitting jeans, and lower cut tops. Popular fashion trends for men in modern society include saggy jeans, V-neck shirts, and stylish watches. “A fashion is merely a form of ugliness so unbearable that we are compelled to alter it every six months” (Oscar Wilde). Fashion in modern day society is ever changing, but most changes do not stray too far from the original product.

One important date in the history of the corset was the year 1840. This was the year in which the system called ‘lazy lacing’ was invented, in which a set of elastic laces allowed women to easily put on, and remove their corsets. Women had now predominantly taken over from the specialized work of crafting corsets, and were made ahead of time, creating the beginning of ‘ready to wear’ During this era, corsets became more specialized, corsets ranged from ‘nuptial corsets, corsets made of white satin for the ball, lightly boned morning corsets, stayless corsets for night wear, nursing corsets with drawbridge gussets, travelling corsets with tabs that could be let out at night for sleeping, riding corsets with elastic at the hips; corsets for singing, for dancing, for bathing at the seaside’ and the list of possible variations went on. As

The Victorian Era depicted a traditional woman. Women were expected to be beautiful but conservative. A notable fashion piece to mention is the notorious corset. Krystal D’Souza states that corsets were meant to, “… accentuate a woman's breasts and hips, while cinching the body at the waist, and dramatically curving the back” (D'Souza). The corset was created to slim the waist and make the hips and bottom larger. This was meant to create the ideal, “Hour glass shape,” women were expected to have. In the Victorian Era, dresses were worn all the time and the skirt length had to be passed the ankles. Pagoda sleeves were essential to dresses to cover shoulders and high necklines were made to cover the women’s neck and décolletage. If the skirts were not touching the floor, skirts were closely worn over the hip and flared out just above the knee. (Joshi). The Victorian Age signifies a time period where women had to follow stringent dress codes. The thought of showing any feminine flesh was un-lady like and unrespectable. (Alchin “Women

Women's fashion had undergone many characteristic modifications prior to 1750 and more so into the eighteenth century. Fashion trends were being set in the Old World, from France to England, and Colonial women were all too painfully aware of the need to adapt towards a sophisticated and up-to-date appearance.

With the return of Confucian ideals, and the rise of literati scholars, women began to dress differently. They would use clothing, hair and makeup to draw attention to the differences between genders, often attributed to the fact that literati scholars had a more feminine appearance. This attempt to differentiate genders was taken to the extreme with the introduction of footbinding. This practice created the idea that a woman with small feet was delicate, diminutive and beautiful, which followed the already pre-set notion that beauty was in part because of demureness and attentiveness (s.t.g. 38-41). Not only that, but by changing a woman’s foot, men were able to physically render women different than them, while also making it more difficult (painful) to leave their inner sphere within the home.

The neckline of the corsets ranged from high neck to very low.” It goes to show the extent of craftsmanship that took place in creating the ‘perfect’ body for women. This fashion trend was seen all throughout Western Europe during the 17th, 18th and 19th century, today through paintings one can see that even some of the most aristocratic women of the time such as Queen Mary II, advocated for a

Corset waist training with its modern design and benefits has improved postures of many giving them the slimming effect and a raised bust line and a curved silhouette for the most tantalizing look. It is a much demanded product especially for the waist training flat stomach benefit that is applicable for women of all age groups. It is an impressive shape wear that is beneficial by all women around the world who use it and also recommend others to use it too. Quoting the words of a very pleased

Since perhaps around the tenth or eleventh century (the exact date is unknown), foot binding was a very common practice in China to modify the shape of women’s feet. The process began at a young age; the mothers and aunts would apply tight binding to the feet of their young girls. This practice became very popular for all social classes during the Song Dynasty. This was a symbol of elegance and beauty in Chinese culture.

First in the 1900-1910, girdles and corsets were popular. Corsets were articles of clothing that you would wear underneath your dress, that you would wrap around your waist and yank tight to give the impression of a teeny tiny waist. “The perfect fit” for a dress was designed to put a womans torso ーwhich had been tightly corsetedー on center stage, they were the most prominent thing. Women could barely

To achieve the hourglass figure, women in early 1800s to the 1900s turned to sculpting the waist with steel bone corsets. Tightlacing with corsets is very harmful and can cause bruising and pain; as a consequence, the ribcage and internal organs are moved inwardly closer together causing the unnatural displacement of the organs. Countless illnesses are associated with tightlacing such as tuberculosis, liver disease, and cancer (Caeleigh, 1998). Corseting is described as terribly contorted and self-mutilation, constituted as a desirable quality to play the submissive-masochistic role to please men (Riordan,

Many years ago the sign of feminine beauty was small feet. To accomplish this goal many women would bind their feet. Foot binding is an extremely excruciating custom from Asia and went from 970 AD to the 1950’s. For 1,000 years foot binding was considered the standard of feminine beauty.

What they don’t see, however, is all the damage happening inside. Corsets can restrict breathing, bruise and even force inner organs out of alignment. They also compress the stomach and lungs, and can deform the bodies of growing teenagers as it was frowned upon for girls at the age of 14 and up to not be wearing full corsets.

Wearing a corset is a great way of losing weight, it instantly takes inches off the waistline boosting confidence, which in turn helps the wearer persevere with their diet and waist training. However, its important to corset train properly! There's no point making yourself uncomfortable by lacing too tight too soon. You can get back pains, stomach cramps and occasionally faint if your