DIANA RINGO: I get into my corset everyday, part of my beauty routine and it just makes
me feel gorgeous.
DIANA RINGO: Well, I started corset training after having twins and I became a little bit
unhappy because I didn’t have the curves that I thought I used to have. So, I started
with the waist trainers. Once I got a little bit of a good result, I fell in love with
them and I just kept reducing my waist size.
COMM: This is 39-year-old Diana Ringo. This veteran mother of three has a waist that measures
a minuscule 18 inches when she's wearing her corset.
DIANA RINGO: I wear my corsets around twenty three to twenty three and a half hours unless
I go to the gym or taking a shower, obviously. If you put it on to too tight you can experience
a little bit of numbing.You can experience some nerves telling you, ‘Hey! You gotta
get it off or you gotta loosen it.’ I come from a very poor background. I would say,
you know, I lived in the ghetto. And it was difficult making ends meet and the military
helped me take care of my son. It gave me a lot of benefits. I travelled a lot. You
know, I experienced different things.
DIANA RINGO: When I have my corset on, it makes me feel so sexy. I naturally felt sexy
but it just boosted my self-esteem a lot more. It just makes me feel good.
DIANA RINGO: My family is torn between it’s okay and some think I am going to die today,
maybe tomorrow. I do value their opinion but I ultimately have to live with myself and
the decisions I make are to make myself happy.
BRETT RINGO: First I was very sceptical, very nervous, concerned but gotten used to it over
the last couple of years and with the reassurance from her doctor, I am, I am okay with it.
DIANA RINGO: Some parents think I am a bad example. But my job isn’t to take care of
their children. My job is to take care of mine.
DIANA RINGO: I don’t think my kids think anything of it. I think they don’t care.
I am not worried at all about giving my boys negative self-image. I think that they are
going to grow up like manly men. They have their father to look up to. I am just their mom.
CARMEN WINCHESTER: I am going to grab here like this, like a cup.
CARMEN WINCHESTER: I was clinching. I was like, ‘This is too much.’ But it looks
like you can breathe and you can handle it. Can you dance with it?
DIANA RINGO: I can do it.
CARMEN WINCHESTER: You can do it? Then it’s okay.
DIANA RINGO: This is Carmen. She is one of my best friends. I know her from my navy days.
I got her to try one.
CARMEN WINCHESTER: Yeah! And I felt pretty and I felt tall and I felt, I felt like I
had a waistline. I only wear it occasionally. Like, if I have a dress that I want to fit
in, then I do it. But she does it 24/7 honestly. It’s something that you have to get used
to doing it. It changes the way that you sit, the way that you bend down to pick up something.
It’s kind of, like constantly having somebody hug you.
DIANA RINGO: Yeah. It’s restrictive.
DIANA RINGO: I like this. Like, I love this.
CARMEN WINCHESTER: If it makes you feel like, powered. More power to you.
DIANA RINGO: On the street I get things like, ‘What the fudge?’ or, ‘Oh my god!’
And then I get some people that are like, ‘Oh my god! How did you do that? I want
to do that.’ I am used to it now though.
WOMAN: I think it’s somewhat bad, not completely bad. But I do think it’s somewhat bad because
you know, you are tightening all your insides, not letting the regular, normal flow of your
intestines, all your intestines to work the way they should.
MAN: So, I think she is sexy.
DIANA RINGO: Or crazy.
MAN: Or crazy. I would side with sexy over crazy. I think that would probably be the
thinnest waist I have ever seen.
WOMAN: Does it hurt? It’s the only thing I would wonder.
DIANA RINGO: No. After a while, my body just got used to it.
WOMAN: I think it’s different. But I don’t think, I don’t know. I just feel like people
should do whatever they want to, no matter what.
DIANA RINGO: Do you want to touch it?
WOMAN: Yeah!
DIANA RINGO: I don’t only get hate when I wear corsets out.
DIANA RINGO: I can breathe properly in my corset. I just can’t take tremendous full
breaths while I am wearing it and nobody lives their lives taking tremendous full breaths.
BRETT RINGO: I don’t think she has taken it too far because we have an agreement that
she is not going to go any smaller. The training has increased her self-confidence and that's
you know, that’s okay.
BRETT RINGO: I would say, ‘A happy wife, a happy life.’ So, this makes her happy.
DIANA RINGO: This is important to me because it makes me feel good. It makes me feel sexy
and if I feel good and I am happy I, I go with that.