Beth: I was like [laughs and flails] a full minute of trying to do that.
Hello! I’m SnappyDragon, you can call me V, and here we do not like it when people
insist that corsets are patriarchal torture devices that prevented anyone who wore them
from getting off their chaise longe. While badly-fitting corsets absolutely can cause
pain and some Victorian celebrities did take corsetry to extremes (just like today), your
average historical person could certainly do manual labor in corsets or stays, because,
well, they had to. Running a house, keeping people fed, doing laundry, all used to be
very physical jobs and that’s what the vast majority of corset-wearers did.
So, Mariska of MarisArmoury issued CosTube a challenge : Put on your corset or stays,
and do something athletic or otherwise strenuous to prove it can be done. I asked the friends
I do circuit-training with if they’d mind me wearing a corset to one of our sessions
. . . and they insisted on joining in. We jokingly call this group “Get Wrecked”
because when we started last year that’s about how we felt after . . . So three of
us will be doing one of our normal workouts each in a different type of corset, plus a
fourth person with no corset for comparison. This was a bit of a bear to film with all
the camera angles, and we did have some technical difficulties that cost us some of our sound
quality. You have my apologies, and you can always turn on the captions if you need them!
Without further ado . . . let’s go get wrecked. V: Hello Bruiser!
Beth: Oh-ho, he heard his name! [laughs]
V: Hello! I'm V! I'm the reason we're all doing this ridiculous thing. I would say I'm,
like, moderately athletic. I, I do dance, I do this a couple times a week, I walk lots
of places and and I am wearing— I’ll move over so I can display it properly. Um, I am
wearing a a mock-up of what is probably closest to an 1890s, almost turn of the century corset,
that I have constructed out of twill tape and unbleached cotton canvas and cable tie
bones, to make sure it doesn’t hurt! So this is probably going to be a real good way
of testing whether that’s a thing.
Julie: I'm Julie! I'm wearing this! it's relatively comfy for a corset.
V: I will fill in : Julie is wearing my 18th century stays.
Beth: Nice. V: They almost fit properly. Tell us about
your athletic background. Julie: I'm leading workouts so, like, I guess
I'm relatively athletic or something. I like climbing.
Beth: She's extremely athletic, what are you talking about.
Julie: I like flexible things. I feel like a jester.
Beth: My name is Beth, and my pronouns are they/them. I am a high school teacher, so
pretty sedentary. But I did do, like, gymnastics as a kid and I'm a dance-- and I do dance
so I have good athletic bones. But I am not super skinny, nor that-- nor am I in exceptional
stamina and exceptional athletic quality, I have got on a bodice style 'cause I can't
fit any of my other corsets, but it's got really heavy bones here, and it's got bones
also running through the back as well, and so it's that. And, this one's one of my favorite
ones because it's got a hood. I think I've got about a four inch reduction in this, so,
pretty big. V: Wanna tell us super quick what circuit training is?
Julie: Uh, we're gonna do, uh, ten exercises in groups of five. Um they're all kind of
spread out amongst body groups so that we get a kind of a full body workout. The point
of this workout is, I just want everyone to sweat a little bit and feel better. And, uh,
yeah, we'll be starting with high knees in five seconds!
Beth: Getting up is a little different when I can't, when I don't bend over as easily.
Julie: Back up dancer! [stomping feet]
V: It is worth noting that Sam is being our control group, a human not wearing a corset.
Julie: They do exist. V: They do exist!
Julie: This does slightly limit lung capacity, huh.
V: You have to breathe a little differently, you have to, like, breathe out the top.
Julie: Next up is our drop squat, so find a nice broad stance. Squat to one side, squat
to the other side.
Julie: Try to keep your back, uh, nice and straight. [laughs]
V: It’s kind of impossible not to keep my back straight!
Beth: That's a lot easier like right now, I'll tell you.
V: The one weird part is, if any part of my torso starts to rotate forward, all of it
does. Beth: Yeah that was the thing.
Julie: You can slap your hands with your legs if you want. Outside kick, inside kick. Outside
kick-- V: I am having slight hip mobility issues,
but I can’t tell if that’s my crappy extension, or the corset.
Beth: Your extension's better than mine.
Julie: Next we have spider. Find a block or a pillow. Put it in the air.
Beth: Oh I can hope I can do this. Beth: It is so hard, because my corset goes
down almost to my hips.
Julie: Oh no! Beth: Agh! That was one of the ones I was
concerned about us being able to do in corsets, so.
Julie: Ah, next is bridge. Julie: Yay, I can still thrust my hips.
V: Because this is definitely not demonetization bait!
Beth: [laughs loudly] Julie: And then then get up from the ground!
[struggles] Beth: Getting up is harder though! [laughs]
Julie: Next is high knees! High knees is next-- V: Yeah, if you have to readjust, readjust.
[knees slapping hands] Beth: When you do dancing you re-lace like
a half hour into it, because things move as you start working.
Julie: It's interesting. V: Well also, those stays are way too low
in the bust for Julie, they were made for me.
Julie: [to the small black cat] Matty!
Julie: Oh no! V: Oh no?
Julie: Oh, I dropped my fly. Julie: My fly being the thing I'm holding
between my hands and feet, because I'm a spider. V: Apparently my fly is a corgi.
[Julie and Sam blowing raspberries in time with bridge raises]
V: Not again!
V: How’s everybody feeling, what’s harder, what’s easier?
Beth: Bridge was easier. The squats were a lot easier because I had to not use my, I
wasn't cheating with my core anymore, so I was actually having to use my legs and my
glutes and that was really interesting. And spider, it was harder to control my arms and
my legs because I'm so used to using my core to do that and it was fighting being so packed
into my corset. But I didn't have much more trouble than I normally have.
V: Julie, anything to add? Julie : Uh, I'd like to thank my backup dancer.
[V laughs] The corset is also getting a little sweaty.
V: That is fine. I’m planning on retiring this one after this video anyways.
Julie: And it also definitely, like settled into parts, the parts of my body, because
the top got looser. It was interesting, like, having a stiff board keeping my back straight
while I was reminding people to keep their back straight.
Beth: Like the last 30 minutes before the video had even started, I was already laced
and so I noticed the changes of how I'm sitting and readjusted beforehand. And so that's,
I'm not noticing that the readjustment as much now, except when I was doing-- trying
to do spider, I could feel my abs trying to readjust.
V: The 18th century stays are probably putting the least pressure on, on the core, so Julie's
probably not-- Julie: Yeah, I have like, my entire belly
is still underneath. V: So, Bridge was definitely easier, and it
was interesting sort of realising my torso moves as a unit now. So, on the one hand keeping
good alignment is easier but on the other hand, the, the margin of error is smaller.
If, if I start to, like, pitch forward even a tiny bit when I’m squatting or anything,
then my whole torso will tip forward. Beth: My heart rate's 108, which is about
normal for workout. So, hey, you know, no real change there.
Julie: Cool. 10 seconds. [timer rings] Julie: Boxing! Ohhh This is different.
Beth: Is it? Julie: I'm just, like, way more conscious
of the movements across my body. V: So one really nice thing I’m noticing
immediately : I’m not bouncing. At all.
Julie: [timer bings] Next up is our V-sits! Sam: Oh noooo.
V: I'm gonna have to do mine with bent legs. Julie: This is kind of hard.
Sam: It's okay. I can't do them without a corset.
Beth: I'm trying! [laughs] I can't get-- I'm either gonna lay flat down or I'm going to
fall. Julie: It's harder because I'm working against
the corset. V: That's why it's "get wrecked".
Julie: Side balance leg circles. Julie: And you're going to just keep making
circles with the free leg. Julie: Oh, my butt! Ohhh, okay.
Julie: Okay, now we have clean press, so grab your weights!
[timer bings] Julie: I look forward to this one.
Beth: And I know exactly how much I cheat on that normally.
Julie: Next is flutter kicks. Oh boy. On your backs, flutter the legs up and down. Up, and
down. So relaxing. V: Relaxing, she says.
Sam: Or if you're a weasel, you just leave them up like me.
[all breathing hard] Julie: Oooh, okay. Next is starting again,
with shadowboxing. [timer bings]
Julie and Sam: Pew pew pew!
Julie: Even if your punches are super pretend, like mine.
Beth: If I'm holding a five pound weight it doesn't matter if it's pretend or not anymore,
it'll hurt.
Julie: Next is our V-sits. Julie: Hi Patch!
Patch: Hi. Cat interruption, this is a cat.
Julie: I can't, I can't do half V-sits.
Julie : Clean and press.
[weights clacking]
Julie: This makes me really aware of my lower back.
Julie: Aaaaaahhh. Beth: [out of breath] Oh my god.
Sam: Still breathing! Beth: Still breathing. V-sits are like nearly
impossible for me just, I cannot in this. V: The core stuff is harder because you’re
right, you do have to push against the corset to do it.
Beth: The clean press or clean dirt, I can tell exactly how much I normally cheat with
my abs, because I can feel how difficult, how much more I'm waiting with my legs.
V: It doesn’t even necessarily feel like it’s the corset,
it feels like it’s the busk. Like, my abs are pushing against the stiffest part of the
garment, so it’s not even that there isn’t room, it’s just that the busk, is too straight.
Julie: Five seconds or so we'll start again with high knees.
Beth: We can handle it! V: We can do it! Especially Sam!
Julie: Ooh catching my breath is harder. Or at least it feels harder.
V: I think that might be, like, one thing that the ballet training has made easier.
I’m used to breathing high, because— when I, well, when you’re stabilizing with your
core as hard as you need to be . . . then you can’t really relax in order to breathe
low. So I’m used to breathing, like, with the back of my shoulder blades. That’s where
I’m used to breathing high, because— when I, well, when you’re stabilizing with your
the air goes.
V: I dropped my fly. Julie: Catch it, catch it! [foot hits floor]
Oh. V: I caught it!
[V blows raspberry in time with bridge raises]
Julie: Uh, V-sits time. Beth: Flailing for the floor time!
V: I might end up being a struggle bug. Beth: This is the closest I've gotten, okay.
[laughs]
Beth: No dying. Julie: Yay.
V: Not dead!
V: There’s a bone right at the part of my hip that is moving.
Julie: If you don't trust my counting skills-- I wouldn't-- you can just switch arms every
time.
Julie: Last one! Flutter kicks. V: Oh my god.
Beth: Aaagh. Julie: Laaaaast exercise~
[dramatic music] Julie: And if you can't lift up your legs
then just keep them, like, a few inches up above the ground.
V: The problem is, I can’t bring my legs that low without my core losing the strength
to hold them. Julie: Yeah it's kind of a lot harder.
Beth: Yeah, I can get to about a foot off the ground and then they're gonna go all the
way down. V: We're doing this.
Beth: Almost there! [music crescendoes]
Timer app: Activity completed. Julie: What a good activity. What a good completion.
V: So . . . [huff, puff, puff] Do we feel like we got an easier or harder workout than
normal? Julie: More frustrating. It felt weird.
V: But, like, do we think we actually worked harder, or did we work different parts of
ourselves? Beth: I definitely worked different parts
of myself. Every exercise, I think I tend to use my abs as the main point of the exercise,
even when it's not. So I definitely worked very different parts today. I still think
it was about the same. Let's see my heart rate's down, back down to 103, so it felt
like I got the same workout, but just very different body parts.
V: I do actually feel like it was harder, a little bit, for me, because I’m so used
to relying on my core strength and then everything else just . . . gets, gets a little bit of
a cheat. So I do feel like I worked a little bit harder than normal, but not, not like
I’m— I’m dying, and I’m normally like “Oh, this is fine! I’m just glowing!”
No. No, It’s normally hard, and now it’s just a teeny bit harder.
V: How are you doing, do you feel like you worked harder or not?
Julie: Maybe a little bit harder, or at least . . . Like, I just wasn't able to take, like,
the stretching wiggle breaks that I usually do. Like usually I do a lot of, probably twisting
stretches in between. Some, some parts of my body are staying engaged when they wouldn't
normally be because they feel pressure. V: Things in particular that were harder,
it sounds like, anything where you have to use your abs a lot.
Julie : But the things that were maybe easier were the things where, that require a straight
back. V: So, this is basically proof against bad
form. Julie: Yeah, in some cases.
Beth: The ease-- if it felt normal to you then your form is normally very very good.
And if it didn't, if you felt like you had to, like, readjust it means that you normally
cheat on your form. V: So, last thing. Clearly we just completed
a workout in these . . . So, should this be taken as evidence that women of the past,
people of the past, in corsets, could— weren’t, weren’t, you know, completely disabled by
their clothes, tortured, in pain all the time . . . they could move around, they could do
things? Julie: Totally! This one is relatively mobile.
V: Yeah, I think mine might be the the most, the closest to a low-mobility corset of all
of the ones we’re wearing, because it’s such a long line, and it’s not an athletic
model. But, I still, I still could do the whole workout in it— oh. Cat cameo.
Julie: Cat camera! Beth : All of my years at Fezziwigs when I
was working for Dickens Fair is definitely proof. Like, we would do push-ups in corset,
in our in our outfits, just fine, we would dance for 10 hours a day just fine. And I
could do this, and we can do this now and it's not a problem.
V: Oh! And now we have one of your cats doing a cameo.
Beth: Oh no, both of them. V: Hello, Bruiser!
Beth: Because here's the other one. V: Oh, hello Gidzit.
Beth: Yeah. [laughing] Julie: Aww, Gidzit.
V: He precious.
Many many thanks to all of the people involved in this video : Beth and Julie, my fellow
corset-wearers, Sam, our control group, and Cris, our faithful camera op. Also many thanks
to all of the cats who made an appearance : Glitter, Matilda, Bruiser, and Gidzit. If
you enjoyed watching us not-quite-wreck ourselves for your entertainment, leave a like, subscribe
for more fashion history shenanigans, and tell me in the comments about the most athletic
thing you’ve done in a supposedly “restrictive” piece of clothing.
I’ll see you next time! All : Bye!