Edwardian V: No, it has to be tighter! Modern V : Okay but why? Your clothes are gonna
make you look like an hourglass no matter what. Edwardian V : That doesn’t matter!
My potential future husband MUST know that I am willing to endure
torture for his gratification. Modern V : That doesn’t sound
like a healthy way to build a relationship. Edwardian V: Why, do 21st century men not expect
you to wreck yourself to make them comfortable? Modern V : Nyeeeeehhh fair point.
The corset lacing torture scene : Might as well be your free space in a game of Period Drama Bingo,
and the bane of historical costumers and fashion history lovers everywhere.
We love to hate them, we love to talk about how inaccurate and unrealistic they are . . . but I
think we are quite often failing to see the bigger issues with these scenes. Time to look at what’s
going on under the corsets, which should be easy given the answer is almost never “a chemise” . . .
Hi, I’m V : Dress historian and willing to watch just about any historical drama for background
noise while I sew. My favorite thing about fashion history is to look at not just all
the pretty clothes and how they were made, but what they can tell us about, well, human beings.
The thing about historical dramas is that it’s not just about people in the past,
it’s about our present-day ideas of what the past was like. While I promise to soon throw
my hot take into the “were corsets torture” fire— I don’t know when yet, so subscribe or you might
miss it— today we are going to get meta and look in the mirror at ourselves, looking at history.
My watching-a-show-while-sewing setup actually just got a major upgrade— for those of you who
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keeping me comfy both in my sleep, and during the many hours of period-drama-watching I did while
researching this video. Now, on with the corsets! Edwardian V : Look, how would you feel if someone
watched an elaborate montage of you putting on your bra while making weird noises? I swear to—
Oookay, guess I’ll have to mind my words. When modern costumers come at these scenes,
they’re all about accuracy— whether people laced like that or not, whether the corsets are made
properly . . . completely focused on the clothes. Please see the famous example from season one of
Bridgerton— what I heard from the costuming community focused entirely on the fact that
you can’t tightlace in Regency stays. But a period drama is not a reenactment, it’s a film production
that is being made to tell a story and earn money. And for that film production, these scenes are not
just about accuracy, they’re about narrative and marketing and what they want the audience to feel.
Part of the appeal of a period drama is showing the audience a completely different
setting and world than the one they live in. Yes, the story and characters need to feel relatable,
but the whole point is for us to have the experience of identifying with characters who
live in such a different time. So they need to drive home how different the setting is,
and using tropes like blue body paint or putting horny helmets on Vikings and tight-lacing torture
is one of the ways to do that, even it is kind of lazy writing. When we see a tight-lacing torture
scene, the show wants us to react by feeling different AND “more advanced” than whatever
segment of the past we’re looking at. People today love to look at history and feel superior. We love
to look back at the Victorians and think about how awful it was and how dirty the world used to be
and how uncomfortable their clothes were, because it makes us feel better about ourselves. And,
surprise, the Victorians did it too! In 1897, Florence Mary Gardner wrote a book entitled “The
Evolution of Fashion”. She had this to say about Elizabethan-era clothes : “In the middle of her
reign the body was imprisoned in whalebone”, which sounds like something a 21st century person would
say about corsets from Queen Victoria’s reign! And this wasn’t restricted to centuries prior,
either. Another 19th century dress history writer, one Isaac Walker, was looking down on people all
of 20 years in his past. “Who will say that the American of 1885, of whatever social grade,
is not a much better dressed man than corresponding generations before the war?”.
Although, I do have to credit the Victorians with some self-awareness : the satirical magazine
Punch made this cartoon in 1857 that could be mocking the recently-invented cage crinolines,
Regency-era fashions, social attitudes about rapidly-changing styles . . . knowing Punch,
probably all of the above and more. But it goes deeper than our desire to
feel superior. Part of why tightlacing and corset torture became such a hotly debated subject in
the first place is that we find it sexy. Not necessarily on a personal level, or even for
how it looks. Our society, right back to the 19th century, gets reeeeeally excited about the idea
of women going to extremes to please the men in their lives— and not even the ones in their lives,
but men in general. The male gaze, as it were. It’s ironic that this trope is used to make us
feel different and superior to our predecessors, because we still have SUCH an issue with the idea
that beauty equals pain. That women and fem folks especially have to drastically change how we look
in order to be appealing, or even “acceptable for public consumption”. That we should go to great
lengths to make those changes, whether that’s spending money or time or putting ourselves in
physical pain and discomfort. To add insult to injury, a lot of these tightlacing scenes
are filmed and edited and presented in a way that really sexualizes not just
the resulting appearance but the pain of the lacing process. I mean, look at this—
[Judy Garland makes questionable noises] Tell me you don’t see it.
Once again, the Victorians were sort of thinking about it the same way! One of the most famous
letters on the topic, which is featured on a Wikipedia page entitled “Corset Controversy”, is
from a woman who discovers her husband essentially has a predilection for tiny waists, and decides
that exploring that with him sounds like fun. I think her phrase is that she was “amply repaid for
her trouble” . . . It’s literally a Victorian couple doing kink together. Of course, when I
showed it to a friend and fellow dress historian, she took it a step further and was like “Um, no,
this letter is erotica. Someone wrote this to be sexy”. And, like, if you’re all consenting adults,
do what you want! Have fun! Obviously the woman in this story decided this would be a worthwhile,
enjoyable experience to share with her partner, and more power to her.
But that is not how tightlacing is usually shown to us in period dramas. It’s portrayed as
this torturous horrible thing that the women find painful and unpleasant. Quite often they’re forced
into it either by other characters or social pressure, rather than enthusiastically consenting
to it the way one does for . . . creative adult activities. But we react to it with the sort of
joyously shocked and horrified excitement that makes horror movies so popular. I think the
phrase is “torture [a word I will definitely get demonetized for saying that rhymes with corn]”.
It’s gruesome and awful, but it’s a really fun sexy kind of awful that we just can’t get enough
of. Again, I am all for enthusiastically consenting adults enjoying whatever they enjoy,
including Mrs. Letter-Writer and her husband and their tightlacing funtimes.
But, when the thing that makes it sexy and exciting and worth talking about is that
she’s NOT enjoying it . . . that’s concerning. This carries over into the interviews we see
from actresses in period dramas, talking about how painful they found their corsets. While I
don’t doubt for a second that the production might indeed have cut corners on the fittings and put
the actresses in uncomfortable costumes . . . ask yourself this. You’d think actresses complaining
about painful costumes would reflect badly on the show, enough that the network or production
company would try to do something about it. So why are these questions always in the interviews, and
getting published, and getting bumped up into the headlines? Because it’s more press for the show.
It’s marketing. If people are shocked and gasping and clutching their pearls,
then that’s free marketing for the show in an industry that often believes “all press is good
press”. . Sure, the costuming world’s shock and outrage is usually based on historical inaccuracy,
but outside of our little community that’s not where it’s coming from. It’s coming from an
interest in scandal, and people wanting to go see what all the fuss is about.
The controversy becomes the torture-corn, with the possible promise of more if people watch the
thing. Potential viewers hearing about how painful an actress’s corset was is still potential viewers
hearing about the show, and then some of them get curious and watch it, and the strategy pays off.
I would love it if the general period drama audience felt strongly enough about treating
actors well that stories like this tanked a show’s numbers . . . but we’re clearly not there yet.
Honestly, I think our focus on the clothes themselves and this idea of “historical accuracy”,
is getting in the way of understanding why these scenes keep popping up. They aren’t a fixture of
period dramas because of historical accuracy or inaccuracy or any of that; they’re in there
because they sell. Because we get excited about them and talk about them and scream about how
shocking they are, for better or for worse. So really, the problem with these corset torture
tightlacing scenes is has nothing to do with the corsets. The problem is US. The problem is that
we still live in a society that gets excited about the idea of women being tortured and in
pain and suffering for the gratification of men. The problem, is that as much as we would like to
think we’ve advanced beyond the Victorians’ social views . . . in this respect, we really haven’t.
Thankfully, there are some newer period pieces that are rising above this frankly
messed-up marketing and show characters putting on corsets with all the interest of a modern
drama character wearing a bra. I don’t know for sure if changing how we think about them can kill
tightlacing torture scenes for good, but I do hope we can see past the corsets themselves to
a better understanding of what’s really going on in the shows we love. Alternately, I will
be taking bets down in the comments as to what extremes of fashion we’ll see in period dramas
two hundred years from now. Eyelash extensions? Push-up bras? Lip injections? You tell me.
Thank you for watching what was probably a very different corsetry hot take than you expected.
Don’t forget to click the like button and subscribe, I don’t know when I’ll be
dropping the actual “were corsets torture” hot take but I promise it’s in the works.
I’ll see you down in the comments, after corset-wearing V is done scolding me for
all the jokes I’ve made at her expense . . . Edwardian V : Don’t you dare get excited!
You are not supposed to be enjoying this!