Cages for Hearts

In my short but productive life as a seamstress so far, I have made two corsets from scratch - three if you count a rather pitiful first try whose boning consisted of sturdy wired clothesline - and altered one to fit me, with a second alteration in progress. [Shoutout of thanks to the friend who gave them to me!] I assure you it's a purely sartorial fetish of mine, and I will only discuss it as such here - though of course I'm not judging anyone for whom it is otherwise, and I am well aware of the seductive powers a corset can have.  

In fact, the humble beginnings of my corset-making were driven by solely practical and quite modest considerations: I was bent on making my own prom dress for high school graduation (the only event where there's really a prom held at German schools), and I wanted it to be strapless while still having a very full skirt, and while not endangering me of exposing too much nerd cleavage to the farewell glances of classmates... So I got on the internet with my parents' wonky modem, waited five minutes for each page to load and read up on the fine art of corset-making on any renaissance fair instruction page I could find. The result looked like this - very uncomfortable and not entirely fulfilling its no-sliding-down-purpose, but quite successful for a first attempt, methinks.

There wasn't much figure-alteration going on, and neither was this the case for my next attempt, which I actually made to wear it to renaissance fairs (and to find a purpose for some leftover black velvet fabric). This is me in 2007 before heading out to a Christmas renaissance fair, all dressed up in layers and layers of non-authentic historical clothing and with a thoroughly non-authentic set of bangs! [I'll be going again this year if I can find the time, and I'm really looking forward to it.]

Since those carefree days of naive playing dress-up, I have read a lot - about body image, about bra burning, about defying the idea that there is one single beauty standard - and I have come to think of corsets in a quite different light. Yes, they are - in a way - aesthetic, yes, they are seductive to some, and yes, they do wonders for posture. But they also were, undoubtedly, both figurative and literal cages for the hearts of women in the Victorian age. We know they caused dangerous health conditions, and considering these negative points, it is lucky that this restriction was abandoned in the course of time.

Yet women in this modern liberated age are free to choose their garments, and some choose to wear corsets in one or the other way. Is this okay? Or is it, ohmygosh, anti-feminist? Anti-body-acceptance? Pro-body-hate? 

Corsets are, after all, instruments for altering your body: Most well-made corsets will give you a clearly defined hourglass figure while pushing up your breasts, which is still the figure commonly accepted as the most beautiful  (though body diversity and personal preferences tell us otherwise). Are women who wear corsets today succumbing to this beauty standard, are they - deliberately or by accident - crippling themselves, taking away their own empowerment?

As often in such matters, I believe that choice and awareness are key. 

If you wear a corset (or, in fact, any kind of heavy-duty shapewear - for a nice and humorous discussion of the issue go here) because you feel that you have to in order to meet beauty standards, that otherwise you are ugly, no good. 

If you disregard comfort for the sake of looks above a certain degree, also no good (in my humble opinion; though I will wear high heels from time to time). My ex-roommates, poor little rich girls running after every trend while hating on their own bodies and constantly trying to lose weight (both were what I'd call moderately skinny, by the way), were discussing shapewear one day as a "lazy" alternative to doing sports. I raised the question  if it wouldn't feel rather uncomfortable to wrap yourself in orthopedically tight spandex from the knees up, and was met with a defiant response of "Who cares what it feels like if it makes us look good?!"

I care, I really do. And luckily this also means that - if something makes me feel good, I have every right to wear it. Despite all historical connotations, despite the actually historical setting, I can still wear a corset with my makeshift ren-fair costume, and confidently so, because a corset need not be constricting. As long as I get to  choose how tightly I lace it, and when I take it off, I am indeed more empowered than not. My heart is not caged as long as I hold the key. 

 [pictures that aren't mine: found here, here, and here]