First wave feminists (1849-1919) advocated for all manner of political and social reform beyond achieving the vote. Dress reform, which sought to create healthier and simpler clothing, had variations across religious and class lines. Reform was influenced by two sources. The first were opinions regarding female vanity. The second was a copious body of publications from medical professionals concerning corsets, especially waist restriction. In this discourse there was often little distinction between “tightlacing” and regular corset-wearing. The moral panic that followed further added to hyperbole about fashion extremes that did not reflect the lived experiences of everyday women. This study compares the ratios of bust-waist, waist-hip, and bust-hip measurements of over 200 corsets from multiple museum collections. If dress reform discourse reflected actual changes in fashion and costume, these ratios should change across the decades of the first wave feminist movement. This study suggests they did not. Rather than finding a simple correlation between ideology and materiality, this study incorporates anthropological embodiment theory to understand how corsets — and therefore by extension, the female body — became the subject of cultural and social discourse, rather than an object. By reframing historical garments to go beyond a byproduct of material culture, the lives of the bodies who wore them have a chance to speak for themselves. Historical dress scholars, especially those who focus on stays and corsets, must be aware of the disagreements between material culture, documents, and historical setting. The narrative of corsets is deeply personal and the ability to consider an object in its original context — wearer’s class, age, needs, etc — creates an empathetic relationship between past and present.
Author(s): Jillian Schwab, Anthropology Major
Advisor(s): Jeb Card, Department of Anthropology
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