Corset Waist Training

Dressed to kill?...the truth about tightlacing

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Corset Waist Training...

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Waist training...using corsets to train the waist down to wasp like proportions through tight-lacing has always caused controversy. And has an almost hysterical mythology attached to it. But what is waist-training all about really and could it be for you?
(Quck note; this page is a background and history of corset training, if you were looking for info/advice on training go here)

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This image- Blue burlesque- by Lillylie -

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Firstly I have to say that I am no doctor, but I know yours will not recommend tightlacing. They never have and never will. And this information should not be taken as medical advice, or encouragement to waist train, that is a personal choice only you can make. This is an extreme form of body modification and like all extremes it comes with sacrifices and risks. However it is not the demon it has been made out to be in the past. It will not for example cut your liver in two!...ridiculous.

all through the 19th century and before, popular thought held that tight-lacing was wrong, stupid, vain and widespread. Doctors despaired at the determination of women to continue tight-lacing or waist training, and at their own failure to cure them of this 'disease'. It was the mystery that no man could understand apparently, and was put down to the illogical and inexplicable nature of the female of the species. The men condemned the wasp waist as both unhealthy and ugly, which somewhat puts a spanner in the works of the argument that corsets were mens control over female sexuality. By classing it as a "disease" or addiction they seem to have viewed the issue as being seriously immoral and depraved.

Tight laced females were seen to be engaged in an activity that was evil and perverse. They were bad people and bad mothers, whose behaviour would only bring disease and pain. Like 'savages' the tight-lacers deliberately deformed their God given bodies. And most women would never admit to being tightlaced. It was much like cosmetic surgery was in more recent history, and like that there were a vocal minority who sang from the rooftops about their trained in waists, but most kept it quiet.

There was indeed widespread hysteria on the subject, but very little actual evidence exists to suggest that the practice its self was at all widespread as was believed . What little there is suggests more that women were generally laced between 22 and 24 inches, which is perfectly believable and not what anyone would consider excessive. But tall tales of girls forced by school mistresses into torturous boning and laced down to 16 inches or less were everywhere.

So if pandemic waist training was not really going on, then what was going on?

It now seems clear that these stories, written in letters to magazines and such, were sexual fantasies more than reality.

The corset has an incredible sexual power, which is not so easy to explain, but it is there. And these stories that so worked the Victorian society types into a frenzy of moral outrage, are evidence of that. Evidence of a growing underground sexual subculture where the corset fetish is queen. Evidence of S&M, bondage and transvestitism.

Most of the stories published in the name of moral outrage, must have been to titillate in the way that the public loves to be best (especially the Victorians) secretly and behind a veil of purity. The stories almost always involved tight lacing corset training as a form of punishment or discipline for young girls, and also for men..no! men in feminine corsets?, oh my surely not, pass the smelling salts!. Being forced to wear a corset and suffer the pain of extreme waist training is an obvious sexual fantasy, even if you are not into bondage there is something arousing about the image.

These days the corset as an object of erotic obsession and fetish are accepted and a huge subculture thrives around it. You can have a corset for almost any part of your body now, including the popular 'neck corsets' which take the fetishistic element of breathlessness associated with corset wearing to a new level.

But still today actual real waist training remains rare and those who do it are still treated with suspicion and horror. Especially those who aspire to the "pipe stem" waist, which is an un natural exaggerated shape in which the waist area forms the shape of a pipe or drinking straw inbeween normal sized chest and hips. And there is much competion between tightlacers to see who can get the smallest.

The greatest, or at least most famous, of the modern day tightlacers is Cathy Jung. Catherine Jung, who holds the Guinness world record for the smallest waist on a living person, is 5 foot 6" and has a trained waist measurement of just 15 inches. X-rays of Jung's torso while tight-laced clearly show that the ribs are significantly pushed in and up, altering the position of the internal organs. Though her husband, who is an orthopedic surgeon (yeah that surprised ya didn't it!) feels that waist training has done no damage and actually helps to support her spine. She wore her first corset on her wedding day and now famously owns a custom made silver corset, or more correctly a sliver corset cover, as it cannot be tightened so must be worn over an already laced body.

Cathy Jung is one celebrity who has been accused of having had a 'rib removed' but she is not the only one. Cher is another and even men do not escape this popular myth. Both Prince (or whatever I'm meant to call him) and Marilyn Manson have been rumoured to have had a rib removed to make them more flexible so they could fellate themselves. None of these are true, and I am yet to hear of a real example of this procedure having been done. It would leave very visible scars and would not in its-self reduce the waist, but would also need liposuction and a tummy tuck too. Doesn't seem worth it really does it kittens?.

Another famous, but more socially accepted, corset wearer is Dita Von Teese. Dita can lace down to 18 inches with ease. She was seen stunningly tight laced on the cover of Playboy, who heralded "the return of fetish". But Dita has no intrest in competitive tightlacing and waist training and does not wear a corset all the time. For her the corset its-self is the fetish rather than the discipline of the confinement. This is an attitude more people can relate to.

Through frequent corset wear, healthy diet and exercise (she favours pilates, nightswimming and trampolines as well as dance obviously) she has achieved an un-laced waist measurement of 22 inches. This tiny waist is visually enhanced by her breast implants. She is quoted as saying that regular wear of corsets does change the shape of your body.

So without the hype, what exactly is waist training? find out more and if corset training is for you

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Return to corsets main info page for more info on the controversial place this undergarment has in fashion history.

Find out the best way to lace your corset for waist training. To tighten easier and possibly extend the life of your corset. Read the buying, and the wearing guides if you are trying serious lacing for the first time.

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