A Word Edgewise |
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A Word Edgewise |
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Last Updated 01/23/06
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Email: mjclen@our-town.com
FASHION DEMANDS TORTURE
By Mary Joe Clendenin
My feet were hurting—not because my shoes were tight. Truth is, my feet hurt whatever shoes I wear. They even hurt when I’m barefoot. Of course, it could be because I hurt them in years past with tight shoes, or pointed toes, or high heels, or square toes. Made me think of all the instruments of torture women have used in the past as slaves to fashion.
In my musings, I homed in on corsets. No telling how many women have gone to early graves due
to corsets so tight they couldn’t breathe. Then there were the poor whales who sacrificed their lives to the production
of corsets. Now, that may seem a little extreme, but whalebone, especially the baleen, the little slim flexible bones
in the roof of a whales mouth, were in years past, the only thing truly fitted to fit into the corsets women thought
to be necessary to catch the eyes of handsome gentlemen—and some not so handsome or gentlemanly. The bones were used
to slide into little pockets in the corset to mold women’s figures. They were called corset stays.
When I was a youngster, dad was a great fan of May West. (Now, if you’re too young to have seen
May West in movies, you have my sympathy.) We used to go to the Majestic Theater here in Stephenville to see May West
in movies and to hear her say, in some in her husky, sexy voice, “Come up and see me sometime.” It was an invitation
not many men would resist if they knew which stairs to climb. May, in her corset that really did create an “hour-glass
figure,” dressed in style. Going to see those movies was a family affair, but mother did wear a corset for dress-up.
Many of May West’s movies, especially those with W.C. Fields, were comedy.
I think mom was too late to have whalebone stays in her corset. By the time I noticed how
mother’s dressed little steel slats were used for stays, and the mighty whale was saved. But I remember her corset
that reached from upper thigh to bosom. The steel stays had to be removed for the corset to be washed.
Many corsets laced up the back, but some up the front, so a woman would not have to have help to
dress.
Remember that scene in “Gone With the Wind” when Scarlett’s maid is helping her dress for the ball
and is lacing her corset in the back—hers was a shorter version but I can’t remember what those were called. I was in my
early teens, I think when that movie first came out. I do remember that scene because when the dressing was complete,
Scarlett had an eighteen inch waist.
Oh how I wished I had an eighteen inch waist! No way, not then or ever. I think with all the meat
scraped off, just the skeleton, my waist would measure more than eighteen inches.
For the most part, styles, like most things are cyclic. Surely women of today are too independent to
fall for such styles again—I’m not sure of that. Taking mud baths, unless in combat, plucking eye brows, wearing four-inch
heels, and skirts too tight for walking seem to still be in vogue.
In the name of fashion both men and women have done some strange things, but fashion moguls play
an important part in our economy. Otherwise we would wear clothes until they wore-out. Just think of the designers,
the models, the photographers, the magazines, and lo, the many other people the world could do without. Far be it from
me to create such havoc to the bargain hunters. I’m right with you. It’s better to laugh than to suffer finger pointing.
May the Lord bless us all in spite of our funny convictions.