Tradition vs Today: Corsets vs Anorexia

No matter what, there should not be any standards of beauty that women should endeavor to adhere to. Sadly, there are impossible standards set by the media and society of what women should look like. A perpetual standard is a slim waist. Throughout history women wore corsets to achieve this. They were expected to wear them, and it was a societal norm. Nowadays, women are still expected to have an "ideal" hip to waist ratio, but are expected to do this through starving themselves and using the ineffective trendy diets that celebrities supposedly use. Sure, women can wear Spanx, body-shapers, and push up bras, but it is not widely accepted. Women in history who wore corsets were expected to wear corsets, but today body-shapers are taboo and meant to be kept a secret or not worn at all.  We are supposed to look just as good nowadays as women in corsets looked in passed centuries, but now without the corset.

We all have heard of how disastrous corsets were for women's health.  Some resources say that the disastrous effects were due to the fact that corsets were being misused and laced too tightly too soon. Others say that although corsets rearrange women's organs, women's bodies are built for their organs to shift and still function; for this is what their bodies do when they are with child. Thus wearing a corset is perfectly natural. However, multitudes of sources argue that no matter what, corsets are sill bad for you.

Corsets finally went out of style in the 1920s as women were becoming more active and getting jobs as the feminist movement kicked off, corsets were kicked out. In the 1920s, a boyish figure was the ideal, and women wrapped their breasts to appear more flat. However, that was short lived, and now the hourglass figure has been here to stay for decades, but corsets are out of the picture. But now women resort to extreme dieting, binging and purging, anorexia, resulting in many adverse health problems. Such health problems include, growth retardation, pubertal delay or arrest, reduction of bone density, heart palpitations, malnutrition, seizures, tremors, and death.

All in all, both corsets and anorexia are bad, bad, bad. However, it is intriguing to research which is the lesser of two evils. If wearing a corset every once and a while was accepted in society, it may boost women's confidence and self-esteem while preventing them from resorting to extreme diets. However, corsetry could result in further problems if taken to the extreme. There is no substitute for leading a healthy lifestyle with a balanced diet, moderate exercise, and loving your body no matter what images society and the media are shoving up your brain.