Burlesque
Sexual constraint and eroticism.
Sexual constraint and eroticism.
In this body of work, I explored my interest in corsets of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
The corset was a garment that could only be fashionably worn by women of the upper class. Lower class women could not afford a properly made corset and a corset was highly impractical for work. Corsets were the main foundation garment of womens fashions since the 16th century. I felt that the corset was at its peak during the late 19th century into the turn of the 20th century. This was a time when a woman's silhouette was at its most extreme and the obsession with achieving a wasp like waist through tightlacing began.
The wasp waist obsession drew up many questions and thoughts. In a way, the corset was serving a purpose to change a woman's body into an ideal without the use of surgery. The function of the corset was not only visual, but also social. Only an astute woman would be wearing a corset at its tightest, and over it she would be wearing the latest Parisian fashions. The corset restrained a woman...no tightlaced woman would be able to run in a corset without fainting a few yards away from her starting point. By restraining a woman's movement, her sexuality (in theory) was also restrained. She was confined in more than one way--her body was confined to the corset and her whole self was confined to a small radius around her home or her husband or father. A woman was no better than a bitch (canine) on a leash.
While the corset became a tool for restraining women from infidelity or any other social transgressions (not that it worked), it also became a very fetishized garment. There was something sexually masochistic about the corset...many women did attempt to reach the late 19th century ideal of the tiny wasp waist--lacing themselves in so tightly that their skin turned blue. The boning of corsets at this time was made of steel. At times women were so tightly laced, the corset bones would snap and they would become impaled. There was something very erotic about the hourglass shape (there still is to this day...it is as if it is hardwired into us to find that shape appealing). There were countless postcards of girlie pictures with women posed in their corsets and nothing else. There was just something about the corset's permanent embrace around a woman's waist that men at that time simply found so appealing.
My exploration is of the corset and its use in modern day burlesque. It is interesting to me that a tool that was used to prevent women from socially transgressing is now very much a tool for transgression. The burlesque tradition did begin at this time, but it was not nearly as glamorous as it has been growing to become today. The audience of burlesque has also changed. The majority of attendees today are women. I find that the purpose of burlesque is the same--it is still entertainment and it is satire, but it has transformed from where it had began. It is still fairly taboo for a woman to bare her clothing, yet accepted in designated establishments. Is it still objectifying to a woman's body? It is relative and subjective, as objectification is up to the audience and the stripper in the theater.
The corset was a garment that could only be fashionably worn by women of the upper class. Lower class women could not afford a properly made corset and a corset was highly impractical for work. Corsets were the main foundation garment of womens fashions since the 16th century. I felt that the corset was at its peak during the late 19th century into the turn of the 20th century. This was a time when a woman's silhouette was at its most extreme and the obsession with achieving a wasp like waist through tightlacing began.
The wasp waist obsession drew up many questions and thoughts. In a way, the corset was serving a purpose to change a woman's body into an ideal without the use of surgery. The function of the corset was not only visual, but also social. Only an astute woman would be wearing a corset at its tightest, and over it she would be wearing the latest Parisian fashions. The corset restrained a woman...no tightlaced woman would be able to run in a corset without fainting a few yards away from her starting point. By restraining a woman's movement, her sexuality (in theory) was also restrained. She was confined in more than one way--her body was confined to the corset and her whole self was confined to a small radius around her home or her husband or father. A woman was no better than a bitch (canine) on a leash.
While the corset became a tool for restraining women from infidelity or any other social transgressions (not that it worked), it also became a very fetishized garment. There was something sexually masochistic about the corset...many women did attempt to reach the late 19th century ideal of the tiny wasp waist--lacing themselves in so tightly that their skin turned blue. The boning of corsets at this time was made of steel. At times women were so tightly laced, the corset bones would snap and they would become impaled. There was something very erotic about the hourglass shape (there still is to this day...it is as if it is hardwired into us to find that shape appealing). There were countless postcards of girlie pictures with women posed in their corsets and nothing else. There was just something about the corset's permanent embrace around a woman's waist that men at that time simply found so appealing.
My exploration is of the corset and its use in modern day burlesque. It is interesting to me that a tool that was used to prevent women from socially transgressing is now very much a tool for transgression. The burlesque tradition did begin at this time, but it was not nearly as glamorous as it has been growing to become today. The audience of burlesque has also changed. The majority of attendees today are women. I find that the purpose of burlesque is the same--it is still entertainment and it is satire, but it has transformed from where it had began. It is still fairly taboo for a woman to bare her clothing, yet accepted in designated establishments. Is it still objectifying to a woman's body? It is relative and subjective, as objectification is up to the audience and the stripper in the theater.
