Bound to Please: A History of the Victorian Corset (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781859735107)

Corsets, and the corseted body, have been fetishized, mythologized, romanticized. This Victorian icon has inspired more passionate debate than any other article of clothing. As a means of body modification, perhaps only foot binding and female genital mutilation have aroused more controversy. Summers provocative book dismantles many of the commonly held misconceptions about the corset. In examining the role of corsetry in the minds and lives of Victorian women, it focuses on how corsetry punished, regulated and sculpted the female form from childhood and adolescence through to pregnancy and even old age. The author reveals how the steels and bones, which damaged bodies and undermined mental health, were a crucial element in constructing middle-class women as psychologically submissive subjects. Underlying this compelling discussion are issues surrounding the development and expression of juvenile and adult sexuality. While maintaining that the corset was the perfect vehicle through which to police femininity, the author unpacks the myriad ways in which women consciously resisted its restrictions and reveals the hidden, macabre romance of this potent Victorian symbol.

Author: Leigh Summers
ISBN-10: 185973510X
ISBN-13: 9781859735107
Publisher: Berg 3pl
Language: English
Published: 10/01/2003
Pages: 312
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.20lbs
Size: 10.02h x 6.99w x 0.70d

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 09/24/2001 pg. 85
Reference and Research Bk News 02/01/2002 pg. 63
Choice 07/01/2002 pg. 2014