Different Loving: The World of Sexual Dominance and Submission (57 page)

The market for corset enthusiasts and body modifiers who apply themselves seriously to the difficult task of remodeling the torso is rapidly expanding in contemporary North America.

Reshaping the body through the use of corsets requires slow, steady, and careful progress as well as a sincere commitment and sufficient personal discipline to endure the rigors and initial discomforts. Corset training results in irreversible physical alterations.

The degree of compression and consequent reduction varies from individual to individual and depends on one’s personal goals. Waists may be reduced by as much as 10 inches or more.

The body gradually accommodates the pressures of the rigid garment. Most corset wearers agree that the discomforts fade. That the corset be customized for an exact fit is crucial. Most enthusiasts purchase intermediate sizes during training. As they grow accustomed to the compression, wearing the corset becomes pleasurable.

Although tight-lacing compresses both one’s external and internal structures, corsetters maintain that no medical evidence exists that such changes are injurious to the body’s health. One must, however, adhere to certain restrictions if she or he wishes to make progress. For one, food intake is necessarily limited. Some physical activities, such as running, are impossible while one is tightly corsetted. Corset fans wear looser models when they plan to be active.

All the corsetters whom we interviewed combine a program of consistent corsetting with exercise and dieting.

Corsets may be worn in order temporarily to reduce the waistline a few inches, but temporary reduction is much less comfortable than conscientious, progressive tight-lacing.

Men and women—whether dominant, submissive, or vanilla—wear corsets. According to Fakir Musafar,

Corsetting is frequently a couples’ phenomenon, where the husband encourages the wife to modify her figure. These enthusiasts are often conventional heterosexual couples who do not express interest in sexual alternatives. Our research suggests that among sexually conventional couples who enjoy corsetting, the wives often become converted to the aesthetic under their husbands’ influences and later take pride in their body transformations. Corsetting may become a shared daily experience and a ritual that the couple engages in together for their mutual pleasure.

Many women say that they would continue waist training even if they were no longer married to spouses who fancy corsets.

Because of the garment’s restrictiveness, a rising interest in corsetting exists among D&Sers, both male and female. Some liken the experience of tight-lacing to bondage and other forms of constraint: They enjoy the imposed constraints of the rigid underclothing.

Some D&Sers add bondage restraints to the body while tight-lacing in order to create a greater feeling of captivity. Submissives also may enjoy the fact that the constant restrictions remind them of their sexuality or of their relationships with their dominant partners. Almost all corsetting fans, regardless of sexual orientation, also enjoy complementary garb, such as high heels and stockings.

In addition to women who opt for corsetting, many cross-dressers and transsexuals undergo corset training to assist in recontouring their bodies to an intensely feminine form. Transgenderist corsetters tend to be either heterosexual or bisexual, but there are also gay and lesbian corset enthusiasts.

Heterosexual males who modify their bodies with corsets but who do not otherwise cross-dress exist but are in the minority. They may favor the aesthetic of the narrow waist or may use the corset in conjunction with a variety of other restrictive clothing and restraints in bondage scenarios.

The single greatest reason for corsetting is, quite simply, because people find it sexy.

In this respect, corsetting, more than any other single D&S-related activity, is old-fashioned both in its practice and in its aesthetic. Its attraction often depends on a belief that a fragile, steeply curved physique is intrinsically sexy. From a D&S point of view, the corsetted woman is never completely unencumbered, because her undergarments prevent free physical movement. This may also help to explain why many traditional heterosexual couples incorporate an ostensibly unusual interest into otherwise conventional sex lives: Corsetting, for the most part, equates fragility with femininity.

Male-to-female transgenderists also typically have a profound appreciation for traditionally feminine virtues and find that displaying a small waist is aesthetically pleasing.

Some derive great satisfaction from lacing their partners into corsets. And for a significant number of cross-dressers, corsetting seems to be a natural complement to fetish and D&S activity.

As is true of other forms of body modification, corsetting practitioners become motivated to reach increasingly difficult goals. Good examples of this, and perhaps the best-known contemporary corsetting fetishists, were Will and Ethel Granger. Mrs. Granger is featured in
The Guinness Book of World Records
.

Mr. Granger was not unique: Desiring to have one’s wife achieve as tiny a waist as possible is common among husbands who are aroused by a delicate form.

In addition to its other perceived advantages, waist training may have beneficial psychological consequences. It can produce an extremely youthful shape. The results help enthusiasts to maintain their levels of commitment.

Knowing that he or she can radically alter the torso’s appearance gives the corset wearer a feeling of personal power and an improved body image.
So does the knowledge that a difficult goal was achieved through hard work and commitment.

Contemporary corsets are usually made of stiff material covered with satin—and often decorated with lace—and reinforced by boning, usually of well-insulated tempered steel. Hooks and eyes are usually located at the backs and sometimes on the sides.

Corsets may support the breasts or may be cut just below. They may also extend the full length of the torso, although most are cut to mid-hip. Some corsets extend to mid-thigh, and gaiters may be attached.

Strictly speaking, the most common variety of corset is not a corset at all: the
corselette
is made of an elastic material and may include panels of a stiff material (such as taffeta). The busks are usually flexible, and there is little or no boning. Corselettes provide only temporary support. They may be step-in models, laboriously tugged into place, or have hook-and-eye closures or zippers.

While corselettes may afford transient modification of body shape, serious devotees seek permanent reshaping of the torso. They willingly endure the challenge of wearing restrictive garments.

Corsetting fans prize three basic idealized shapes: the hourglass, the wasp waist, and the ice cream cone.
⁷
Corsetters must make a long-term commitment to achieve any of these ideals.

While the hourglass figure is commonly associated with such curvaceous movie goddesses as Mae West and Marilyn Monroe, the corsetters’ exemplar for this style is actress Lillie Langtry, reputedly once the lover of Edward VII of England. This stereotypical feminine hourglass physique is achieved by the least rigorous of the three corsetting techniques and is the most suitable training for middle-aged neophytes. Over time the spine curves gently inward, while the lower ribs are compressed and pushed upward. An hourglass
corset constricts the intestines and forces them upward and downward from the waist. The hourglass ideal comprises a curvy, diminished waist with full hips and bust.

Wasp-waisting is attained through the use of a stringent garment that compresses the waist tightly in back and in front. Corsetters’ model for this body style is the late French actress Polaire. A “waspie” forces the waistline to rise, resulting in a long, narrow torso. Over time the spine is bent inward, the lower ribs yield and are forced upward by the pressure at the waistline, the pelvis tilts, and the buttocks are pushed out and down. Wasp-waist training is most often begun in youth and generally requires preliminary waist training.

The ice-cream-cone shape, whose model is Florenz Ziegfeld’s wife, actress Anna Held, is the most severe traditional form of waist modification currently practiced. It combines wasp and hourglass methods. The lower ribs collapse completely and the internal organs are stringently compressed. The ideal result matches full hips with a long, narrow torso.

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