Whalebone Corsets
How Our Attitude To Weight Has Changed
So how did we get from ‘fat is beautiful’ to where we stand today at the other end of the spectrum? Whereby skinny models are worshipped and it seems that nearly all people are on a never ending diet.
It happened in Victorian times when it began to be considered that women should look shapely, and men set about providing whalebone corsets to pull in the waistline. Even then, being thin was undesirable to suitors as it was associated with infertility. By the end of the First World War it was beginning to become fashionable and elegant for women to be tall and slim. The trend has continued, much to the delight of the profiteers. Certain doctors rose to meet the demand to reduce weight by introducing all manner of injections, hot baths and some even suggested giving up fluids completely, for an unspecified amount of time. The most extreme treatment tried was electric shocks to stimulate muscle activity in an attempt to lose weight, but patients usually didn’t go back for more as it was so painful and debilitating.
By the 1930’s the diet industry had been launched with countless pills and patients to take and use that would ‘guarantee’ weight loss. Apparently there was no longer a need to diet, and of course there were no shortage of customers. Fortunately, the trend was abated to some degree by the Women’s League of Health and Beauty, which spread the concept of healthy eating and exercise across most of Europe. To a large degree, the good work they did became somewhat diluted by the images portrayed by the advertising agencies and the media in more recent times. Since when did you see a fourteen stone model in a magazine or in a television commercial?
Pills and patients are somewhat out of fashion these days, but what has replaced them are books that appear authoritative, on how to lose weight quickly, which we have discovered is not a good long-term solution. The fact is that weight loss is best to happen slowly and steadily. This is the safest and the most effective method.
About the Author
James Rayman invites you to learn the secrets to permanent weight loss with revolutionary HowToThinkSlim program. Unlike any other weight loss program currently avaiblable, HowToThinkSlim will finally show you how to get the slim, toned body you deserve.
How do you feel about this quote? Do you know what it means?
Dr. Joel Yager commented that: "Every society has a way of torturing its women, whether by binding their feet or by sticking into whalebone corsets. What contemporary American culture has come up with is designer jeans."
P.S.: Please explain answer in your own words.
I think Dr. Joel Yager's point is this: In society, at least in American society, women have, for centuries, often been subject to America's concept of beauty. In this quote Yager refers to the early 19th century when he states that "...women, whether by binding their feet or by sticking into whalebone corsets." At this time the, let's say, "Fashion statement" was indeed the use of whalebone corsets to make the waist appear smaller, most likely to satisfy the desires of men, so in a nutshell I think that Yager is trying to make it clear that although we have come so far as a society in regards to the respect and acceptance of religion, race, and particularly gender, we have only masked our progress as it relates to the true respect and acceptance of women in that as a society we continue to subject women to the standards of beauty as we did centuries before, the only difference is instead of corsets we use the more contemporary designer jeans.
Worlds Strangest People [Part 1]
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Canvas Print, Whalebone Introduced - 12 x 18 Sale Price: $39.95 |
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FREE SHIPPING on this item when you purchase 2 or more Canvas Prints from ClassicPix.com, any size -- mix or match. This high quality, durable Canvas Print measures 12" x 18" and arrives ready to hang with all necessary hardware already fastened... |
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