Some old X-rays of Victorian women wearing corsets got me thinking about some of the crazy things us women are willing to do all in the name of beauty. The vintage X-rays showed squashed ribs, crushed organs, along with other crazy physical effects I could hardly believe. I never would have thought these old-school fajas were so dangerous. But at the same time I'm not sure I'd actually give up corsets though!
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The images were included in Le Corset, a book written by Dr. Ludovis O' Followell in the early 1900s, that showed how the corset was impacting women's health. These corsets were created to help women achieve an hourglass figure. They reduced the appearance of the waist, while exaggerating the bust and hips, much like today's shapewear pieces. The only difference is that these included so much boning and cinching, it was leaving women with symptoms of fatigue and shortness of breath, along with crushing their inner organs. Physicans have even found that because corsets place so much pressure on the internal organs it can even lead to developing diseases like tuberculosis, cancer, and curvature of the spine. Um … what?
As serious as these side effects may have been, I don't think with today's fajas we have to worry about crushing organs or anything else like that. In fact, my abuelita has been wearing corset style fajas her entire life and she's probably one of the healthiest viejitas I know. Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting that these findings are totally bogus, I'm just saying I think the Victorian style corsets were way more intense compared to the ones from today. I really doubt you can contract cancer from modern shapewear.
I definitely don't wear fajas often; in fact I'd rather hit the gym to get my tummy as flat as possible. But every hear and there when I'm feeling kind of bloated and I want to slip under a super tight dress, I just throw on some super tight Spanx to give me that perfect looking hourglass shape. And why not? I know a ton of Latinas that wore corsets for months following their pregnancies in attempts to flatten our their baby bumps. Jessica Alba actually wore a double corset for three months straight to get her post-pregnancy figure back!
I'll take all this all into consideration, but at the end of the day no research or physican is convincing me to toss away the fajas. After all, I haven't experienced any harm yet!
Images via Wikimedia.org
