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Fashion And Fetishism: Corsets, Tight-Lacing & Other Forms of Body-Sculpture
From corsets to codpieces, stockings to stilettos and piercing to push-up bras, fashion and sex have always enjoyed a very close relationship. This new edition of David Kunzle's rich and revealing history of corsetry and body sculpture shows how this neglected phenomenon is closely bound up with sexual self-expression. Drawing on sources as diverse as medical literature and popular magazine articles, this fascinating history shows how in many ways the use of the corset rejected the role of the passive, maternal woman - so that in Victorian times it was actually seen by many as a scandalous threat to the social order. Even today fashion designers recognise its subversive powers, as a symbol of eroticism, decadence and control. Taking in other curiosities such as ancient body decoration, male corsetry, masochism and foot fetishism, this is an often racy journey into the enigma of all those who sculpt the shape of their desires onto their bodies.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 1982
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November 23, 2016
دوستانِ گرانقدر، در این کتاب به موضوعِ <فتیشیسم> و یا همان <شهوتِ بت پرستی> پرداخته است و آن را از جهاتِ مختلف موردِ مطالعه و پژوهش قرار داده است و درکل بیشتر تمرکز آن بر رویِ مسائل و انحرافاتِ جنسی و عواملی که آن را سبب میشوند، میباشد و البته در موردِ نوعِ آرایش و پوشش هایی از زنان که به عمد سبب میشود که فلان عضو آنها به بُت برای مردان تبدیل شود، نیز اشاراتی کرده است
عزیزانم، <فتیشیسم> انحرافی است که بیشتر گریبانگیرِ جنسِ مرد میشود
کسانی که مبتلا به <فتیشیسم> میباشند، به جایِ آنکه طرفِ مقابل و شریک جنسی و یا همان جفتِ خود را کلاً دوست بدارند، به یکی از اعضایِ بدنِ او دل میبازند و به عنوانِ مثال یکی از اعضایِ او مانندِ چشم و لب و گیسوان و پاهایِ او را همچون بُت پرستش میکنند و حتی ممکن است صدایِ زیبا در طرفِ مقابل نیز به یک بُت تبدیل شود
ممکن است حرکاتِ معشوق و یا اشیا و وسایل و اماکنی که با وی در ارتباط هستند، برایِ شخصِ مبتلا به <فتیشیسم> به بُت تبدیل شود. از این قبیل میتوان به نوع راه رفتنِ معشوق و بویِ بدنش و کُرست و یا سینه بندِ او و حتی سگ و گربهٔ او... اشاره کرد
شخصِ بُت پرست و <فتیشیسم> از آن جهت که دربند و گرفتارِ یکی از مشخصاتِ معشوقِ خویش است، لذا از سایرِ مشخصات و بطور کلی از وجودِ واقعیِ معشوق، بیخبر میباشد و از آن غفلت میورزدگ
زنده یاد <فروید> در موردِ <فتیشیسم> اینگونه میگوید که : پسر به مرورِ زمان متوجهِ تفاوتی که با دختر دارد، میشود و درمیابد که دختر عضوِ جنسی و آلتِ تناسلی خارجی ندارد، امّا قبولِ این واقعیتِ برایِ یک کودک چندش آور و ناراحت کننده است. لذا برایِ فرار از این واقعیتِ تلخ، رو به خیالبافی آورده و خودش را فریب میدهد و یکی از اعضایِ بدنِ دختر و یا یکی از اشیایِ مربوط به او را جانشینِ عضوِ ناپدید شده میکند. این عضو و یا این شیئ ممکن است چیزی باشد که کودک آن را همراهِ اعضایِ جنسی زن دیده است... در هرحال وقتی کودک بزرگتر میشود، به اشتباه و خیالِ خامِ خویش پی برده و دیگر در اشتباه باقی نمیماند... ولی همچنان آن عضو و یا شیئ جایگزین شده را با شیفتگی نگاه میکند و میپرستد... پس در کل میتوان گفت <فتیشیسم> اساساً انحرافی مردانه محسوب میشود
دوستانِ گرامی، در آثار ادبی و اشعارِ سرزمینمان مانندِ اشعارِ وحشی بافقی و شاعران دیگر بارها به <فتیشیسم> اشاره شده است که برخی از آنها را در زیر برایتان مینویسم
------------------------------------------------
حیدر هراتی میگوید
گر میسر نشود بوسه زدن پایش را
هرکجا پای نهد، بوسه زنم جایش را
------------------------------------------------
عطار میگوید
معرفت اینجا تفاوت یافته
این یکی محراب و آن بُت یافته
-------------------------------------------------
بابا طاهر میگوید
خوشا آنانکه هر شامان ته وینن
سخن با ته گرند با ته نشینن
گرَم دسرس نوی کایم تو وینم
بشم آنان بوینم که تو بینن
------------------------------------------------
پای سگ بوسید مجنون، خلق گفتند این چه بود؟
گفت: این سگ گاهگاهی کویِ لیلی رفته بود
------------------------------------------------
امیدوارم این ریویو برایِ شما عاشقانِ راستین، مفید بوده باشه
<پیروز باشید و ایرانی>
عزیزانم، <فتیشیسم> انحرافی است که بیشتر گریبانگیرِ جنسِ مرد میشود
کسانی که مبتلا به <فتیشیسم> میباشند، به جایِ آنکه طرفِ مقابل و شریک جنسی و یا همان جفتِ خود را کلاً دوست بدارند، به یکی از اعضایِ بدنِ او دل میبازند و به عنوانِ مثال یکی از اعضایِ او مانندِ چشم و لب و گیسوان و پاهایِ او را همچون بُت پرستش میکنند و حتی ممکن است صدایِ زیبا در طرفِ مقابل نیز به یک بُت تبدیل شود
ممکن است حرکاتِ معشوق و یا اشیا و وسایل و اماکنی که با وی در ارتباط هستند، برایِ شخصِ مبتلا به <فتیشیسم> به بُت تبدیل شود. از این قبیل میتوان به نوع راه رفتنِ معشوق و بویِ بدنش و کُرست و یا سینه بندِ او و حتی سگ و گربهٔ او... اشاره کرد
شخصِ بُت پرست و <فتیشیسم> از آن جهت که دربند و گرفتارِ یکی از مشخصاتِ معشوقِ خویش است، لذا از سایرِ مشخصات و بطور کلی از وجودِ واقعیِ معشوق، بیخبر میباشد و از آن غفلت میورزدگ
زنده یاد <فروید> در موردِ <فتیشیسم> اینگونه میگوید که : پسر به مرورِ زمان متوجهِ تفاوتی که با دختر دارد، میشود و درمیابد که دختر عضوِ جنسی و آلتِ تناسلی خارجی ندارد، امّا قبولِ این واقعیتِ برایِ یک کودک چندش آور و ناراحت کننده است. لذا برایِ فرار از این واقعیتِ تلخ، رو به خیالبافی آورده و خودش را فریب میدهد و یکی از اعضایِ بدنِ دختر و یا یکی از اشیایِ مربوط به او را جانشینِ عضوِ ناپدید شده میکند. این عضو و یا این شیئ ممکن است چیزی باشد که کودک آن را همراهِ اعضایِ جنسی زن دیده است... در هرحال وقتی کودک بزرگتر میشود، به اشتباه و خیالِ خامِ خویش پی برده و دیگر در اشتباه باقی نمیماند... ولی همچنان آن عضو و یا شیئ جایگزین شده را با شیفتگی نگاه میکند و میپرستد... پس در کل میتوان گفت <فتیشیسم> اساساً انحرافی مردانه محسوب میشود
دوستانِ گرامی، در آثار ادبی و اشعارِ سرزمینمان مانندِ اشعارِ وحشی بافقی و شاعران دیگر بارها به <فتیشیسم> اشاره شده است که برخی از آنها را در زیر برایتان مینویسم
------------------------------------------------
حیدر هراتی میگوید
گر میسر نشود بوسه زدن پایش را
هرکجا پای نهد، بوسه زنم جایش را
------------------------------------------------
عطار میگوید
معرفت اینجا تفاوت یافته
این یکی محراب و آن بُت یافته
-------------------------------------------------
بابا طاهر میگوید
خوشا آنانکه هر شامان ته وینن
سخن با ته گرند با ته نشینن
گرَم دسرس نوی کایم تو وینم
بشم آنان بوینم که تو بینن
------------------------------------------------
پای سگ بوسید مجنون، خلق گفتند این چه بود؟
گفت: این سگ گاهگاهی کویِ لیلی رفته بود
------------------------------------------------
امیدوارم این ریویو برایِ شما عاشقانِ راستین، مفید بوده باشه
<پیروز باشید و ایرانی>
April 26, 2008
I've always had a bit of a weakness for revisionist history. I tend to agree with Napoleon that official history is “a set of lies agreed upon.” Art historian David Kunzle's Fashion and Fetishism: Corsets, Tight-Lacing and Other Forms of Body Sculpture is definitely revisionist history. In this case Kunzle takes a phenomenon (the wearing of corsets, and in particular the tight-lacing of corsets, in Victorian times) that has traditionally been understood in a particularly (as emblematic of the oppression of women in that era) and shows us that the truth may well be the exact opposite of what we'd always assumed. Kunzle demonstrates that far from being a fashion imposed on women by misogynistic men the sculpting of the female body by means of corsets was something adopted by women in the teeth of very strong opposition from men. And the strongest opposition to corsets came from the most misogynistic men. They were seen as an example of female lasciviousness and wickedness and self-indulgence. So why did women want to tight-lace? It appears that one very strong reason is that it made many women, for the first time, acutely aware of their own bodies in a sexual way. In many cases they did it because they found it highly pleasurable.
There's also some interesting stuff about allegations (common at the time) that tight-lacing was used to procure abortions. If true, then corsets really were used by women to take control of both their own sexuality and their own reproductive lives. He also covers other clothing used to sculpt the female body, such as the wearing of high heels. And, interestingly enough, the book also reveals just how many men in that era wore corsets. The book is refreshingly free from moral judgments, and although it's written very much from a feminist perspective he doesn't use the word patriarchy once, which is particularly refreshing. There's also quite a bit on the survival of tight-lacing as a fetish into our own times, especially in internet subcultures. Overall a fascinatingly different look at social history – I highly recommend this book. And although it deals with body sculpture and sexuality this book is most certainly not even remotely pornographic.
There's also some interesting stuff about allegations (common at the time) that tight-lacing was used to procure abortions. If true, then corsets really were used by women to take control of both their own sexuality and their own reproductive lives. He also covers other clothing used to sculpt the female body, such as the wearing of high heels. And, interestingly enough, the book also reveals just how many men in that era wore corsets. The book is refreshingly free from moral judgments, and although it's written very much from a feminist perspective he doesn't use the word patriarchy once, which is particularly refreshing. There's also quite a bit on the survival of tight-lacing as a fetish into our own times, especially in internet subcultures. Overall a fascinatingly different look at social history – I highly recommend this book. And although it deals with body sculpture and sexuality this book is most certainly not even remotely pornographic.
July 8, 2013
I read this on Angela Carter's recommendation, which should tell you something. She wrote an engrossing review of it, which can be read among her collected essays, in Shaking a Leg. She raved about it, and she was very right.
It's a very Carterian book - sexuality and femininity as powerfully subversive tools, the complex (and often unexpected) power dynamics woven into everyday life. Kunzle traces the history of artificial waist restriction, from Minoan frescos to 20th century fetishists, and treats his often fraught subject with delicacy, sensitivity, and nuance. In our time, we have a common, received knowledge about the social 'meaning' of corsets - they are treated as the ultimate embodiment of women's subjugation, of impossible beauty ideals, of submission to the patriarchy. Third wave feminism has resisted this somewhat ("Though Victorian women were oppressed, my clothing choices are my own!"), but no one, to my knowledge has teased out the true complexities of corsetry and tight-lacing the way Kunzle has.
While corsets may have been standard in many eras, Kunzle shows, the extreme practice of tight-lacing (commonly described as corsetry taken to its most oppressive extreme) was actually radically subversive, as it defined the female body as something other than a vehicle for child-bearing. Contemporary medical arguments against it centered around its supposed deformation of the womb, relying on audiences' assumption that a 'real' woman was a fertile woman. Women's descriptions of the experience of tight lacing were not characterized by discomfort and restraint (what does the expression 'tight-laced' denote these days?) but by intense and passionately felt feelings of sensuality and pleasure. For many women, extreme tight-lacing gave them a deeply sensual intimacy with and control over their own bodies, one which placed their own sexual fulfillment within their hands.
...hardly the stereotype of frigid Victorians to which we are accustomed, is it?
Unsurprisingly, the language used to describe the pleasure of tight-lacing is very similar to that used by BDSM-ers to describe the experience of bondage.
By redefining tight-lacing as 'body sculpture,' Kunzle is also placing this female-driven form of body modification upon the same artistic level as a traditionally (in modern western society) male forms like tattooing. He is acknowledging the force of will and desire often necessary to maintain such a practice. This was wonderful to see.
Also, some wonderful definitions of fetish in general. I spent weeks after reading this teasing my ballet dancer lover about pointe shoes.
(Reading this was a fascinating experience for me: I study the dance of Isadora Duncan, who was probably one of the most vocal anti-corset advocates in history. I had to question a lot of assumptions.)
I would recommend this book to anyone who has enjoyed corsets and felt guilty about it, anyone who has made an offhanded comment about oppressed Victorian women, and anyone interested in the history of women's sexuality.
It's a very Carterian book - sexuality and femininity as powerfully subversive tools, the complex (and often unexpected) power dynamics woven into everyday life. Kunzle traces the history of artificial waist restriction, from Minoan frescos to 20th century fetishists, and treats his often fraught subject with delicacy, sensitivity, and nuance. In our time, we have a common, received knowledge about the social 'meaning' of corsets - they are treated as the ultimate embodiment of women's subjugation, of impossible beauty ideals, of submission to the patriarchy. Third wave feminism has resisted this somewhat ("Though Victorian women were oppressed, my clothing choices are my own!"), but no one, to my knowledge has teased out the true complexities of corsetry and tight-lacing the way Kunzle has.
While corsets may have been standard in many eras, Kunzle shows, the extreme practice of tight-lacing (commonly described as corsetry taken to its most oppressive extreme) was actually radically subversive, as it defined the female body as something other than a vehicle for child-bearing. Contemporary medical arguments against it centered around its supposed deformation of the womb, relying on audiences' assumption that a 'real' woman was a fertile woman. Women's descriptions of the experience of tight lacing were not characterized by discomfort and restraint (what does the expression 'tight-laced' denote these days?) but by intense and passionately felt feelings of sensuality and pleasure. For many women, extreme tight-lacing gave them a deeply sensual intimacy with and control over their own bodies, one which placed their own sexual fulfillment within their hands.
...hardly the stereotype of frigid Victorians to which we are accustomed, is it?
Unsurprisingly, the language used to describe the pleasure of tight-lacing is very similar to that used by BDSM-ers to describe the experience of bondage.
By redefining tight-lacing as 'body sculpture,' Kunzle is also placing this female-driven form of body modification upon the same artistic level as a traditionally (in modern western society) male forms like tattooing. He is acknowledging the force of will and desire often necessary to maintain such a practice. This was wonderful to see.
Also, some wonderful definitions of fetish in general. I spent weeks after reading this teasing my ballet dancer lover about pointe shoes.
(Reading this was a fascinating experience for me: I study the dance of Isadora Duncan, who was probably one of the most vocal anti-corset advocates in history. I had to question a lot of assumptions.)
I would recommend this book to anyone who has enjoyed corsets and felt guilty about it, anyone who has made an offhanded comment about oppressed Victorian women, and anyone interested in the history of women's sexuality.
August 25, 2017
Great book about fetishism covering a wide range of periods. Intense and scholarly - it took me almost a month to read. Worth it since it shows different perspectives for and against body-sculpture. Plenty of footnotes to read through. I'm glad I got it.
January 6, 2023
Exhaustive to the point of being repetitive.
February 13, 2025
fire as fuck !!!!!
December 12, 2015
When the joy the writer experiences in the subject matter comes out in the finished product, that book's quality is heightened exponentially. So it is with Fashion & Fetishism. Kunzle has researched and compiled the definitive guide to tight-lacing and its history almost to the point of exhaustion (and, possibly for a reader less enthused, his or her exhaustion). This book's academic fragrance might be off-putting for some or appealing to others (possibly the masochists) who like Kunzle's dive into ephemera and commentary, his evidence-finding in literature, and his reading-between-the-lines in news items and propaganda.
The stray into gender studies also bolsters this books value. Comparing the tight-lacing of corsets with the effects of collars and cuffs (and the mention of male corseting), we get a fuller picture of society's desire to constrict both female and male bodies and some hints to what historical and sociological reasons might have encouraged this behavior.
The stray into gender studies also bolsters this books value. Comparing the tight-lacing of corsets with the effects of collars and cuffs (and the mention of male corseting), we get a fuller picture of society's desire to constrict both female and male bodies and some hints to what historical and sociological reasons might have encouraged this behavior.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews