The Cult Of Domesticity Of A Corset

Corsets have been one of the most controversial garments in the history of fashion to date. As they have been worn worldwide, women of all ages evoke the sole intention of suppressing or placing physical and emotional limitations on the standard of them during that era. According to the Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion, a corset is a rigid bodice that is laced together and usually incorporates vertical and diagonal boning. According to Thorstein Veblens’1899 article ‘The Theory of the Leisure Class’ a corset is "a mutilation undergone for the purpose of lowering the subject's vitality and rendering her permanently and obviously unfit for work." The word corset is derived from the Old French word corps, which itself derives from corpus,

During the early nineteenth century up until the Civil War, a new ideal of womanhood arose out of the latest attitudes concerning work and family called the Cult of Domesticity, which was found all throughout popular culture in journals, books, magazines, and news papers. According to the Cult of Domesticity, the ideal good and proper woman had four characteristics; piety, purity, domesticity, and submissiveness. Piety is the quality of being religious or reverent. This was an important ideal because it was believed in the nineteenth century that women had a particular predisposition for religion. During this day and age, the modern young woman sought after an image of Eve working with God to bring the world out of sin through the aspects of her suffering, and the pure and passionless love offered. Women were subject to the image of staying in the home and abiding by the roles and morals that were given to them. They aimed to fulfill this sense of piety and purity, when in reality they were stuck to the customs that were given during this era. Domesticity, according to the Godey’s Lady’s Book deemed housework, childcare, decorative sewing and embroidery as uplifting tasks that maintained and fulfilled a woman’s purpose and place in the world. Purity was another characteristic that was held as a high standard that women had to live by. Without sexual purity, a woman was considered to be a “fallen woman” such that you were believed a lesser being compared to others. Women were supposed to uphold a brave and chaste image, despite any attempts of men to make others see her differently. Lastly, the most feminine of virtues was submissiveness, and a womans’ passive demeanor emphasized this concept. This meant submitting to fate, duty, to God, and to men. Undergarments such as the corset,