Modern Corseting and How We Talk About Today’s Women

Abstract

This final chapter addresses modern corseting and why the subject matters so much to a twenty-first-century understanding of women and the various discourses in which we participate. In it, Gibson takes the reader from the reform movement to 2019, looking at such things as the move from the corset to the bra/girdle combination and back to modern corseting. Corseting has recently undergone a resurgence in popularity, and Gibson examines this in the lens of body modification, as well as fashion and reenactment styles. She looks at the language we continue to use regarding women, and how that language ties back to the historical practice of corseting. Finally, this chapter revisits the myths about corseting, and looks at the impact those myths have on what women do now within the current instantiation of the hegemonic patriarchy.