Oppressive Fashion - 1060 Words

Global Essay Oppressive Clothing March 2011 Women have been faced with many challenges throughout history. A major example of this would be the fight for women’s rights and equality. Women worked and worked to attempt to gain equality with men and eventually triumphed. However, another challenge that women had to face was oppressive clothing and fashion. The corset, the practice of foot binding, and hijabs were all massive parts of oppressive fashion. Each served a specific purpose, but hindered women at the same time. Foot binding was a practice in China that began around the 10th century. It lasted for a very, very long time in history – all the way up until the mid-20th century. Foot binding consists of pressing the toes up†¦show more content†¦Corsets first became popular in the mid-16th century and have changed in shape and purpose throughout history. Corsets are still worn by some women today (mostly Europeans). A corset is a garment that shapes the torso and hips of a woman for beauty and to get a desired â€Å"shape† and thinness. A corset would keep the wearer’s body straight and in an almost cone-like shape. The 18th century corsets were worn mostly to create a very skinny, stiff upper body while wearing large, wide, and bulky skirts. This was a popular style for parties and other public appearances. By the early 19th century the purpose of the corset changed to being worn for the sole purpose of supporting the breasts. Corsets at this time became much shorter and only went around the middle torso area. They still shrunk the torso slightly, but this was not their main purpose. The mid-19th century brought corsets to the Victorian style of the â€Å"hourglass† shaped torso. Although this was a very widely popular fashion, it still had negative effects. Corsets were notorious for being extremely uncomfortable to wear. Women who obsessively wore corsets were sometime described as â€Å"slave to fashion†. This means that although the corsets got d esired results, they were not good for your health. Main negative results of this fashion were serious constipation and indigestion. More rare, but even more serious and dangerous side effects resulted, includingShow MoreRelatedSocial Issues Within Sustainability1419 Words   |  6 Pagesconditions are complied with.’ (Barbour Press, n.d.) However, if as a society we understand the need and solution for these particular social issues, why do many textile and fashion companies go further a field to non-European countries? Where these issues are still very much prominent, particularly in the form of oppressive sweatshops that resemble our 18th-19th century textiles factories, in order to produce their products. 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