History Main / OfCorsetHurts

* This [[https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/923545?q=yakumo_ran+corset bit of fanart]] involving [[VideoGame/{{Touhou}} Yukari]] (with Ran's help) putting on one. If the tearful jolly roger with a broken bone is an indication, we can assume that something was broken, adding to this is that Yukari looks like she's trying not to wince.

** ''Disney/{{Mulan}}'', during the "Honor to Us All" montage, and she doesn't enjoy it. It wasn't exactly a corset, but a large sash pulled very tight to make her waist smaller. Ironically, the matchmaker berates her for being too skinny to bear children. [[YouCantFightFate Perhaps she was destined to fail and ultimately become China's savior?]]
** In ''Disney/PocahontasIIJourneyToANewWorld'', it's clear that Pocahontas doesn't like it, and it shows she is being forced into accepted norms for women in the society.

* The expression on Rose's face in ''Film/{{Titanic 1997}}'' as her corset is being laced by her mother shows the pain informative of this trope. It's [[RuleOfSymbolism symbolic]] as her mother is explaining that Rose has no choice but to marry Cal as she laces her up.

* ''Series/CarnivalRow'': Imogen sighs in relief after her removing her corset while undressing.

* Fashion historian and seamstress Bernadette Banner averts this in one of her [[https://youtu.be/5QUEf-8BKyE videos]]. One of the corset myths she debunks is that tight lacing wasn’t a common practice, but rather something done only by a very small percentage of women.

* Fashion historian Bernadette Banner averts this in one of her [[https://youtu.be/5QUEf-8BKyE videos]] and one of the corset myths that she debunks is that tight lacing wasn’t a common practice, but rather something done by a very small percentage of women.

* Corset aficionados (of both genders) get their corsets custom made to fit their bodies in order to avert this trope. A corset that doesn't fit properly, which is often the case for ones that can be bought off the shelf (and would very much apply to male wearers), can get very painful to wear when tightened to more than a simply snug fit. Also, they tend to not fit the dimensions of the wearer right. Lacing too tightly before the body is used to it is also painful, and tight lacing is a process that is supposed to take ''weeks'' so that the body can gradually adapt to it. A corset that is properly fitted to the body, even when pulled tight, isn't supposed to hurt and if it does, then the one wearing it should loosen the lacing. The body needs time to adapt to it. In most cases, wearers should also have something under the corset, like a camisole or chemise. (This is so you specifically do ''not'' get the welts that pop up in other examples of this trope, and also to protect the corset from being sweated on.)

* Corset aficionados (of both genders) get their corsets custom made to fit their bodies in order to avert this trope. A corset that doesn't fit properly, which is often the case for ones that can be bought off the shelf (and would very much apply to male wearers), can get very painful to wear when tightened to more than a simply snug fit. Also, they tend to not fit the dimensions of the wearer right. Lacing too tightly before the body is used to it is also painful, and tight lacing is a process that is supposed to take ''weeks'' so that the body can gradually adapt to it. A corset that is properly fitted to the body, even when pulled tight, isn't supposed to hurt and if it does, then the one wearing it should loosen the lacing. The body needs time to adapt to it. In most cases, wearers should also have something under the corset, like a camisole or chemise.

* The inconvenience and discomfort of corsets were one of the major complaints of the mother and eldest daughter in ''The 1900 House''. See Real Life, below.
** Similarly, some of the women in ''Frontier House'' refused to wear them after a while (and, in the hot weather, wound up wandering around in their underwear).

The trope is {{older than radio}}, as a lot of literature--some medically sound, some not--was produced in the nineteenth century regarding the dangers in corset-wearing. In the 21st century, people who have worn one are split: some think it feels nice, some think it is indeed uncomfortable, and some [[CasualKink think it hurts but enjoy that]]. This can be ''very'' TruthInTelevision - when very small waists were the height of fashion and beauty, some women would pass out from corsets too tightly laced, there were reports of death (though none have yet been substantiated by modern science), and the constant use of corsets could result in misshapen rib-cages. (Luckily for corset-wearers, that level of extreme tightlacing was [[BrieferThanTheyThink not in fashion for very long]].)

* Invoked in ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' once with a ''steel'' corset Ranma is forced to wear as a girl. It's tight ''enough'' when worn as a girl--when Madame St. Paul first forced Ranma into it, the latter is ''screaming in pain''--and as such, constrains his bones to a point of almost crushing when he turns back into a man, forcing him to keep his female form. Thus, the symbolism of Ranma being trapped in the guise of an obedient girl both physically and metaphorically is complete.
* Despite providing the page image, female characters in ''Manga/VictorianRomanceEmma'' only wore extremely tight corsets for special occasions, in this case taking a couple inches off before a date.
** However, they are described as painful, or at least really uncomfortable. In one scene of the manga Emma's employer, Dorothea Meredith, is being dressed for the day, when her husband, Wilhelm, enters the room, and proceeds to lace his wife's corset. Despite the whole scene is described as a jocular, almost sexual moment of intimacy, Wilhelm has to place his foot on Dorothea's back and pull the laces with all of his might to squeeze his wife into the desired shape. The author's commentary for this scene claims that, according to her researches, such a painful scenario was common and not surprising at all.

-->Gov. Swan: "What do you think?"(of the dress, corset included)\\
Elizabeth: "It's *GASP* [[{{Pun}} difficult to say]]."
** Despite Elizabeth's corsets being based in an era where they were designed to be more comfortable and supportive than nearly any other era, there actually is some logic to this particular example. Elizabeth has lived her entire life in Port Royal, where fashion trends of the time probably take several months to arrive from places like London and Paris, if not years, and has probaby been wearing softer stays where the emphasis was less on shrinking her waist and more on lifting her bust (like a modern camisole with a built in bra). The corset her father buys her was likely intended to be worn by a woman whose body had been somewhat corset-trained since age twelve or so, and who would not feel too squeezed by it at all. Elizabeth, on the other hand, hasn't experienced that, so the amount of constriction probably ''would'' feel shockingly painful to her and alter her breathing to the point of her later collapse.

* In ''Film/RememberTheNight'' poor Lee has to wear a corset to fit into Aunt Emma's wedding dress. Aunt Emma tells her that having a 25 inch waist in her time was big, and that all the girls tried to get to 19. Ouch!
* ''Film/ThePrinceAndMe'': When Paige is being laced tightly into an elegant dress she asks Eddie's mother if she's supposed to be able to breath in the dress who replies "No."

[[folder: Literature ]]
* In the ''Literature/NightfallSeries'', Myra is forced into a corset by Lucy prior to wearing the dress Prince Vladimir "gifted" to her. She not only experiences physical discomfort from tightlacing, but also conveys reservations about wearing one beforehand when she sees Lucy pull it out of her bag.
* Discussed in the Caroline B. Cooney's time travel romance novel "Both Sides Of Time" where main character and other girls despise the tightness of corsets and woman asking for a fainting couch due to corsets is expected.
* In Ann Turnbull's novel No Shame No Fear Susanna's mistress asks her to help her unlace her stays of her corset to help her relax after she's been hurt.

* In ''Literature/TheGoddessTest'', Kate's maids force her to wear corsets. Kate is not pleased, and tries to force her gut out to give herself more breathing room and to spite them.

* Creator/SimonaAhrnstedt goes back and forth between this and ''OfCorsetsSexy'' in her debut novel ''Literature/{{Overenskommelser}}''. We get several allusions to how uncomfortable it can be to wear a corset, but a lady is expected to do it anyway. And if she shapes her body as much as possible, men will of course find her more attractive.

* In Creator/ElizabethEnright's Literature/GoneAwayLake, two mid-20th C. girls--the story is a little vague, could be set any time between the late '40s and early '60s--are playing dress up in Victorian or Edwardian ball gowns that had belonged to an old lady's elder sisters. When they find they can't make the plackets meet, the old lady offers to lace them into corsets, however when she pulls the laces it hurts so much that the girls content themselves by covering the gap with silk sashes.

* The inconvenience and discomfort of corsets was one of the major complaints of the mother and eldest daughter in ''The 1900 House''. See Real Life, below.

* Done implicitly in the ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Star Trek TNG]]'' episode "Time's Arrow," when Picard et al are in 19th century San Francisco; neither Troi nor Dr. Crusher look comfortable in period fashion.

* On ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun'', Dick is having body-image issues, and puts on a corset with Harry's help (referencing '''Film/GoneWithTheWind'')--he explains to a puzzled Tommy "It's called the 'Shatner'."
** The preparer isn't safe either--Harry gets his fingers tangled up in the laces and ends up getting dragged around by an oblivious Dick.

* In one episode of ''Series/CallTheMidwife'', an unmarried woman hides her pregnancy via a girdle, fearing that she'll be fired from her job for it. Nurse Jenny is horrified to find this out, since it poses many medical issues for the woman and her child. The woman is convinced to stop wearing it, and the baby is thankfully born fine.

* ''Series/AreYouBeingServed'' regularly had gags of uncomfortably cramming a larger woman into a corset, what with it being set in a women's underwear department. Mrs Slocombe was usually the ButtMonkey.

* In ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'', after Booker [=DeWitt=] frees Elizabeth from the electronic leash she was strapped to inside Comstock House, she winces in pain when Booker ties her corset. In this case the corset is not entirely to blame; '''there's a cord that was just unplugged from her back'''.

* While all of the genderbent characters in ''Webcomic/{{Exiern}}'' (and there's a bunch of them) hate being women in general they reserve their worst complaints for corsets--all except for one priest who appears to have been transgender in the first place.

* Creator/{{Pixar}} followed Disney's example with ''WesternAnimation/{{Brave}}''. At one point, Queen Elinor dresses her RebelliousPrincess daughter Merida up in a corset, who complains that she can't breathe. What's really odd about all this is that the movie takes place in Medieval Scotland, and corsets shouldn't actually exist yet.

* ''WesternAnimation/Minions'': Scarlet insists on her dress being as tight as possible. She comments how it wasn't quite tight enough when she started losing feeling in her legs.

* When Victor laces Lily into a corset for the first time in ''Series/PennyDreadful'' and puts her in fashionable shoes, she thinks it's extremely painful and uncomfortable. There's a brief exchange where Victor says that the purpose of corsets is to prevent women from overexerting themselves in case they conquer the world, before he tells her to take the corset off if it hurts, since he doesn't want anything that causes her pain. [[AllWomenLoveShoes She keeps the fancy shoes, though.]]

* Esther and Rose Smith experience this in ''Theatre/MeetMeInStLouis''.

* Corset aficionados (of both genders) get their corsets custom made to fit their bodies in order to avert this trope. A corset that doesn't fit properly, which is often the case for ones that can be bought off the shelf (and would very much apply to male wearers), can get very painful to wear when tightened to more than a simply snug fit. Also, they tend to not fit the dimensions of the wearer right. Lacing too tightly before the body is used to it is also painful, and tight lacing is a process that is supposed to take ''weeks'' so that the body can gradually adapt to it. A corset that is properly fitted to the body, even when pulled tight, isn't supposed to hurt and if it does, then the one wearing it should loosen the lacing. The body needs time to adapt to it.

* The inconvenience and discomfort of corsets was one of the major complaints of the mother and eldest daughter in ''The 1900 House''.

* The women on ''Series/MadMen'' often wore girdles (especially in the earlier seasons). Joan was seen taking off the strap of one of her full body girdles (looks like a full slip) and a nasty red mark in her shoulder is revealed. She looks very much in pain, especially after having been stiffed at work.

** ''Disney/PocahontasIIJourneyToANewWorld''. It's clear that she doesn't like it, and it shows she is being forced into accepted norms for women in the society.

* Despite providing the page image, female characters in ''Anime/VictorianRomanceEmma'' only wore extremely tight corsets for special occasions, in this case taking a couple inches off before a date.

* In ''Manga/MurderPrincess'', Princess Alisa is not happy about having to wear a corset.