Corsets don't give women 13-inch waists, and other lies

Throughout history, women have used corsets to refine their waists and emphasize their curves. Corsets also often serve as land mines in conversations about body image, fat-shaming, and women's rights. But they don't have to. As Valerie Steele notes in her book The Corset: A Cultural History, waist-training mechanisms like corsets have probably existed since the days of early Crete. That means the idea of corsets has been around for more than 5,000 years. These garments were slightly different from what we think of as a corset today, however.
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