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thegeekybibliophile's review
3.0
I love history, and that includes not only important historical events, but also the history of things and how they evolved over the years. When it pertains to women, as well, I want to learn about it even more, so it's no surprise this book appealed to me for multiple reasons
The book is brief (only 96 pages), but it contains a lot of fascinating information. Here are a few examples of things I found particularly interesting:
Bras were presumed invented in the late 19th century, until a 2008 archeological discovery in Austria of four Medieval-era bras, which were radiocarbon dated to sometime between 1390-1485.
Upper-class women wore corsets under their clothes, tightly laced in the back. Lower-class women wore jumps—a corset made of leather or thick cloth—which was worn over the clothes and laced in the front. A lower-class woman wearing a corset was often called uppity, vain, or whorish.
Two million whales were killed during the 18th and 19th centuries, due to the demand for whale oil and corset stays.<
Corset stays were made from baleen—a flexible horny substance hanging in fringed plates from the upper jaw of baleen whales—and not actual whale bone.
Until the 19th century, women wore loose fitting, open-crotched pants called drawers under their dresses (or nothing at all). The sprung-steel hoopskirt became fashionable in the late 1850's, but it had the drawback of flying up unexpectedly. The solution was to sew the open crotch of the drawers shut, which sparked a debate over open vs. closed crotch drawers.
Bloomers were scandalous attire, and women who dared wear them were accused of being loose, immoral, or "deviant"—a roundabout way of inferring they were lesbians. (The same was said of women who had pockets in their skirts—something women's clothing had never had until the late 19th century.)
Undergarments of any color but white were also highly scandalous in the beginning.
For such a short book, there is a lot of information inside and I really enjoyed reading this book. My only wish is that each section had been more in-depth, with more information, photographs, and drawings.
I'm giving this book a solid 3.5 stars, bumped up from the 3 stars I originally rated it at on Goodreads.
I received an advance review copy of this book courtesy of Twenty-First Century Books via Edelweiss.
The book is brief (only 96 pages), but it contains a lot of fascinating information. Here are a few examples of things I found particularly interesting:
Bras were presumed invented in the late 19th century, until a 2008 archeological discovery in Austria of four Medieval-era bras, which were radiocarbon dated to sometime between 1390-1485.
Upper-class women wore corsets under their clothes, tightly laced in the back. Lower-class women wore jumps—a corset made of leather or thick cloth—which was worn over the clothes and laced in the front. A lower-class woman wearing a corset was often called uppity, vain, or whorish.
Two million whales were killed during the 18th and 19th centuries, due to the demand for whale oil and corset stays.<
Corset stays were made from baleen—a flexible horny substance hanging in fringed plates from the upper jaw of baleen whales—and not actual whale bone.
Until the 19th century, women wore loose fitting, open-crotched pants called drawers under their dresses (or nothing at all). The sprung-steel hoopskirt became fashionable in the late 1850's, but it had the drawback of flying up unexpectedly. The solution was to sew the open crotch of the drawers shut, which sparked a debate over open vs. closed crotch drawers.
Bloomers were scandalous attire, and women who dared wear them were accused of being loose, immoral, or "deviant"—a roundabout way of inferring they were lesbians. (The same was said of women who had pockets in their skirts—something women's clothing had never had until the late 19th century.)
Undergarments of any color but white were also highly scandalous in the beginning.
For such a short book, there is a lot of information inside and I really enjoyed reading this book. My only wish is that each section had been more in-depth, with more information, photographs, and drawings.
I'm giving this book a solid 3.5 stars, bumped up from the 3 stars I originally rated it at on Goodreads.
I received an advance review copy of this book courtesy of Twenty-First Century Books via Edelweiss.
stenaros's review against another edition
3.0
Read for Librarian Book Group
I appreciated the feminist perspective of underwear through the ages. For instance, take a look at this quote, talking about how it was unusual for women to wear underwear--even while menstruating.
"In medieval Europe underpants and trousers were a symbol of male power. If the average women were to wear such garments, she was considered immoral or sinfully trying to undermine her husband's authority. The nakedness of a woman beneath her dress signaled sexual availability. Wives were not allowed to refuse sex with their husbands at any time for any reason."
Thinking about women's clothing from a power dynamic sheds insight on why women wore such impractical garments for so long. As a feminist, I'm embarrassed I hadn't fully considered that perspective past the thought of "it was what was done."
The book was full of interesting insights through the first four chapters--Free bleeding into a rarely washed chemise! Mulling over the use of the chastity belt! After that it started to drag, though perhaps that's because the history began to cover more modern times and I'm familiar with twentieth and twenty-first century underwear practices. I did find the information about the origin and propagation of Victoria's Secret interesting.
The layout isn't great. Some of the callout boxes appear several pages after things have been explained in text and the book describes some things that do not have accompanying pictures. I found that the sections about body positivity muddled the waters, but perhaps that shows my hand as seeing that movement separate from undergarments.
I write this while wearing a bralette, which is my weekend and after-work-hours-only bra. My underwire bras are in the washer, being cleaned so they will be ready to hoist my breasts into position for another week of office work. If I didn't work in an office, would I wear sports bras all the time? Probably.
I appreciated the feminist perspective of underwear through the ages. For instance, take a look at this quote, talking about how it was unusual for women to wear underwear--even while menstruating.
"In medieval Europe underpants and trousers were a symbol of male power. If the average women were to wear such garments, she was considered immoral or sinfully trying to undermine her husband's authority. The nakedness of a woman beneath her dress signaled sexual availability. Wives were not allowed to refuse sex with their husbands at any time for any reason."
Thinking about women's clothing from a power dynamic sheds insight on why women wore such impractical garments for so long. As a feminist, I'm embarrassed I hadn't fully considered that perspective past the thought of "it was what was done."
The book was full of interesting insights through the first four chapters--Free bleeding into a rarely washed chemise! Mulling over the use of the chastity belt! After that it started to drag, though perhaps that's because the history began to cover more modern times and I'm familiar with twentieth and twenty-first century underwear practices. I did find the information about the origin and propagation of Victoria's Secret interesting.
The layout isn't great. Some of the callout boxes appear several pages after things have been explained in text and the book describes some things that do not have accompanying pictures. I found that the sections about body positivity muddled the waters, but perhaps that shows my hand as seeing that movement separate from undergarments.
I write this while wearing a bralette, which is my weekend and after-work-hours-only bra. My underwire bras are in the washer, being cleaned so they will be ready to hoist my breasts into position for another week of office work. If I didn't work in an office, would I wear sports bras all the time? Probably.
lrcartee's review against another edition
3.0
This book takes an interesting look at the evolution of women's under garments. It was very interesting.
bridgette's review against another edition
4.0
I received an DRC in exchange for an honest review.
A fantastic overview of the history of women's underwear from ancient to modern times. Keyser effortlessly flows through the history of not only the shape of the undergarments, but what they meant for women at the time. How society viewed the different types of underwear and what it said about women--their class, power, empowerment (or lack thereof).
There are insets with pictures and additional info that create a fast read good for both younger and older readers. The book itself is short, which makes these good for younger kids with an interest in this, along with those maybe reading at a lower level and reluctant readers. It would also be a great book for costumers and writers who want accurate details in their creations.
I really enjoyed reading this and there were a ton of facts I'd never heard before. When talking about the ancient times, the author noted that there isn't much known about women's underwear (or anything about women) because no one thought women's lives were worth knowing it and researchers focused on men's lives. It's a small, short sentence, but it was awesome to see something like that acknowledged.
A fantastic overview of the history of women's underwear from ancient to modern times. Keyser effortlessly flows through the history of not only the shape of the undergarments, but what they meant for women at the time. How society viewed the different types of underwear and what it said about women--their class, power, empowerment (or lack thereof).
There are insets with pictures and additional info that create a fast read good for both younger and older readers. The book itself is short, which makes these good for younger kids with an interest in this, along with those maybe reading at a lower level and reluctant readers. It would also be a great book for costumers and writers who want accurate details in their creations.
I really enjoyed reading this and there were a ton of facts I'd never heard before. When talking about the ancient times, the author noted that there isn't much known about women's underwear (or anything about women) because no one thought women's lives were worth knowing it and researchers focused on men's lives. It's a small, short sentence, but it was awesome to see something like that acknowledged.
erine's review against another edition
3.0
An interesting overview of women's undergarments. Along the way, there's a bit of history of how we deal with menstruation, the power dynamics inherent in underwear, some history of advertising and clothing manufacturing, and very brief nods to the differences in underwear for transgender consumers as well as for people of different colors.
dkevanstoronto's review against another edition
5.0
Anyone interested in fashion, women's rights, history, or just wants a fun read about history this is the book for you. Ms. Keyser is brilliant at making history come to life. She peaks up the skirt of history, if you will pardon the analogy, and gives a rarely seen look at a world that is fundamental to the history of human life. She writes well, she informs without making it a dull list of details and she gives a fascinating perspective of fashion, the life of women and the relationship of how women live under patriarchy.
Plus she actually gives new information from archeology where new information about women's undergarments has been uncovered. For example did you know that chastity belts were really used by women? There are many other surprising and unexpected details that make reading this fascinating.
This is a must read for anyone who enjoys a good non-fiction read.
karisannakathryn's review against another edition
2.0
Feeling kind of bad about all the low ratings I've been giving this past week. Methinks I might just be extremely grumpy due to *gestures vaguely at everything.* This week in particular has really sucked and I'm sure that's reflected in this review, and I will try to come back to this in a year that is not 2020 to see if I like it more when the world isn't a total dumpster fire.
I had a couple problems with this book—one, it is extremely Western-focused. There's a paragraph or two about ancient Greece and Rome, a page or so about ancient China, half a sentence about the Egyptians, and other than that, it's pretty much all England, France, and American. On one hand, I do appreciate that due to colonization, western texts have been more valued, so they have been better-preserved and are more accessible to researchers; I'm also guessing the author speaks English better than, say, Japanese, which would also limit what she was able to study. However, in that case, I feel the summary or title of the book should have specified where the focus of the book was going to be, as calling this book simply "a history of women's underwear" implies that the western perspective is the be-all, end-all, which is simply untrue.
Additionally, I took issue with the fact that the book asserts that all throughout history, women's undergarments were worn with the primary purpose of satisfying the male gaze and conforming to the fashions that men idolized at any given time. There's no denying that women have consistently been pressed to conform to standards set by men (you can see this especially in stores such as Victoria's Secret, which are definitely targeted towards men, not the women buying the bras), and that is a very worthwhile conversation to have. However, to say that the sole purpose of stays and corsets was to please the male gaze is simply not true. Corsets and stays helped support the bust and the back. They made it easier to balance children on your hip and stand upright. Tight-lacing, while undeniably harmful, was practiced only by a select few, and in the vast majority of cases, only for special occasions. There were corsets made especially for dancing, for working women, for horseback riding—they were restrictive, yes, but so was women's clothing in general at the time. People still wear corset-like articles today, such as braces for scoliosis—they have their uses as well as their drawbacks.
Also, some of the crazier fashions discussed, such as the wide hoop skirts and crinolines, which were supposedly only to please the male gaze, were widely disliked and mocked by men. Look at jokes from the time periods—there are a lot of criticisms of hoop skirts because they made it so hard to get close to a woman! Not to mention, since cloth was so expensive, wearing outfits that used a crazy amount of fabric was a way for women to show off their wealth, not just show off for boys.
There were some aspects of this book I did like—I thought the author's criticism of fast fashion and its effects on the environment and the people who are forced to churn out cheap clothing at a breakneck pace were spot-on. I also appreciated that she acknowledged the way racism has affected our society's perception of women's undergarments and how black women and women of color have been both oversexualized and fetishized for the benefit of white men while also being shamed for being "immodest." The author also acknowledged the struggles faced by trans, nonbinary, and other LGBTQ+ folk and highlighted some of the undergarments which have been produced to assist with transition, which was really cool and something I would have expected to be overlooked. And like I said, there is certainly something to the claim that women's fashion through the years has been influenced by the male desire. I just don't think that's the entire story, and I would have appreciated a more balanced view that acknowledged the benefits as well as the drawbacks of the undergarments of old.
If anyone's interested in learning more about why corsets are maybe not as evil as we've been led to believe, I suggest they head over to Youtube to check out Karolina Żebrowska's "How Victorian Men Taught Us to Hate Corsets: The Biggest Lie in Fashion History" and Bernadette Banner's "I Grew Up in a Corset. Time to Bust Some Myths." There's two sides to every story!
I had a couple problems with this book—one, it is extremely Western-focused. There's a paragraph or two about ancient Greece and Rome, a page or so about ancient China, half a sentence about the Egyptians, and other than that, it's pretty much all England, France, and American. On one hand, I do appreciate that due to colonization, western texts have been more valued, so they have been better-preserved and are more accessible to researchers; I'm also guessing the author speaks English better than, say, Japanese, which would also limit what she was able to study. However, in that case, I feel the summary or title of the book should have specified where the focus of the book was going to be, as calling this book simply "a history of women's underwear" implies that the western perspective is the be-all, end-all, which is simply untrue.
Additionally, I took issue with the fact that the book asserts that all throughout history, women's undergarments were worn with the primary purpose of satisfying the male gaze and conforming to the fashions that men idolized at any given time. There's no denying that women have consistently been pressed to conform to standards set by men (you can see this especially in stores such as Victoria's Secret, which are definitely targeted towards men, not the women buying the bras), and that is a very worthwhile conversation to have. However, to say that the sole purpose of stays and corsets was to please the male gaze is simply not true. Corsets and stays helped support the bust and the back. They made it easier to balance children on your hip and stand upright. Tight-lacing, while undeniably harmful, was practiced only by a select few, and in the vast majority of cases, only for special occasions. There were corsets made especially for dancing, for working women, for horseback riding—they were restrictive, yes, but so was women's clothing in general at the time. People still wear corset-like articles today, such as braces for scoliosis—they have their uses as well as their drawbacks.
Also, some of the crazier fashions discussed, such as the wide hoop skirts and crinolines, which were supposedly only to please the male gaze, were widely disliked and mocked by men. Look at jokes from the time periods—there are a lot of criticisms of hoop skirts because they made it so hard to get close to a woman! Not to mention, since cloth was so expensive, wearing outfits that used a crazy amount of fabric was a way for women to show off their wealth, not just show off for boys.
There were some aspects of this book I did like—I thought the author's criticism of fast fashion and its effects on the environment and the people who are forced to churn out cheap clothing at a breakneck pace were spot-on. I also appreciated that she acknowledged the way racism has affected our society's perception of women's undergarments and how black women and women of color have been both oversexualized and fetishized for the benefit of white men while also being shamed for being "immodest." The author also acknowledged the struggles faced by trans, nonbinary, and other LGBTQ+ folk and highlighted some of the undergarments which have been produced to assist with transition, which was really cool and something I would have expected to be overlooked. And like I said, there is certainly something to the claim that women's fashion through the years has been influenced by the male desire. I just don't think that's the entire story, and I would have appreciated a more balanced view that acknowledged the benefits as well as the drawbacks of the undergarments of old.
If anyone's interested in learning more about why corsets are maybe not as evil as we've been led to believe, I suggest they head over to Youtube to check out Karolina Żebrowska's "How Victorian Men Taught Us to Hate Corsets: The Biggest Lie in Fashion History" and Bernadette Banner's "I Grew Up in a Corset. Time to Bust Some Myths." There's two sides to every story!
amdame1's review
4.0
The title pretty much says it all - it really is a history of women's undergarments throughout time. Why and how we wore it, who wore it. Also a nod to men's underwear throughout. Definite notes about how it is tied to "men's gaze" and ideas about what women's bodies should look like. Pictures, paintings, photographs, and sidebars throughout add a lot to the intriguing text. I found it fascinating and well-written. Note-worthy but probably not award winning. I especially appreciated the end part where the author notes how changes are being made these days to make more appropriate bras for tweens and better undergarments for trans people.
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