An Essay On Girdle Fascination
by Mark
Folklore is replete with stories of the power of women in groups of three: the Judgment of Paris, the Three Graces, the Fates... even the witches in Macbeth. From England comes this modern tale of enchantment.
Look closely at the image above. Inspect the creases, the tears, the tape marks. Think of the care and love that picture has seen over the decades, and understand the bewitching power inherent in the image of Three Girdled Women.
Despite having had access to the internet, through my employers, for several years, it is only since February this year that I became hooked up at home and was able to browse, so to speak, free of prying eyes. One of the first things I did was a search on "girdles", long a fascination. What would turn up? If other, non-internet searches were anything to go by, not a lot.
It was both a surprise and a delight to encounter Zona. If my internet subscription and phone bill only granted access to the girdle zone, it would be worth it. It really is difficult to stress enough the pleasure it has given me. And sense of relief!
For years I had believed myself to be some sort of pervert. My first introduction to the delights of ladies' underwear was the undies pages of my mothers mail order catalogues, and the ads that appeared in the Sunday supplements. At that time, 25 to 30 years ago, the girdle reigned supreme. Images of sleek young models in panty girdles in pretty pastel shades abounded.
Over the years I amassed a rather nice collection of same which was kept very well hidden. Such was the anti-girdle propaganda however, that I would rather have people believe my father was Martin Borman than find out I liked girdles. On my eighteenth birthday, in a fit of guilt and in the laughable belief that it was some sort of rite of passage, I threw my collection away. Not a day has passed that I haven't cursed that action.
A few remnants of the glory that was remain, however, and a number are reproduced here. The quality is not of the highest, the ravages of time and sellotape, but they are sufficiently clear to be illustrative of the tone of this essay. For many visitors to this site, and certainly this one, the real delight is to be regaled by, and to save for future delectation, those images that many of us never thought we'd see again.
If you're reading this, then you obviously like girdles. We all share this love, but what precisely is it that we find so appealing? Virginian himself is surely on the right track with his essay The Girl in the Pale Blue Girdle, mentioning the process of imprinting. While I can relate to this, I've always felt that there was something intrinsically appealing about the girdle, and that to like them was not just the result of some accidental first glimpse while at a particularly impressionable stage. This view has been reinforced by the contributions from the ladies, the real revelation of Zona.
The sentiments expressed by the ladies strike a chord. Descriptions of feeling elegant and ladylike, "like a real woman". Music to the ears of any girdle lover! Then there are the descriptions of enjoying the feel of the tight lycra, "like a caress", and a constant reminder of femininity. This is the image of the girdled woman that I am drawn to. Sexy yet standoffish. Look, but don't touch. Controlled, but with the promise of an inner fire. The antithesis of the "in-your-face" sexuality that is, these days, all around.
The main picture, let us call it The Three Ladies, is the one that did for me what that rather striking young lady and her blue pantie girdle did for old Virginian, and for the same basic reason (I know the term is used a lot, but I cannot think of a woman in a panty girdle as anything other than a lady). It really is an extraordinary image to have appeared in a mail order catalogue, and over the years I have wondered what made the photographer pose them like that. The conclusion that this photographer was a girdle lover performing a valuable social service is the one I like to imagine.
The lady in white is a little plumper than the other two. They fill their girdles comfortably, she really could do with the next size up. The expression on her face and the way she has her hands on her behind are a joy to behold. I will never tire of this picture. Now that it's been scanned, it should be safe from further ravages of time and perhaps there is some kind soul out there proficient on PhotoShop who could clean it up and send it back.
This image, which I am delighted to be able to share with like-minded enthusiasts, and others now sadly discarded, was typical of British catalogue ads of the time (early to mid 70's). The girdle was fighting a rearguard action (pun intended!), and sales were falling sharply. It was certainly being rejected by younger women. I was, alas, about a decade too late to encounter girls in girdles myself, in blue or any other colour. Girdle stocks were, literally and figuratively, on the slide.
As for asking a woman to wear a girdle, or even hint at it, well, I'm rather backward in coming forward, and only do so here because of the degree of anonymity that the internet provides. I've bought more than one pantie girdle over the years, from mail order catalogues of course, but have yet to pluck up the courage to ask a lady to put one on. Maybe one day.
The images I so fondly recall were more overtly sexy than many of those of US origin that have been posted on Zona to date. As a minimum, they were, for want of a better word, less demure. Witness the Three Ladies. It seems like a conscious attempt was being made to portray the girdle as sexy and hope that the younger women who were in the process of abandoning it would relent and continue buying.
This did not work, but it did make my formative years rather pleasant. TheThree Ladies" dates from 1974 or 75, and maybe by then they had given up on the younger women and were concentrating on the late 20s and early 30s groups, the ones who had worn girdles in their teens and slightly later. The lady in white looks a bit older than the other two, and perhaps they were hoping that ladies in these groups would assume sexiness by association. A clumsy phrase I know, but you all know what I mean. I could go on.
It was not the arrival of mail order catalogues that I looked forward to, but when they were thrown out and could be discreetly retrieved and dissected. Likewise the Sunday supplements and other magazines replete with girdle ads. These ads had a power that other supposedly erotic images didn't. Like every other male in their teens, I was introduced to girlie mags, but these were so cheap and tawdry.
Undressing women in the mind is something we all do, but for my own part, only the outer layer is removed, revealing pantie girdles (and matching bras - always) below. The types so fondly remembered from my youth, of course, even when the lady in question is obviously not wearing one. I still do this, and should I see a lady who bears even a fleeting resemblance to the lady in white, well, I'm off!
Pictures in girlie mags are dismissed as treating women like pieces of meat, and the analogy is actually quite a good one. Of course, I'm not going to insult anybody's intelligence, least of all any ladies who might be reading this, by pretending my interest in girdles is purely spiritual and esoteric. The basic appeal is, and always will be , that of young women in their underwear. But, if the girly mag is a piece of meat, its sole function is the immediate gratification of a crude hunger. As such, it does not have to be very well cooked or presented, and, like every other piece of cheap meat put on a plate, instantly forgettable. It is true. Seen one, seen them all.
The girdle image however, a choice cut, is in another league. It is cooked to perfection and lovingly prepared. It is well garnished and accompanied by fine wine and, most importantly of all, best enjoyed in the company of ones like minded peers. Each meal prepared so is memorable, and you always want to come back to see what is subtly different on the next visit. The girlie mag appeals to one sense, the girdle image to all five (and the most potent sense of all - the mind).
Every girdle image is, for this reason, different, triggering a different set of memories and associations; a fondly remembered girdle glimpse, a favourite lady teacher, your best friends mom (well one particular friends mom in my case). The fascination is endless.
Alas, the girdle, the sort of girdle we all so fondly remember, is no more, at least in the world of advertising. These days it is "foundation wear" which, while it has an appeal of its own, simply cannot hold a candle to the ads of yesteryear. Well I think so anyway, so maybe there is something in this imprinting business.
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Last updated September 1, 1997