8. How Can Anyone Tell If You're Wearing A Girdle?
I recently received an e-mail from a young woman who had read my reply to someone's question about how compulsory girdles were when I was a teenager. She wrote:
"How could your mother or anyone else actually tell if you had a girdle on?
She wrote to me that she wasn't posting this question on acl, because she was afraid it was a stupid question. It is not. It is a perfectly valid and intelligent question. It must be difficult for people who came to adulthood in the period after girdles were widely worn to understand how easy it was to "tell" whether or not a woman was wearing a girdle. Since an explanation might be of interest to others who don't remember this period, I've decided to post my response.
If you want to understand how people could tell whether or not a woman was wearing a girdle, simply look at any television show or film made before 1967 or so. The old sitcoms on Nick at Nite (to which my daughter is addicted) will do fine (e.g. Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, Patty Duke, Danny Thomas, etc.). All of the women on these shows (except for Jeannie in her harem costume) are wearing girdles. You can be sure of it. Notice that, particularly in the period 1962-66 (my adolescence), the straight skirts and shift dresses are quite close-fitting at the hips. Like all of the women at the time, the women who wear these clothes on these sitcoms have 1) very smooth and firm-looking hips; 2) virtually flat tummies; 3) a derriere that does not move and that appears to be a single, undivided entity. Their clothes are cut so that if their tummies were not flat, and if their derrieres were capable of umm, divided movement, you would certainly be able to tell. And back then, a moving and unsupported derriere was considered to be a sign of carelessness or lasciviousness.
Although I do think that the smooth, sleek, girdled look is very elegant and attractive, I do not defend this repressive state of mind and I applaud the freedom of young women today who are allowed to "move" if they want to. But this is the way it was. You didn't want your derriere to visibly "bounce" in public any more than you wanted your breasts to.
Even if a woman wasn't wearing a straight skirt, it was possible for a carefully trained eye (and mothers at that time did have such eyes) to tell if she was wearing a girdle. Costumers for plays and films (I've done some costuming) are aware of this. A woman wearing a girdle sits and walks in a particular way. (I saw an interview with a costumer recently in Vogue who defined it, as I recall, as a particularly "sweet" and alert way.) It's what used to be called "good posture" and it's difficult to describe, but easy to recognize. It's the reason why women in plays set from 1930-1967 don't look right unless they're wearing girdles. They don't slouch, they keep their backs straight, they sit down slowly, they never "flop." This too was particularly elegant and ladylike, but here again, I'm glad it's no longer required.
Anyway, this is how one could tell. If you try a girdle, and particularly if you wear one with vintage or vintage style clothes, you'll probably see exactly what I'm talking about.
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Copyright 1995 by Suzanne. Used with permission of the author.
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Originally Posted April 20, 1997