9. Why I Wear A Girdle
In response to a newbie who asked why I wear a girdle, I wrote:
Although, as you say, I've written about my association of girdles with the entry into womanhood, that is only one of many reasons why I enjoy wearing a girdle. I agree with everything you have written here and I see all of these reasons as connected. I too find that girdles make me feel more feminine, more together, and more attractive and for me they will always be associated with what I find attractive about older (30's, 40's, 50's, and early 60's) ideas of feminine attractiveness.
Although, as I've written several times, I think that the present is the best time in history to be a woman, I am dedicated to trying to restore some of the romance and dignity of earlier modes of dress. I don't see any reason why we can't have some of the femininity of the past and all of the freedoms of the present.
I like to wear a girdle for the following reasons:
1) It makes me look my best in my clothes. I have a small waist, but very womanly hips, thighs, etc. and a girdle makes everything fit the way I want it to (more or less). I feel and I am sleek and smooth, just as women used to be in their clothing before 1970. I also feel comfortably supported, held together. There is a nice feeling of ladylike completeness that is hard to describe but very pleasant.
2) It makes me very attractive to my husband. I agree with you that the degree to which men don't like girdles has been wildly over-stated. I'm sure some men don't like girdles on women. But I am equally certain from what I can gather from my own dating and dancing experiences, from what my husband has told me, and from what I've heard from men and women on acl, that a very significant number of men are attracted to women wearing girdles. This was taken for granted when I was growing up. And it would be helpful to many, I suspect, if it were more widely recognized.
One of the reasons why I have ventured out into cyberspace with uncharacteristic personal confessions about my underwear is that I used to feel somewhat insecure, or weird, about the fact that I liked wearing a girdle so much, and about the fact that my husband liked me to wear girdles as much as he did. I felt as if we had our thing, which was all right, but that the rest of the world didn't see things the same way. I now suspect that girdles are an important part of the erotic life of a great many couples, and are indeed viewed as sexy by a great many men. This realization has been enormously liberating for me. I now have a much greater sense of confidence about the way I dress.
3) I enjoy the associations that girdles have, in my imagination, with the glamorous worlds of the past, and with the faint glimmers of that world which survive in the present: drinking martinis in a cozily romantic or supremely glamorous New York bar, going to the opera, dressing up for holidays, or romantic candlelit dinners at home, flirting, enjoying life.
4) I enjoy their sheer old-fashionedness, their retro funkiness. The fact that good vintage clothes don't look right without them.
5) And yes, I enjoy what you describe. That sense of the pleasure of my man feeling my well-girdled waist when we dance. We are, for many reasons, lovers of ballroom dancing and we go out and do it wherever and whenever we can. And this kind of communication between a man and a woman is very, very precious. I'm glad to find that others enjoy it as much as we do.
I'm sure I'm leaving many things out, but these are some things that occur to me. I'm sure that there are others. And that others have their own. But I just wanted to respond to your lovely post.
Continue to Why I Wear A Girdle Every Day
Copyright 1995 by Suzanne. Used with permission of the author.
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Originally Posted April 20, 1997