The Corset Manifesto

Steampunk Magazine #6 has a superb Corset Manifesto sent to us via the excellent wog tactician Pigmonkey. An excerpt from this fine piece on the joys of athletic corsetry and women adventurers:

"No longer trapped by standards that crushed ribs and spirits, we are free to define ourselves as we choose. We do not measure ourselves by the dresses in our closets or inches pulled from our corsets; instead, we draw beauty in the margins of our stories and embroider it on the sleeves of our blouses. We refuse to be display pieces, our skirts and curls confined to the frames of sepia-toned photographs. We are not mere dolls to be costumed—we are explorers and inventors, philosophers and madwomen. The women of the Empire gave us computer programs before the computer, cross-dressing surgeons before women could even attend medical school, and volumes of writing under names given and assumed, detailing adventures never imagined for a lady of the day— we take them for our inspiration, casting aside the assumptions of docile submissiveness assumed by “proper” ladies. Our goal is not to return to a time of oppressive morals, but to challenge the assumptions sewn in long hems and high necklines: no longer are our dresses a uniform of domesticity (or our trousers a pass to play with the boys). We define ourselves creatively, in ribbons that hold our goggles, and frills that hide dangerous gadgets.

Steampunk will never be a mere revision of Victoria’s long-gone London. The walls of tradition (which long held women cloistered) have crumbled, the first cracks made by the brave women of bygone eras. Let us take the stones and build a world of equality and possibility, the likes of which was unimagined just a century ago. We stand before women who broke their ribs for beauty. Now, we shall lace our corsets only as tightly as we want to, able to breathe deeply as we prepare for adventure that will take our breath away.

Fine words indeed and you must click to download the full issue to read the rest and to see the lovely illustration that accompanies it!