Different Loving

by William Brame

  Let’s say we’re going to inflict intense physical sensation—we’re going to pierce 100 steel rods into my chest and back. At first this will be very unpleasant, but soon, if I’m in the right state and I’ve made the right preparations, my body’s endorphins—natural opiates—kick in, just like a lot of people in S&M find when they’re being whipped. It builds and builds until finally you achieve a euphoric state. This is not pain: Euphoria and pain are opposites. Intense physical sensation can be either.

  If a shaman and magic are present, ecstasy can be led into an altered state of consciousness in which physiology is subject to change; it is malleable. Native American cultures have used this in healing for a long time. It’s been used all over Southeast Asia, Tibet. Deliberate, ritualized infliction of what we would call pain—or what I call strong physical sensation—can change the relationship of the body and that which lives in the body so that some kind of physical transformation is possible.

  Intense physical sensation creates body focus. [Normally] your attention is scattered, diffused. There are different ways to focus it: There’s headfirst focusing. An example of that might be Zazen meditation. You sit very quietly and deal only with what’s going on in the mind. When you finally achieve some state of clear consciousness, your attention is focused in one direction. [A second way] is by devotion, as in Western religions: You get all your attention focused into the love of Jesus. You’re then able to do things in life that you couldn’t do with unfocused attention.

  The third way is the body-first way. This is the way of the shaman and the fakir. By using some kind of intense sensation in the physical body, you focus all concentration on one particular space in the physical body. After that, you can take the attention and make it go inward to explore your inner space. Your attention cannot wander when you’re doing something intense. [And] when your attention is this focused, it’s possible for something to happen. You may direct the attention into another sphere of consciousness. Shamanic activity for the most part is intent on body focus.

  One of the neat things about the body-first approach is [that] the important element you have in the body system is sexual energy. This is the problem I’ve had [doing] Zen meditation. I always kept getting to a point where I was spacing out. I was getting the desired result, but always behind me was other baggage, and I didn’t know what to do with it. What happens if I got turned on? They give you no provision for this. The same thing is partly true for devotional systems of controlling your psyche and body. The missing ingredient in most of those systems is sexual energy. In body-first [focus], that’s the first thing you deal with. If you create a body focus and it isn’t erotic, this isn’t going to work very well.

  Tattooing, piercing, branding, sculpting the body by putting ligatures on arms and legs, corsets and belts around the midsection, [all] cause a change of body state. This is a deliberate and usually ritualized change. One result is that you [may] get familiar with your body. You have control over the body. The body is responsive and plastic; it essentially conforms to the aesthetic ideal of the spirit that lives in the body. The body-spirit connection becomes clear and sharp through any form of body modification. All forms of body modification require commitment and some acceptance of physical restrictions and limitations. These may not last forever, but one must accept those to get to the other side.

  Fifteen

  CORSETTING

  Who can forget the image of Scarlett O’Hara being tightly laced into her corset, nearly fainting, and yet gladly suffering for the sake of reducing her waist another inch? While some people today may consider corsets a quaint fashion anachronism, growing numbers of both men and women happily are enduring the rigors of corsetting. While their reasons vary, most agree: They find the corsetted figure sexy. And, as a method and infliction of control over the body and shape, corsetting lends itself very well to D&S. Corset training has been a staple of D&S erotica and practice for a century or more.

  In this chapter we hear from a number of tight-lacing enthusiasts and feature profiles of:

  • Jenny Lane, who is 54 years old. She is married and has three children.

  • Alexis DeVille is 39 years old, and is a preoperative male-to-female transgenderist. Ms. DeVille is a gender transformation consultant, has lectured on corsetting and fetish dressing, and works as a professional dominant.

  We also include some thoughts on corsetting from Fakir Musafar, whose corsetting innovations have literally transformed the bodies of hundreds of men and women nationwide.

  THE LONG AND THE SHORT OF CORSETS

  Corsets have played a central role in the public history of fashion and the private history of the boudoir. They have also been the inspiration for contemporary ladies’ undergarments. The first brassieres were invented to support breasts when corsets in the early 20th Century were cut low. When corsets were cut higher at the waist, girdles were introduced. The corset is both an expression of extreme femininity and a repression (through restriction) of the body. This garment, which boldly exaggerates stereotypical feminine curves, does so by rigorously confining the torso.

  In the past, psychiatrists perceived the erotic interest in corsets as uniquely a fetish activity, often entailing extreme masochism. Stekel detailed several cases of corset fetishism, including that of a “well-educated and respectable man, the father of four healthy children, happily married”:

  He often tried to lace himself so tightly that he would faint, but in this he was unsuccessful. He even succeeded in persuading his wife to lace herself closely and tied her corset tighter every day himself until her waistline had been reduced about six inches. This also gratified him sexually.

  —WILHELM STEKEL1

  The corset holds a unique place in the erotic aesthetic of many body-modifiers.

  First there is the payoff of being different, of being attractive, [and] having a more idealized shape. Then there is the erotic side of the coin. The people who pursue this in a big way also find it is sexy.

  —FAKIR MUSAFAR

  The first documentation of a prototypical corset dates back to circa 2000 B.C. Pictorial depictions of the people of Minoa, Crete, show both genders wearing tight, wide belts which compressed the wearer’s midsection, giving men and women alike a wasp-waisted look. The belts also lifted and enhanced the female bust line.

  Other ancient cultures that have practiced similar forms of waist modification include the Dinka people of Africa, whose males still wear beaded corsets to designate age status.2 Waist reduction was also practiced among the Ibitoe of Papua, New Guinea: Young men wore a cinching belt of rigid material as part of a rite of manhood. Men with dainty waists were objects of beauty.

  The rigid modern corset traces its origins to a significant innovation in European corset styles sometime in the middle 16th Century: the introduction of busks, rigid supports sewn into the front of the corset. The busks were first made of wood and were presumably arduous to endure.

  In the late 17th Century, corsets—traditionally long—were cropped above the thighs, and small waists became the rage among fashion plates of both genders. Women’s corsets were structured so as to force the breasts upward. Even officers in the French and British armies engaged in tight-lacing. Military uniforms were tailored to emphasize attenuated masculine waistlines.

  Corsets fell out of favor in the late 18th Century only to regain popularity in the early part of the 19th Century, when wooden busks were replaced by supports made of whalebone and metal. The corset was an essential component of women’s dress throughout the 19th Century, despite warnings from physicians and many women against tight-lacing, which continued for over 100 years. Tight-lacing was blamed for damage to internal organs and for inducing miscarriages. The severe 19th Century corset often interfered with respiration, and corsets were a frequent cause of the “vapors,” which dispatched Victorian women to fainting couches. Yet the appeal of a slender female waistline was firmly established in the Western cultural aesthetic, and so the corset
remained a fashion fixture well into the 20th Century.

  In the early 20th Century a Parisian couturier invented the “slim line,” which emphasized a natural shape. Whalebone was soon replaced by insulated metal stays.3 By this time, a broad variety of styles and materials were used in corset designs. During World War I women allegedly donated enough metal from corsets to the military cause to construct two warships.

  The corset seemed to be threatened during the 1920s, when flappers popularized boyish figures and a minimum of restrictive wear. Perhaps one could take womanhood out of corsets, but apparently one couldn’t take corsets out of womanhood. In order to achieve the slim, no-bulge ideal of the 1920s, well-endowed women tight-laced to fit the fashionably boyish silhouette.

  The 1930s brought a renewed interest in corsets. Plump hips and ample breasts were once again au courant, especially in counterpoint to slender waists, and the hourglass figure came into its heyday. In this decade the Dunlop Rubber Company first began experiments which led to the development of Lastex, a latex end product. With the vastly increased comfort of an elastic garment, the corset’s popularity once again mushroomed. Another company, Warner Brothers, introduced the “roll on,” an elastic corset with lighter control and two-way stretch, which could be pulled on; boning was replaced by heavy stitching or doubled material. Hooks and eyes lost favor when the zipper was invented in 1931.4

  Today’s lingerie catalogues and music videos are full of frilled facsimiles designed to accentuate bosoms, flatten abdomens, and flatter other assets without actually causing changes to the body’s shape. For the purist the traditional styles of Victorian and Edwardian corsets, employing tight laces and boning to create a long-lasting change in body shape, are deemed most desirable. Contemporary versions, however, are more adjustable and comfortable.

  The best-known American retailer catering to today’s serious corset enthusiast is B.R. Creations, which specializes in fanciful designs in sensual fabrics. B.R. obtained corset patterns from Fakir Musafar, who began to take an interest in corsets in the 1940s. By the 1960s he had turned his personal interest into a business. He launched an intensive study of contemporary body types and created patterns designed for the modern figure.

  [I] started a corset company in 1960. It only lasted two or three years. I was ahead of my time: I could only locate about 150 people in the whole world who wanted them. I kept my patterns and made corsets on a limited basis.

  —FAKIR MUSAFAR

  The market for corset enthusiasts and body modifiers who apply themselves seriously to the difficult task of remodeling the torso is rapidly expanding in contemporary North America.

  HOW IT’S DONE

  Reshaping the body through the use of corsets requires slow, steady, and careful progress as well as a sincere commitment and sufficient personal discipline to endure the rigors and initial discomforts. Corset training results in irreversible physical alterations.

  It took about one year [to get my waist to 22 inches]. It started out almost seven inches bigger. It was uncomfortable at times, but you never make it so tight that it’s painful. You find that you can hardly breathe at the start: You have to breathe very differently. You tighten until it’s slightly uncomfortable, and you see how long you can live with that. The next day you do a little more.

  —ALEXIS DEVILLE

  The degree of compression and consequent reduction varies from individual to individual and depends on one’s personal goals. Waists may be reduced by as much as 10 inches or more.

  I’ve had cases—myself included—where one started out with a reasonably slim figure and a waist measurement, in my case 32 inches. Over a period of two months it was possible through very gradual reduction to reduce the size of my waist 10 inches.

  —FAKIR MUSAFAR

  The body gradually accommodates the pressures of the rigid garment. Most corset wearers agree that the discomforts fade. That the corset be customized for an exact fit is crucial. Most enthusiasts purchase intermediate sizes during training. As they grow accustomed to the compression, wearing the corset becomes pleasurable.

  It’s a very good feeling to be cinched tight and have the laces pulled tight.

  —ALEXIS DEVILLE

  Although tight-lacing compresses both one’s external and internal structures, corsetters maintain that no medical evidence exists that such changes are injurious to the body’s health. One must, however, adhere to certain restrictions if she or he wishes to make progress. For one, food intake is necessarily limited. Some physical activities, such as running, are impossible while one is tightly corsetted. Corset fans wear looser models when they plan to be active.

  We’re physically active. The constraints of a longer corset or a tight corset are not conducive to scrubbing boats and climbing around. If I know I’m going to be putting on a heavier corset at the end of the day, I’ll wear something lighter and less restrictive during the day. But I always have something on. I sleep in a corset. I’m in a corset 24 hours a day.

  —JENNY LANE

  All the corsetters whom we interviewed combine a program of consistent corsetting with exercise and dieting.

  I didn’t get [my waist] down just by putting the corset on and lacing it tighter every day. You have to go on a regular program of exercise that restricts the waist.

  —ALEXIS DEVILLE

  Corsets may be worn in order temporarily to reduce the waistline a few inches, but temporary reduction is much less comfortable than conscientious, progressive tight-lacing.

  WHO DOES IT?

  Men and women—whether dominant, submissive, or vanilla—wear corsets. According to Fakir Musafar,

  I identified three basic types of people who buy or use corsets. There [were] corset nonconformists: people who wanted corsets so that they could change the shape of the body so that it was different from other people’s and [to] realize some kind of an aesthetic ideal. There were corset identificationists: people who primarily associated corsets with femininity and feminine undergarments. They didn’t particularly have an interest in sculpting the body, but by wearing the corset they seemed to have a kind of gender transformation. Then I ran into a group of people who were simply corset masochists: There was an old phenomenon of corset slavery in which the corset became an instrument of torture that was applied ruthlessly and regularly to create erotic discomfort.

  —FAKIR MUSAFAR

  Corsetting is frequently a couples’ phenomenon, where the husband encourages the wife to modify her figure. These enthusiasts are often conventional heterosexual couples who do not express interest in sexual alternatives. Our research suggests that among sexually conventional couples who enjoy corsetting, the wives often become converted to the aesthetic under their husbands’ influences and later take pride in their body transformations. Corsetting may become a shared daily experience and a ritual that the couple engages in together for their mutual pleasure.

  [Corsetting for us] first of all is a unique bond. It’s something that I wouldn’t do if it weren’t for [my husband],

  —JENNY LANE

  Many women say that they would continue waist training even if they were no longer married to spouses who fancy corsets.

  Because of the garment’s restrictiveness, a rising interest in corsetting exists among D&Sers, both male and female. Some liken the experience of tight-lacing to bondage and other forms of constraint: They enjoy the imposed constraints of the rigid underclothing.

  I have a corset, which is great for a bottom, because it restricts me. I can’t move around too much. [I] can’t bend too much—it’s got me cinched.

  —ADIDA

  Some D&Sers add bondage restraints to the body while tight-lacing in order to create a greater feeling of captivity. Submissives also may enjoy the fact that the constant restrictions remind them of their sexuality or of their relationships with their dominant partners. Almost all corsetting fans, regardless of sexual orientation, also enjoy complementary garb, such as high heels and stockings.


  In addition to women who opt for corsetting, many cross-dressers and transsexuals undergo corset training to assist in recontouring their bodies to an intensely feminine form. Transgenderist corsetters tend to be either heterosexual or bisexual, but there are also gay and lesbian corset enthusiasts.

  I fetishize Victorian garb on other women. I like to see a woman in corsets and stockings. Although heels don’t do much for me per se, they go along with the outfit.

  —LAURA ANTONIO

  Heterosexual males who modify their bodies with corsets but who do not otherwise cross-dress exist but are in the minority. They may favor the aesthetic of the narrow waist or may use the corset in conjunction with a variety of other restrictive clothing and restraints in bondage scenarios.

  WHY THEY LIKE IT

  The single greatest reason for corsetting is, quite simply, because people find it sexy.

  Helpless women with small waists are a sexual turn-on for men. It’s also a sexual turn-on for women, if they adjust and take to this body training.

  —FAKIR MUSAFAR5

  In this respect, corsetting, more than any other single D&S-related activity, is old-fashioned both in its practice and in its aesthetic. Its attraction often depends on a belief that a fragile, steeply curved physique is intrinsically sexy. From a D&S point of view, the corsetted woman is never completely unencumbered, because her undergarments prevent free physical movement. This may also help to explain why many traditional heterosexual couples incorporate an ostensibly unusual interest into otherwise conventional sex lives: Corsetting, for the most part, equates fragility with femininity.