On heaving bosoms
Monday, January 10th, 2011 07:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tsaikoWork is sucking like a hoover. So I'm not going to talk about work. Instead, I'm going to talk about the term "heaving bosom."
I was searching for "heaving bosom" in Google Books (don't even ask, I'm not sure I could even explain my thought process) when I found an interesting chapter in a book about corsets. Obviously, the term "heaving bosom" was popularized during the Victorian era. At that time, it was fashionable to have very tight corsets. So tight, in fact, that it restricted breathing and could cause damage to internal organs. The extreme of this trend lead to the wasp waist phenomenon.
When you tightly lace a corset, two things happen. One, it becomes hard to breathe. Two, if you're female, your boobs get pushed up and together. In Victorian times, the most dramatic and daring outfit a young lady wore was a ball gown, which would be low cut with maybe some lace to keep it from being too immodest. This would also be when young ladies would have their corsets tightened the most. Then they would get on a dance floor, in an enclosed ball room with dozens of people and candles/oil lamps, and dance.
So what would happen is the women would get over heated and out of breath from dancing. The corset prevented them from breathing deeply. So they'd start panting, causing a rapid rise and fall of their chests. Which were accentuated by the corset and style of ball gown, making the rise and fall of their bosoms very noticeable. And there you have your heaving bosom, which was quite the focus of sexual admiration in Victorian times.
Now you know. And knowing is half the battle.
I was searching for "heaving bosom" in Google Books (don't even ask, I'm not sure I could even explain my thought process) when I found an interesting chapter in a book about corsets. Obviously, the term "heaving bosom" was popularized during the Victorian era. At that time, it was fashionable to have very tight corsets. So tight, in fact, that it restricted breathing and could cause damage to internal organs. The extreme of this trend lead to the wasp waist phenomenon.
When you tightly lace a corset, two things happen. One, it becomes hard to breathe. Two, if you're female, your boobs get pushed up and together. In Victorian times, the most dramatic and daring outfit a young lady wore was a ball gown, which would be low cut with maybe some lace to keep it from being too immodest. This would also be when young ladies would have their corsets tightened the most. Then they would get on a dance floor, in an enclosed ball room with dozens of people and candles/oil lamps, and dance.
So what would happen is the women would get over heated and out of breath from dancing. The corset prevented them from breathing deeply. So they'd start panting, causing a rapid rise and fall of their chests. Which were accentuated by the corset and style of ball gown, making the rise and fall of their bosoms very noticeable. And there you have your heaving bosom, which was quite the focus of sexual admiration in Victorian times.
Now you know. And knowing is half the battle.