WAY TO SHINE

If the corset first appeared in the 14th century, the first strong arguments against it were put forward 500 years later, in the Victorian era. 

The Victorians formed the Rational Dress Society, which propagandized for healthier and more sensible dress for women.

Moreover, a loose dress, i.e. a dress without a corset, was worn by some feminists and aesthetes. Aesthete women were women who belonged to the famous aesthete movement in art, a movement which celebrated luxury, excess beauty and "art for art's sake". This type of loose dress was called aesthetic dress.

The famous Victorian models Lizzie Siddall and Jane Morris both often wore aesthetic dress. Henry James thought this very odd when he once visited the Morrises (Jane and her husband, the famous author and artist William Morris).

Today, the Victorian corset is read as both constricting and as one of the few ways Victorian women had to express their sexuality.

I think this view is better than saying that the corset was absolutely oppressive. The corset was, for the Victorian woman, an important part of her wardrobe, and an important way to draw male attention. Working women wore the corset as well as the women of the aristocracy and the middle class. Also (as the massive research by Leigh Summers has shown) there were women entrepreneurs who made and sold corsets in the Victorian era.

Women always find a way to shine in the midst of great repression and rejection!