Can we wear our corsets?
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By Frances Cooke
Life behind the net curtains of typical English houses during the First World War was not apparently always as it seems.
We have all seen black and white photographs from that time, and of course watched the period dramas like "Upstairs Downstairs" on the television.
We can picture in our mind the typical drawing room scene. The upright father in his dark suit, the timid-looking mother at her writing desk, the elder son in his Army uniform, the young girl in her lace trimmed pinafore, and finally the maid in her starched apron and cap, all posed rigidly for the camera.
But imagine, if you would, that the timid looking mother is really in charge of the family, and that beneath that frilly blouse and cameo broach lies the heart of a true dominatrix.
Her husband sits so erect in his chair because of the tightly-laced female corset which he has been forced to wear for years and years.
The young girl is, in fact, a 14 years old boy, put into pinafores to curb his early signs of waywardness and rough manners. Underneath, he has to wear his corset day and night to train his waist to become as tiny as possible.
The elder son, also in a lace-trimmed corset under his khaki uniform, has only enlisted to stop his fiancee dressing him up and treating him a like a maid.
And the maid herself, she's of course a boy as well. A young nephew who came to stay when his mother died, and found himself forced into female domestic service.
Far fetched? Perhaps, but only because such a number of males dominated into corsets, pinafores, and maids' uniforms were unlikely to be all in one household. However they did exist, individually, all around London and the rest of the country, and most likely every other country in Europe.
The evidence is presented in a recently published collection "Confidential Correspondence on Cross Dressing 1911- 1915", edited by Peter Farrer. It makes fascinating reading.
For example, let's start with the young recruit. You may have heard of British men who failed to enlist during the First World War being handed white feathers by women in the street as a sign of cowardice. But some women went very much further, as a letter printed in a newspaper of June 1915 pointed out.
This was from a wife of a 24 years old man who had thought twice about volunteering for the trenches. She and some friends had formed their own corps, with the women all dressed in khaki and the men as maids...
"Most of us have husbands who will not join the forces, and we have compelled them under persuasion and application of the birch to don female attire and do all the housework."
"We hold meetings in each other's houses. Our husbands have to wait on us and call us "Sir", and we always say "Miss" to them. I expect they feel awfully foolish when they have to get matches and light our cigarettes and dust around the room with us looking on."
"We sometime take them on our knees, and one poor boy had the humiliation of being made to stand in a corner. This is exactly what wants doing with those who won't enlist. We have made them feel ashamed of themselves."
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