One thing that I see repeatedly on the corset tags, which is honestly shocking and sometimes keeps me from updating fuckyeahcorsets as often as I really should be, is the word ‘thinspo’.

SO OFTEN, that word pops up in the tags on a picture of a corset.  A beautiful underbust will be tagged as #corset #underbust #lace #beautiful #skinny #thin #thinspo #thinspiration

No.

I’m not going to speak at all about eating disorders, because I know it’s an immensely convoluted issue (and a road I’ve been down myself in the past, that I don’t ever want to get bogged down in again) but I am going to talk about the word thinspo.

This word should never, ever be applied to corsets.

A corset is designed to mould your body into a specific shape.  It does this by compressing and constricting your torso and abdomen.  That’s what it is, that’s what it does.

This has nothing to do with your natural weight.  You can be 100 pounds or 300 pounds, and a corset will have the exact same effect, and make you the exact same shape.  If the corset is tightlaced, it is a shape and size that is impossible to achieve proportionally without use of a corset.  

Calling the extreme figure cut by someone in a tightlaced corset thinspiration is as absurd as me looking at a person with braces and calling it straighttoothspirational.  It’s an effect being created by physical manipulation, and unless I delve into the same physical manipulation, I will never look like that.  It is not naturally achievable.

Corsets are in no way thinspiration, and should not be tagged or viewed as such.  Corsets are not a way to get thinner quickly, or some kind of target to aim for.  Corsets are for people of all sizes, whether they enjoy the aesthetic of them, the feeling of being held snugly, or are aiming for the tightlaced hourglass look.  (Which requires virtually no change to diet.)

If you are reading this, and suffering from any kind of eating disorder, please get help.  The phrase is tossed around a lot these days, but it does get so much better, and there really is a better and happier world waiting for you, however hard you have to fight, and I believe in your strength, and ability to make it here.  Recovery is vicious, but so unbelievably worth it.