In issue XXXII.6 of Good Health published in 1897, Abba Gould Woolson, an advocate for dress reform, is recorded as saying: “The requirements of health and the style of female attire which custom enjoins are in direct antagonism to each other.” This tension between fashion and health for middle class women has persisted through the nineteenth century and still exists today. It is more important for the female body to be contained and managed than for the body to be healthy. Anxiety about the female body is evident in fashion and beauty trends through the 19th century to the present.            

One of the most obvious instances of harmful clothing is the corset. In her article, "Crossing the Bearing Straits," Lori Duin Kelly explains that Fashion magazines effused the idea that only women with narrow waists could be included in fashionable culture. The corset became a necessity for women who wished to gain access to the public sphere (Kelly 1). The corset, a device that, on average, put twenty-one pounds of pressure on the female body, was the sanctioned uniform; women who did not wear one were confined to the home (Kelly 2). Even pregnant women continued to wear corsets because there was no fashionable alternative. While medical authorities advised women of the dangers of corset wearing while pregnant, the equally convincing voice of the fashion magazine offered no other option. Victorian women considered their knowledge of fashion as essential to performing their role as a women; childbearing was equally crucial to that role. A woman had to choose to sacrifice either her public persona, confining herself to the home in her non-fashionable dress, or risk harming the health of herself and her unborn child (Kelly 7).

Both medical and social pressure was applied to the female body in the 19th century, shaping it to fit a norm that very few women could naturally live up to. In his article "Sexuality, Class, and Role in Nineteenth-Century America," Charles E. Rosenburg writes that the Victorian Era is acknowledged as repressing and deforming sexuality (131). Medical and social forces attempted to control private sexual activities like masturbation and frequency of intercourse within marriage (Rosenberg 136). Self-control was highly valued and considered virtuous in nineteenth-century America. Rosenberg writes, “To allow the passions—among which sexuality was only one—to act themselves out, was to destroy and hope of creating a truly Christian personality (137). While Rosenberg does not address the control of the physical female body with dress, the repression and reshaping of female sexuality is clearly extended to the physical body in 19th century America. The spirit of control and reshaping is consistent in the use a device to create an ideal body. The female form is literally contained, keeping it from its natural state. Aguably, the natural state of the female body was (and is) too overtly sexual; to contain the body is to control the passions thus an uncontained female body was deemed dangerous to Christian society.

Another case of the reformation of the female form for the sake of fashion appears in the high-heeled shoe. In 1884, the Annals of Hygiene  published an article titled, “The Influence of the Constant Use of High-Heeled French Shoes upon the Health and Form of the Female, and Upon the Relation of the Pelvic Organs.” The article describes the ideal female foot thus: “Great breadth and fullness of instep, a well-marked great toe, a long second toe, projecting a little beyond the great toe, and a very small, or in some cases, an almost suppressed little toe” (22). The article shows diagrams of the above-described healthy female foot with that foot damaged by constant wearing of high heels. The author writes, “The casual observation of awkwardness and unsteadiness of carriage of the wearers of high-heeled shoes, and the occasional occurrence of injuries to the feet and ankles attributed to their use had long ago impressed him with the belief that the inexorable precept of fashion had lengthened the shoe heel far beyond the conveniences of easy and graceful locomotion and that results would follow their continued use other, and perhaps graver than the callosities, bunions, ingrowing nails, sprained ankles, and painful calves which so frequently torment the votaries of this reprehensible practice” (22). The “inexorable precept of fashion" has not changed much today. The high heel remains a pillar of female dress. 

While modern women have largely banished the corset, fashion and beauty trends are still often at odds with female health. In her book Plucked: A History of Hair Removal, Rebecca M. Herzog writes about the cultural context surrounding the popularity of the Brazilian wax. Pubic hair was not much thought of until 1946 when the bikini became popular. Even then, shaping or shaving pubic hair was uncommon. In 1971, a survey of college students reported only two percent of women shaped or shaved their pubic hair in any way (Herzog 156). By the late 2000s gynecologists were reporting that it was rare to treat a woman under thirty who had not altered her pubic hair (156). In her article “Bush,” Lucy Ferris describes the Brazilian wax procedure, the physical pain associated with the practice, and the potential health risks. “The Full Brazilian uses a combination of hot beeswax and liquid rosin to remove every bit of hair from the buttocks and adjacent to the anus, perineum, and vulva. Folliculitis, a staph infection of the hair follicles, is one risk of the procedure, and can require incision and drainage. After a searing hour in which the hair is ripped out of the most sensitive membranes of their bodies, most women experience lingering discomfort for five days or less, but…the procedure needs to be repeated for maximal benefit, three weeks later” (82) Women are pressured by the media to feel shame about pubic hair. The popularity of waxing reveals the potential health risks caused by the procedure are not as frightening as the social consequences of having natural pubic hair. A woman must contain her pubic hair under clothing, or else eliminate it. 

The removal of pubic hair suggests an effort a return to youth. This obsession with agelessness extends to the common use of Botox, a wrinkle reducing injection. The Clinical Infections Diseases Journal published an article requesting for these injections to include a warning. While seemingly innocuous, this injection caused 16 deaths in 2008 when the botulinum toxin spread throughout the body. Other side effects included “muscle weakness, difficulty swallowing, or aspiration pneumonia” (iv). A current advertisement for Botox shows a woman’s face without wrinkles or pores. This woman looks to be in her 20s, while the majority of women using botox would be over forty. This ad’s assertion that these results would be attainable with skin that is twenty years older is misleading. Anti-aging products like Botox have changed the landscape upon which women operate. It no longer is enough to take care of your skin and age gracefully. In order to keep up with peers, there is increasing pressure to indulge in a treatment like Botox regardless of health risks. Botox's purpose is to contain and reshape the face, keeping it from settling into its natural form. 

Fashion and beauty trends may appear innocuous and fleeting. However, when one studies these trends in relation to the female body, it becomes clear that their purpose is to resist the natural female form. In the 19th century, the corset and high heel reshaped the female body in a more tangible way. However modern beauty trends like waxing and Botox serve a similar purpose. In all four cases, these trends cause the female body to exist in an unnatural and painful state in order to fit into an idealized form.