Opposed to wearing corsets or promoting freedom from restrictive clothing.
From anti- (against) + corset (from French corps, meaning body). The anticorset movement emerged during the 1890s-1920s as part of women's liberation.
The anticorset movement revolutionized women's fashion—corsets could restrict breathing and damage organs, so activists fought for looser, more comfortable clothing and actually improved public health.
Opposition to corsets arose primarily in late 19th-century discourse, which gendered the garment as uniquely 'feminine' despite its worn by all genders historically. 'Anticorset' rhetoric often used women's supposed physical weakness as justification, reinforcing Victorian assumptions rather than supporting actual bodily autonomy.
Use 'restrictive fashion reform' or 'garment autonomy' to describe the movement without gendering criticism or implying feminine fragility.
["garment autonomy","sartorial freedom","fashion reform"]
Women like Frances Power Cobbe and Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi led the actual corset critique on anatomical and health grounds, reclaiming authority over their bodies against medical paternalism.
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