I am afraid since we live in Paris, my husband has only just been able to get a copy of your excellent magazine Vol.3 No. 2, which is now probably very old. I was nevertheless very interested to read the letter from E.W. of Lancs in this issue on the subject of corsets for boys, as I am particularly interested in this subject.

I have always believed boys should be corseted in just the same way as girls need to be when they are young. Like most of our attitudes on what is right or wrong, I suppose I am influenced in this by my own experience as a child, and that of my brother. I was made to wear corsets from the age of thirteen, since my mother held the view that corsets were essential for all children as soon as their figures started to develop, and my twin brother was put into corsets at the same time as I.

My mother believed that at this age a boy's figure needs firm support and control just as much as a girl's, and that as it develops it should be shaped in just the same way to ensure a good figure afterwards. As a result our corsets were strong and well boned, and although at thirteen we didn't have them laced severely, my mother said it was important they were tight enough to pull our waists in several inches, and make us feel properly corseted and firm all the time.

At this age we naturally resented the restriction, particularly the way the heavy boning made us feel as if we were imprisoned in a cage, and I used to think it was most unfair that because I was a girl I had to wear my corsets all day, even at school, whereas my brother did not. As soon as he got home from school in the afternoons however, he had to have his on, and to make up for the time lost during the day, my mother often used to make him wear them at night too.

As we got older we were corseted more strictly, and had to spend long periods tightly laced, sometimes with our arms strapped behind our backs if we had been difficult while we were being laced up. David was laced just as tightly as I for these sessions, and was usually made to wear schoolgirl clothes over his corsets, as my mother said girls' clothes were more comfortable and easier to wear in corsets than boys' clothes, and in any event she said it did him good to know what it felt like to be a girl.

At this stage, when we were about fourteen, she also had special night corsets made for us, which we had to wear in bed. These were boned much more heavily than our others, and come right down to our knees, and were laced so tightly we could hardly move. Whilst I can remember many tearful scenes as we were being laced up at bed time, we nevertheless gradually got accustomed to them, as we had to our others, and to the feeling of being in corsets virtually twenty four hours a day. I suppose, because we were children, we came to accept the discipline in time without more than normal protests and pouts, but all the time, of course, we were getting so used to the feeling that eventually we reached the stage of feeling very strange and uncomfortable whenever we hadn't got corsets on. We both admitted by then to rather liking the feeling of being firmly supported and pulled in, and I suppose that was the point at which we both became firm adherents of corsets.

When we were sixteen my mother no longer insisted on my brother being corseted but by then he preferred to go on wearing them whenever he could. In my own case, since I was a girl, my mother did not give me the choice but, but insisted on even firmer corsets for me and very tight lacing, except when I was actually at school. When I was seventeen I had a seventeen inch waist in corsets and although I suffered, I was old enough by then to be rather proud of this, and even like the feeling of it.

My brother and I are now thirty-five, but looking back, I am now very grateful to my mother for the strict training I had as a child, as I have always had an excellent figure, and even now, after having two children, I still have a twenty three inch natural waist, which I can lace into nineteen inches.

From my brother's point of view, he still wears corsets every day with the result that he has an excellent upright figure with no sign of a middle aged spread. Indeed I am quite convinced that most men should wear corsets and that the time to start is while they are boys. Soon after we were married I insisted on my husband wearing corsets, and although to start off there was a tussle, he would not now dream of leaving them off. My brother married a girl who, like me, had been corseted as a child and she too has an excellent figure as a result.

My husband and I have two children, a girl of ten and a boy of eight, and it is certainly our intention to put them both into corsets in a few years time. My brother and his wife have just one boy, now nine, and they intend to corset him when he is twelve. Indeed, they are already preparing him for this, as my sister in law makes him wear a tight elastic panty girdle instead of ordinary boys' pants, so he gets used to the feeling of slight restriction these give. Also she now makes him sleep with a tight elastic belt round his waist every night.

Like my mother, I am now firmly convinced that corsets are very beneficial for children of both sexes and that the age to start is around twelve to thirteen. I should love to see letters from others who share this view, and particularly from those who believe boys should be corseted. I should also like to read more letters from boys who have been corseted, describing their views if they are now adult.

M.B France