CBSE Class 9 Answered

From childhood, girls dressed in stays, tightly laced up by bounds. This was done in order to restrict their bodily growth and contain them within clothes to suit the image of a delicate, passive and docile lady. When they grew slightly older, girls were made to wear extremely tight corsets, which ‘enhanced’ their figures. Tightly laced, small waisted women were considered attractive, elegant and graceful. Clothing thus reinforced the image of frail, submissive Victorian women.