FASHION MARTYRS Richard J B Willis
Time was when health educators found corsets to be the object of their condemnation. A typical comment, by Dr J H Kellogg, made the matter very clear: 'We scarcely ever met a lady who would admit that her corset was tight … We read the other day … of a young woman who actually broke a rib in the attempt to gain another half-inch on her corset string …'
Suffering for the sake of fashion reveals an ambivalent attitude to the human body, an attitude which has fascinated writers down through the years. I wonder how we might feel about Augustine of Hippo's speculation that, since nothing will be hidden or shameful about our resurrection body, we will be transparent and will enjoy 'the sight of each other's harmoniously arranged livers and intestines in paradise'!
The Church Father, Tertullian, also reflected on the resurrection and our future appearance, he says, 'we will not chew in heaven, but we will have teeth, because we would look funny without them'! There are some people now who do not want to chew. They have their jaws wired in an effort to restrict their diet and so reduce their weight. Others have had half of their stomach removed, or had it stapled for the same reason. We can sympathise with people driven to such desperate measures.
Involuntary loss of body parts in martyrdom for one's faith is also understandable, although few would be able to approach physical torture in the same frame of mind as James the Dismembered. As he was losing his digits he said sweetly, 'Go, third toe, to thy companions, and as the grain of wheat bears much fruit, so shalt thou rest with they fellows unto the last day … Be comforted, little toe, because great and small shall have the same resurrection'!
A recent report states that women in the UK have little respect for their feet, unlike James! One in five women wear painful shoes of a type to please their partners or employers. Another study conducted by a clinic in Oxford says that one in ten women are prepared to wear uncomfortable shoes if they look good. Over 80 per cent of women surveyed said that they would not change the type of shoes they wore to improve foot problems, and one in six women believed that compressed toes indicated a correctly fitting shoe.
In should come as no surprise in the light of such disregard that women in the United States are opting to have their second toes (on each foot) amputated in order to fit their feet into new slim-line fashion shoes. The research concludes: 'Improvements in woman's foot health are only likely when healthy, well-fitting shoes become a norm for society, within or without the realms of fashion'. Shoe manufacturers have not given foot health priority.
How we regard the body is of prime importance from a physical as well as a spiritual view of life. We might have to be martyrs for our faith, but there is no necessity to add martyr to fashion to the burden!