Uhh, no. I can testify that whalebone corsets really are whalebone corsets. They are not all that comfortable, given that their purpose was to rearrange the location of your internal organs so you'd look prettier.
It makes one wonder if perhaps the phrase whalebone corset isn't really a euphemism for something completely different.
"Why was Eulalia looking so blissful during Parson Weems's sermon?" "Oh, it's that new whalebone corset that Ishmael carved for her; she's still breaking it in!"
Plethora's right. The book continues: "Although this claim, like that of drug {specifically opium} use, seems to fly in the face of the island's staid Quaker reputation, in 1979 a six-inch plaster penis (along with a batch of letters from the nineteenth century and a laudanum bottle) was discovered hidden in the chimney of a house in the island's historic district." (same page)
"An island tradition claims that Nantucket women dealt with their husbands' long absences by relying on sexual aids known as 'he's-at-homes.'" --Nathaniel Philbrick, In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, 17
... a beer and a remote control?
So, what would be the definition of a she's-at-home?
oooooh! Meta!
Sionnach, why do say "why do you hate freedom"? Do you hate freedom?
Oh great, NOW I'm craving ribs...
So you're a raging feminist. How enragingly cute.
Why do you hate freedom so much?
You forgot "raging."
;)
So you're a feminist. How cute. ;-)
Some women actually did have lower ribs surgically removed for that purpose. In the 20th century.
(Does anyone really wonder why I'm a raging feminist?)
Surgery would do that more comfortably, no doubt.
Uhh, no. I can testify that whalebone corsets really are whalebone corsets. They are not all that comfortable, given that their purpose was to rearrange the location of your internal organs so you'd look prettier.
It makes one wonder if perhaps the phrase whalebone corset isn't really a euphemism for something completely different.
"Why was Eulalia looking so blissful during Parson Weems's sermon?"
"Oh, it's that new whalebone corset that Ishmael carved for her; she's still breaking it in!"
Along with a faded, confessional manuscript: "I was a godemiche model on Nantucket", by Sybian O' Lisbos.
Plethora's right. The book continues:
"Although this claim, like that of drug {specifically opium} use, seems to fly in the face of the island's staid Quaker reputation, in 1979 a six-inch plaster penis (along with a batch of letters from the nineteenth century and a laudanum bottle) was discovered hidden in the chimney of a house in the island's historic district."
(same page)
That's all he says about it, though.
I totally agree, s. If it helps, I found it described as "six inches of cold hard plaster" :D
This calls out for a pictorial representation.
"An island tradition claims that Nantucket women dealt with their husbands' long absences by relying on sexual aids known as 'he's-at-homes.'"
--Nathaniel Philbrick, In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, 17