Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-02-02

GN MOST civilized countries the women
folks go in. as they have for centuries
for walstlines that are slim and trim.
In the well-known cycle Of fashions the
waist may move up or down an inch or
two but the czars of what the French
call ia Mode" design most OF their out
fits around mid-section that is not at
all on the plump side.
In Grandma's day, as the phrase goes.
the maid or the matron. without a small
waist just couldn't wear the get-ups of
the period and present much OF an
appearance Exercise for young ladies.
or ladies' not so young. was not popular
in those days (around the turn of the
century, so the gentler sex did 1t with
stays"
The so-caled wasp waist may not have
been thing of beauty and a JOY forever
But il accentuated the hips and the bust
and made the girls look very fetching
That they were uncomfortable with their
-abdomens trussed all out of shape. few
of the women who survived that era will
deny.
1t was the common custom for the
WOfneTIOlh TO lOtIi liit i'Ii6 SNihiSH Va
their corsets around a bedpost, and
heave away like a man in tug-of-war
With each lunge the waist got little
closer to the hour glass pattern and
the hips seemed to increase in width
and Fe1fHdHess.
Such goings-on made sense to the
makers of corsets and 10 the dress
makers but they contributed nothing to
the health of American womanhood. In
fact more than few hard-headed
doctors and "reformers" argued vehe-
mently against the folly of the wasp
waist and urged members of the gentler
sex to think of their insides and to
blazes with their silhouettes.
In time the advice began to sink in.
Anyway fashions took a change for the
better and La Mode" allowed the girls
a little more room for the vital parts of
their anatomy that they carried around
within Came what the suffragettes and
womens rights advocates called "eman-
cipation." 1t became proper for girl
to "go to business" instead of waiting
for Mr. Right TO come along and marry
her II also occurred to more than a
that exercise was proper even If shenan-
igans that made them perspire and get
red in the face were frowned upon as
unladylike. When thousands of girls
discovered the benefits of tennis and
golf. and a dozen other sports, the old
stays" of steel and whalebone were
doomed, and all attempts to bring them
back have failed.
The small waist is still in vogue-but
the method of getting and keeping a
trim center-section is quite different
from what it was in the days of the gas
light and the hanson cab Now the
trick is done with exercises-like those
shown in the photographs on this page.
From one end of the country to the
other women of all ages are attending
gym classes. going to health Institutes,
charm schools" working alone at
home to keep the poundage from piling
I'D around their waists, and elsewhere.
They bend and stretch and twist and
roll They hang monkey-like from bars
and lie on the floor with their feet over
their heads They walk and swim and
ride. Some of them play baseball not
to mention climbing into the squared
circle to box and "wresse." And
surprising number of them have waists
that are slim and slightly without benefit
of heavy harness.