Question and answer session.

Trawling back through one of my favourite blogs the other day, I came across an interesting entry.

Someone had asked the question:
"What is a man's perspective on corsets? Do you wear one? What do you get from it (back support, trans-gender, sexually gratifying, etc.)? What do you love about a woman (or man) in a corset? Is a corset something you occasionally wear or train with? Was it difficult to explain to a partner or people in public what the corset is for?"

I'm not a member of fetlife, which is where the question had originally come from, but since I think it's an interesting sort of 'how others see us' type of thing, I'll answer it here.

What is a man's perspective on corsets?
I can't speak for 'men' generally, but in a word, they're sexy.  With the possible exception of old photos of Victorian corsetry, I don't recollect seeing a photo of anyone wearing one who didn't look hot in it.

Do you wear one?
I certainly do.  Not as often or regularly as some (most?) people,  and I do go through quite long spells of not lacing up, but like the proverbial moth to its flame, I always find myself going back to it.  

What do you get from it (back support, trans-gender, sexually gratifying, etc.)?
Well, historically, the 'raison d'être' for corsetting was to improve the posture and deportment of the wearer, so I guess back support is part and parcel of that.  At any rate, I will say from experience that when you wear a corset, the one thing you cannot do is slouch in it!
I love wearing mine from time to time with girls' underwear and heels: the gender-bending aspect really appeals to me.  But while for me it's all a bit of good fun, I don't personally want to go down the actual trans-gender road: I'm happy as I am and don't want to look outwardly like a female, still less, be one.
Yes, sexual gratification enters into it.  That, coupled with a fairly strong element of bondage: a corset is tight!  I think I look hot in a corset, and people tell me I do.  One of the photos I posted a while back attracted the comment: "Makes me want to buy a corset, you look stunning and very fuckable". I was immensely flattered, and the fact that it was - I think - posted by another guy doesn't bother me in the slightest.  It's a definite turn-on to wear a corset, especially a womens' one (I have no desire whatever to wear a specifically male one).

What do you love about a woman (or man) in a corset?
Oh - the hourglass look: the slim waist and flat stomach.  On purely aesthetic grounds I'm not a great fan of extreme corsetting, although I can appreciate what drives some people to do it.

Is a corset something you occasionally wear or train with?
I've never personally gone in for proper training in a corset.  I wear a corset for fun and enjoyment and while I certainly like the results I don't do it with any particular goal in view.

Was it difficult to explain to a partner or people in public what the corset is for?"
To my partner - no.  I don't want to go into details, but it just fell into the category of being supportive and understanding over a taste or preference that they don't share with you, and that's something which also works in reverse of course.
In public, no-one has ever found out.  My corset is virtually undetectable under normal clothes so I've never wanted or needed to explain it to anyone. 

Limitations

A little over year has elapsed since I last wrote about my corseting experiences - twelve months in which I twice had to go into hospital for an operation.  Leaving aside the considerations of what the doctors and nurses would make of a guy wearing a corset (I daresay that in A&E they've probably seen it all before anyway) it wouldn't have been altogether practical - unfortunately.  But with that hopefully behind me, it's time to pick up from where I left off.

If there's one thing that almost eighteen years of wearing a corset has taught me, it's that once you stop lacing up regularly, even for a short while, you soon slip back to where you were in terms of waist reduction.  Whilst I have, on many occasions, worn a very tight corset for hours and hours it doesn't, and can't, result in a permanent effect.  In fact there's a certain logic behind the supposition that wearing it little and often is in fact more effective than periodic 'binge' corseting with long gaps in between.  I suppose it all depends on what you want in the long term, as well as what opportunities come your way.

So where am I now?  In a 30" PVC corset to be precise: together with a blue denim one it's one of two 30" ones I own.  The laces don't *yet* tighten fully so it's far from a perfect fit on me, but comfortable enough to remind me of why I love being in a corset so much and what I've been missing this past year.  

Shouldn't be too long before I can get back into the 28" one which was always my favourite, but whether I can make it to a 26" once again is more of a debatable point.  I achieved the near-impossible five year ago, and posted a set of photos showing how tight it was compared to a pair of 34"jeans:

       
I have to come clean and confess that I have doubts as to whether that level of tightlacing would have been particularly sustainable in the long term: I mean there must be limits as to how much it's physically possible (let alone desirable) to take waist reduction to, and I have distinct recollections of starting to feel slightly bruised almost, which may account for why I didn't persevere with it. 

Visually on the other hand it was pretty stunning, I thought, and the accompanying opportunities for gender-bending are and always have been for me very much the icing on the cake as far as being in a corset goes: