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Imagine 100 years from now, there will be a documentary on "How Phone and Social Media Addiction led to Depressed and Early Deaths of the Millenials", I can't even imagine old pictures of us with filters lol

"how much poison do you want?" Victorians: "Yes"

The last line what Suzannah said "It makes me wonder what we're oblivious to today" is exactly what I've been thinking throughout the whole documentary.

I just wanted to point out that in your discussion around corsets you forgot to mention that woman wore PADS on their busts and hips to create the 'ideal shape' - in this way most people got the shape without endangering their health through tight lacing. In fact, there are many costume historians (Bernadette Banner for example) who have proved that women who tight-laced were very rare indeed.

It’s sad how I can watch stuff like this on my own but when my teachers assigns a video like this I can’t stand to watch it

It's weird how easy it is for us to go: "Haha people back then were so stupid!", when 200 years from now people will look back at our current way of living and probably come to the very same conclusions about us.

For a more accurate description and discussion of the effect of corsetry on the human body, I would recommend checking out Karolina Zebrowska and Bernadette Banner. Both are fashion historians and have done extensive research (with personal experience) into corsetry. Tightlacing (what has so frequently been misconstrued as "the only method of corsetry") is what we find so distressing today, but was not nearly as widespread as it is commonly made to seem

corsetry is so much more complex and it's definitely worth looking into it through a fashion historian. It's a true art in how they are hand-stitched with whalebone to fit the curves of an individual's body, but it's often assumed that corsets were the thing to hurt people, not people tightlacing them, against the natural flow of their body. Many people talk about corsets as an oppressive commercial scheme, but the hatred and vilification of corsets was just as much about profit. Not to mention: beauty standards for women are constantly changing, tiny waists were definitely not always the norm and the desire.

“The main problem was that they didn’t understand the dangers of what they were doing” ~ Victorian period in a nutshell

Ok but arsenic does make a very pretty green

Just wanna say, that not everyone wore corsets this tight. Women do used to do sports such as tennis and climbing with them on. Tight lacing was a problem though.

My grandmother was born in 1893, she always wore a corset, she did have a prolapse & as an old woman she said she couldn’t stand up straight & walk about without a corset. Listening to my grandmother it may be a case that only a few women tightened their corsets to the extreme, but they certainly did wear them tight or there was no benefit to wearing them. It certainly does answer the question as to why ladies were always swooning & fainting in old novels.

Imagine how depressing it would be to be a 5 year old child working in a factory making toys you could never play with.

I remember being taught a fantastic Victorian nursery rhyme. “Last night the kitchen boiler burst And Father cursed and cursed, But Mother, with a kinder feeling Scraped the housemaid off the ceiling.”

Okay, I made myself watch the entire "killer corset" section before ROASTING THEM on spreading misinformation. They got off to an okay start by very briefly mentioning a general function of the corset for posture, bust, and weight support, and even later specifically mention tightlacing-- which is indeed the real danger -- but they failed to mention how uncommon it was for women to tightlace regularly. They didn't mention the very small percentage of corset-wearing women that actually died from tightlacing. These extreme situations were the exception, not the rule. They didn't stress WHY stays and corsets had been worn for centuries prior. Stays/corsets are support garments. Not only for posture, and bust support, but the primary function was to support the WEIGHT of all of those petticoats and underlayers necessary for achieving the desired silhouette. Can you imagine how uncomfortable it would've been to wear all of that weight suspended entirely on the soft flesh around your abdomen?? That would certainly result in injury without a proper support garment. They made no mention of the bust and hip padding regularly used under corsets in order to build out the fashionable silhouette WITHOUT waist reduction. The "tiny waist" was an ILLUSION by making the other proportions bigger. The *natural* waist looks small by contrast. All of these "extreme" images depicted were DRAWINGS. Of course they're going to look impossible and cartoonish... Since support garments like this seem foreign to us, we are inclined to view the opinions of the period through a modern lens. Corsets weren't this weird thing that was forced upon women for centuries to oppress them. To them, it was no different than the modern bra, a bust support garment. It's just underwear; you don't think it's weird because it's just a standard part of our wardrobe. Many of us know how uncomfortable it can be to wear a bra that doesn't fit correctly (because hello commercially mass-produced standard sizing). At least corsets would be custom fitted to you, and the lacing allows for adjustments with weight fluctuation that happens naturally. Ughhh 30:01 this woman is under-researched and spouting off generalized and unspecific nonsense. It does NOT take HOURS to put on a corset. A woman could dress BY HERSELF in under 10 minutes, including all of those underlayers and yes you CAN put on shoes while wearing a corset. 😤 Finally, allow me to poke holes in their "very revealing" little study about the physiological effects of corset-wearing during physical activity. 1) They did the corset test AFTER she had already tired herself out... of course she's more tired the 2nd time around. How long was she at rest before putting on the corset and going again? 2) You do have to learn to breathe differently with a corset on, and it does take a couple hours to adapt, and learn to use different muscle groups. But even with limiting the waist expansion during the inhale, there shouldn't have been restriction to her ribcage... unless she WAS tightlaced, in which case AGAIN general corsetry is not evil, tightlacing is. She stated that she was not tightlaced, but she should not have been hyperventilating if she wasn't. 3) She kept mentioning "24 inch waist," but at no point do they mention what her natural waist measurement was... what was the difference? Waist reduction of 1-2 inches can still be comfortable, as long as the bust and hips are loose on the body (left loose intentionally for padding). 4) Since corsets are form-fitting, they are highly personal garments. As with all clothing of the period, EVERYTHING you wore was custom tailored to your body measurements. I highly doubt they had time to make the host a custom corset to her actual measurements for this show. Which explains her immediate discomfort and shortness of breath.. unless she was just dramatizing when they put it on. 🤨 "Sigh. Everyone knows corsets are just the worst thing ever." They have lost my respect on historical topics, as they couldn't even be bothered to portray the corset correctly. Complete loss of any credibility they had before. There are several other comments referencing other "cos-tubers" like Bernadette Banner, Abby Cox, Karolina Zebrowska, to name a few. Highly recommend educating yourself with REAL EVIDENCE, and not taking the hot garbage in this video as fact. 🥲

Suzannah: “I feel close to fainting” Karolina and Bernadette: excuse me, what?

In 500 years, instead of this, there will be a hologram showing millennials dropping their phones on their faces while in bed.

To be fair, those patterns are to die for.

About 21:00 - corsetry wasn’t that extreme because they padded themselves out in the hips and shoulders instead of tight lacing. They knew the danger of tight lacing and only a small percentage of women actually did it. When worn normally, nothing anatomical changed internally. Also in most cases the corset would break before the wearer because most corset construction were not created for tight lacing. They weren’t torture they were bras! And they actually helped in places such as posture because they forced a better posture and evenly distributed weight throughout the entire mid section rather than putting all weight and pressure on the shoulders and spine such as modern bras

I remember visiting a wax museum in Blackpool and there was an exhibition on the top floor to do with diseases and medical curiosities. You had to be of certain age and not of a nervous person to enter, but there was a wax exhibit of a victorian lady propped upright in an open coffin with the tiniest waist you can ever imagine. A plague beside it described how tight corsets could lead to early deaths of Victorian ladies. That wax model literally haunted my dreams for years

I love this series because it’s just like, “check out how disgusting we used to be haha, they all died bruh”

In college literature class we read "The Yellow Wallpaper" which told the story of a woman confined to a room due to her deteriorating mental health. It was covered with arsenic laced wallpaper. It was her demise rather than her mental health.

This is amazing to me. I wonder how many people died from wallpaper. All these abandoned buildings and farm houses. Chateaus, castles. Explains a lot.

this sometimes makes me wonder, "what if there's something similar to this in our modern world?" Say, additives in food, or maybe the products we use. What if one day in the far (or near) future, there's a video about us online, talking about it the way this video does now.

"I spend hours in the morning getting into my corset" *bernadette banner and karolina zebrowska have left the chat*

"We don't want people thinking our products are bad. Who cares if there is any proof that it is killing people, Keep selling!!" Big companies never change do they...

Your talking about it being shocking that lead paint wasn't banned till 1970. I live in the USA I bought a house in 2008. While living there my 4 year old tested positive for lead. Turned out that all the white crown moulding in the house had lead paint. It took me over a year to find out.

Remember that quote from Elizabeth Swann from the Prites of the Caribbean? "Women in London must have learned not to breathe". Didn't believe it back then but now, I'm absolutely stumped

Back in the 1950's my grandmother warned me away from playing with an old green window blind. I doubt it was arsenic laden, but she had the knowledge passed down about green things, apparently.

I find the Victorian era fascinating but rather creepy at the same time.

If your corset is uncomfortable and so tight, its the wrong size. Corsets were generally very comfortable

I've been binge watching Absolute History for the past couple of days but this one is my favorite. Not only is it beyond interesting, but the comic visuals of the time depicting the gas explosions are darkly hilarious. Call me childish for laughing, but the one with the flying cat literally made me lol. Seriously though, we should all be appreciative of what these people went through. They experienced the worst part of "trial and error" so we can safely enjoy/use these amenities today.❤❤❤

There’s a difference between “wearing a corset” and “tight lacing a corset”

Yeah but you see with a nice tight corset you can’t breathe in the poison in the green colored wallpaper! Get it?

I always found the Victorian Age fascinating; but scary as well.

I guess that green was truly to die for

No wonder we equate the color green with "sick".

Hey, I just noticed at 34:05 when I was pausing to read the newspaper article ... it says that several people suffocated from gas, but one man and his child were saved by their dog, whose scratching at the door woke the man up just in time. Moral: Be good to animals. They might just save your life.

I love that they said a "Very small percentage of women would tight lace" and the entire take on corsets as a whole is "OMG THEY ARE KILLING THEMSELVES." If you wear the appropriate size and you don't lace tighter than you have to, you'll be fine.

"It makes me wonder what we're oblivious to today" - great final words.

Well at least now we know Victoria's secret.

Seeing things like this just confuse me on how we managed to survive this long 😂

I lost my family, mother, father, and brother. I wear jewelry with their ashes every day. Clearly, I know they are not physically with me. But, it does make me somehow feel close to them. I don’t think some of these things are that odd at all. It’s hard to lose someone you love. No reason to judge anybody for what they need to do to get through such a difficult journey.

In the early 1960s we decorated a dear little room for our upcoming baby. I had chosen a very pale gray with pink roses paper for the walls. When my little girl could stand in her cot, at about 10 months, she would amuse herself for a few moments by licking the wallpaper to wet it then scratch it off. When I saw this I moved the cot out a couple of feet. Imagine if there had been arsenic in that paper. She is nearly 60 now and a doctor. I have never told her this because I had forgotten. Those poor Victorians. But I do love William Morris fabrics nothing to do with showing off. I just love his colours and patterns. Couldn’t the Victorians have felt the same ? I think your judgment maybe a little harsh.

Your toilet leaks methane. Your radiator explodes Your led based toys Arsenic in the walls Borax in your milk and bread. Asbestos insulation. What a great era Edit: 5 thousand likes oh my god you people are legends ilysm ❤❤❤

My grandmother was born in 1897 in New York City. She hated corsets. Women who didn’t wear them were considered loose. My grandmother was very slender and small busted. The corset would ride up and poke her under arms which made her very uncomfortable. She told me the purpose of the corset was so if a man was so bold as to put his arm around your waist he would only feel the bone or metal stays. When her father died, her mother had died when she was very young, she was in her mid-20s. She came home from the funeral and threw all of the corsets in the trash. She switched To wearing camisoles. She lived to be 100 years old.

I live in the USA, lead paint was removed from oil based paint only a few short years ago.. now 2023, my husband is a painter. My nephew was poisoned as a baby in the 90's, he recovered.. but had symptoms for years..I can't imagine him being any more smarter then he is now😊

... mercury as well makes the hatter a mad one.

"is it safe for you to touch?" "probably not" continues to flip through book

My favourite meme will forever be "Being an old timey doctor would rule, being drunk as hell like; "You've got ghosts in your blood, you should do cocaine about it".

Regarding Corsetry: I made this post as a comment to someone’s questions, and I felt it might be useful in clarifying some things for everyone wondering about corsets. Hi, I’m a historian and have been studying Victorian undergarments since I was a kid. Here are some explanations for some FAQ questions, good questions indeed. The images portraying corsets in this video were mostly advertisement drawings. Victorians understood that they were not meant to be real portrayals, just as we understand that animated television or books are not meant to be accurate portrayals of human beings. Even photographs during that time were primitively “photoshopped”, and it was never hidden from the public like photoshopping is now. It was viewed as touching up a painting would have been. This is a really interesting rabbit hole or research I highly recommend, but I will leave this here. Regarding poorer women: Corsets were commonly hand me downs to poorer women, from sisters or mothers. This was good because they corsets were already broken in making them more comfortable regardless of who was wearing them next, and their families body types were likely similar to their own. Tailoring used corsets was an easy path for those who really couldn’t afford a new one, but a corset was viewed as an investment so spending the modern day equivalent of $400 on a custom corset that would last likely 30 years, wasn’t a problem even for the lower class. They also weren’t spending money on cheap products that would wear out in a couple months like we do nowadays, so generally while it was expensive, they weren’t spending money on anything else apart from food and shelter. Also until 1910, women’s garments were not mass produced in factories, and even that was unsuccessful until about 1940 when a general sizing guide was created for women’s mass clothing production, which to this day continues to produce ill fitting clothing anyway. Poorer women generally owned one set of undergarments (chemise, corset, petticoats, etc) and two dresses. Some only owned one set of clothing, and generally all of it lasted years. While in modern times, we spend tens of thousands of dollars on clothing in a lifetime. They were likely receiving most of their garments second hand, free, or making a once in a lifetime purchase such as a good corset. Regarding physical health: Also, yes. Generally speaking the human body should be able to support itself with muscles and bones. But just as scoliosis and other health conditions cause people to need custom fitting back braces now, even with advanced medical science, physical therapy, and exercise knowledge, corsets provided significant relief to people that had even fewer health resources back then to help them. Many women in modern times have opted for wearing a corset when dealing with chronic back pain, myself included, and it can help greatly. Warmth was also a concern in Victorian Era England. Synthetic fabrics and electric or gas heating weren’t invented yet, and coal was an unsustainable expense for lower class Victorians especially. Corsets are a thick garment and are very warm, covering all your vital organs. Again, a good long term investment. Regarding fashion standards: Lastly one cool fact about fashion standards in the pre-20th century western world. Skinny wasn’t the goal. Weight hadn’t yet become a beauty standard. Instead shape was. So while a big contrast between bust, waist, and hips was the desirable look, it would not have been achieved by tight lacing by 99% of the population. Instead, having more fat in your body was desirable. It not only gave you softer facial features, a beauty standard of the time, but also provided good cushion to get smushed around in a corset without it being uncomfortable. This feels pretty much the same as wearing a sports bra. Squished but not uncomfortable. Skinny women would often pad their bosoms and hips underneath their corset for the same effect. Many of these padding garments exist in museums as archives today. A side note is to remember to not place a ton of significance on the actual recorded measurements of corsets in that time period, because often we forget that people in general were much shorter and smaller during that time. This could be attributed to lack of nutrients in the developmental years, especially since the concept of vitamins and nutrients weren’t even created yet. Also why steps are narrower Victorian houses. Smaller feet 👣 I hope this was valuable and interesting.

You’ve done a great job with these videos thanks for sharing !!

"Killer Corsets" **Bernadette Banner has left the chat - in disgust**

"the colour yellow and red is associated with barbaric countries.." Victorians throwing shade at China and India like nobody's business..LOL

Fascinating programme. TY

I've watched these a hundred times and I still find them interesting! I just adore the narrator.

"There will be a huge explosion and you'll be leaving the building without opening the door!" 🤣🤣 his sense of humor is gold.

That old lady's a Savage 😂😂 Reporter: "I can see why they would wear corsets, my waistline is only 24 inches!!!" Old lady: *clears throat* "24 and three quarters" 😂😂😂😂

This is the kind of video that makes you relieved that you’re living today.

One of the most fascinating videos I have ever watched. Thank you!

did anyone else catch that shade at 25:44 ?? LOL Host: "I was delighted to have a smaller waist- 24 inches!" Shady Corset Lady: "24 and three quarters..."

"Benefits of a warm cozy home ment that most were willing to risk the consequences" - Victorian for we here for a good time, not a long time y'all

I was a baby in the early 80s in the US. I actually remember my parents mentioning that they'd made sure not to get lead paint for the house, heh, so I guess that's around when things started changing.

Corsets can't do you any harm unless you're wearing them incorrectly (to tight, not worn as it should be, etc). Fashion historians would say the same thing.

why the hell weren’t they wearing gloves while handling the book full of poison?

37:20 "You could be tucking into your turtle soup and the next thing there's a huge explosion and you could be leaving the building without opening the door" DRAMATIC MUSIC

00:46:15 Hey, just to let you know. The drawing is actually of a 23 year old Viennese woman, before and after getting sick from cholera in 1831. The drawing is in a book called The Sick Rose by Richard Barnett, which is a really cool book filled with drawings of diseases. Ifv you like to learn about historic medicine I would defiantly recommend it. Not trying to be rude just wanted to be helpful.

I absolutely love these docs !! Thank you

The image of that liver with the ridges in it is burned into my memory forever. Absolutely sickening.

Something they helpfully leave out is that the small waist illusion was mostly achieved by padding the hips and bust

Love watching documentary like this

As a Yankee I’m FASCINATED by these documentaries

Some politician during Victorian time would eat the wallpaper to show how safe it was. Some politician, nowadays, would drink Flint Michigan water to show how safe it was.

I can't imagine how families dealt with the deaths in this era. "Oh Mummy, I heard Grandmother died! Was it the borax in her milk or her radiator exploding?" "No love, it was the arsenic in those emerald green walls of hers". "Ah, just the way Grandfather died".

Wow these documentaries are great!

How sad! They designed such beautiful items with amazing style. What a tragedy that many items were unsafe!

So you’ve got a choice between milk with tb or poison walls Victorians: I’ll take the lot

Victorian middle-class..."measuring how good your life is based on how many objects you own & your taste dictated by the media"...gee wez, just like today😀

Thank you for this lesson in history.

Excellent documentary 👏👏🍿

I had gaslighting installed in my flat when my ex moved in with me. Wouldn't recommend.

Narrator: “I’m headed to the nursery to seek out the next killer-“ Me- “The baby!”

Corsets didnt crush anything if tailored and worn right, so any crushing going on was due to improper sizing and lacing

Once I heard the squeaking sound of the door, I was obsessed!

No wonder infant mortality rate was so high. The real wonder is how anyone, at least anyone in England, survived to adulthood.

"even if you hadn't eaten the wallpaper you'd still be in danger" just caused me to lose it laughing my ass off

I just love all of Suzannah's videos ❤. So well done..

And history repeats itself over and over, “heartless industrialists” for example the chemicals that used to be used to make Teflon products and the DuPont disaster

One day, future historians will look back on us now regarding plastic surgery and talk about the extraordinary lengths people went to fit the idea of beauty Comparatively maybe corsets aren't that bad lol 🤔

Parents 2020: Why dees kids on their phone all the time? Parents in victorians: Why these kids in their coffin all the time?

I love this content, thank you so MUCH

Wow! Very interesting. I love history. And, yes, this made me think of what we're oblivious to today.

"Well, if I could just show you..." *suddenly, a naked guy's torso appears*

the odd part is that arsenic was a known poison in the Roman times...

it is really interesting thank you!!

I had a teacher in high school that would joke about how it seemed people died so easily in the past. These hidden killers in the homes makes that make sense

🧐 Mr. Green... in the drawing room... with the arsenic 🧐

Companies have always prioritized money over people's lives :/

Fascinating episode! Suzanne, your coat color is gorgeous and so flattering…