The Wasp — 1896 — page 270: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

The cartoon depicts a thin man being physically restrained by a larger woman, with the caption: "Mr. Oldheus, will you kindly assist me to get into my carriage? 'Certainly, Miss De Sleeves, but it will be necessary for you to remove your corsets first—other clothes first!'" The satire mocks the excessively restrictive Victorian corsetry worn by fashionable women of the era. The joke suggests that a woman's corseted figure is so tightly compressed that she cannot fit through a carriage door without removing her undergarments first. This was a common satirical theme criticizing both the impracticality and potential health dangers of extreme corseting—a popular target of period humor mocking women's fashion constraints.