There is no denying the fact that many of the European women believed in the ideas of womanhood. The ideals were in the air they breathed, the education they received at school or at home and the literature they read. Right from childhood, they grew up to believe that having a small waist was a duty of woman. For a woman, suffering pain was essential. To be seen as attractive, they had to wear the corset. The torture and pain this inflicted on the body was to be accepted as normal.
