Wasp waist

With wasp waist is in fashion a particularly narrow, pointed waist designated (as well as the waist of a wasp, particularly the members of the insect suborder waist wasps ). Especially in women's fashion, the wasp waist from time to time as the desirable ideal is defined. The narrowing of the waist belt is made by elastic foundation garments, Corsages or corsets.

History

Perhaps the earliest mention of the wasp waist is found at the librarian of the Fatimids Asch - Schabuschti (or Sabusti, died 1008) in his book on monasteries in the Islamic world. There, the following poem to the Caliph al-Ma'mun attributed. It refers to Christian girls of the court, who wore a so-called Christians belt (see dhimma ), which was probably responsible for the waist. It is ( quoted from the translation by H. Preißler ):

Were especially marked female wasp waists in times of use of narrow corsets with strong lacing. This was the case of the 20th century, above all in the 18th century, during the second half of the 19th century and at the beginning and in the 1940s to the 1950s ( New Look ). In order to achieve an even more extreme wasp waist, women could even remove the lower pairs of ribs surgically.

Conversely sings Rain Fendrich, 1988 in his chanson classic " Macho, Macho" a man who looks very attractive to women because of its wasp waist.

Medical consequences

The consequence of a narrow constriction may be shortness of breath or fainting spells. After prolonged habituation these problems, however, no longer occur mostly. Too narrow lacing for a long time the internal organs can be damaged. Even an inherently ultra-slim waist ungeschnürte is sometimes called wasp waist.

In medicine, the " wasp waist " in the rat is indicative of an infection with Clostridium botulinum, the causative agent of botulism.