My mother always wore a girdle. In fact, she was absolutely rabid on the subject. She thought that all women – skinny minnies or not – needed to wear them in order to look ladylike. In her view, jiggling was not only not sexy (a word she never used), it was downright tacky (a word she used a lot).

So it was that when I came of age and began to jiggle*, the topic of girdles was an ever-running battle between us. For me, coming of age in the late 60s like the rest of you, wearing one was not even in the realm of the possible. After all, we didn’t even wear bras some of the time.

Fast forward to the present time. You can’t pick up a catalogue, turn on a shopping channel on TV, or hear an interview with a celebrity on the Red Carpet without hearing about Spanx.**  I won’t be totally surprised if you haven’t heard of Spanx because when we were writing our book a couple of years ago, our editor – who lives in California – asked what they were when she came upon a reference to them in our book. (I just figured that maybe California gals don’t jiggle).

Spanx is the popular brand of the underwear item now known as “shapewear.” They come in all styles from regular panties to those that are long-legged or high-waisted; to tights and stockings; to bras (that get rid of back fat) and slips; to actual clothing items such as tee shirts,turtlenecks, pants and skirts.  And exactly what does shapewear do? It shapes, compresses,firms,tightens – you get the picture – those places on your body that jiggle. (It can also make you look happily thinner).

In other words, Spanx is the modernday version of the girdle.

Since this is a blog on health, I would be remiss not to say something about any health effects of shapewear.  It’s rather obvious that knowing that you look better in your clothes leads directly to a positive self-image, and you know how important that is and how powerful that makes you feel. 

As for negative health effects, there are two. The first may occur when wearing shapewear for the bottom half of your body. If the elastic band where the shapewear ends -be it on your thighs or on your calves – squeezes so much that it actually causes a constriction in the area, this may lead to swelling and even blood clots below the elastic area. I can only speak to Spanx shapewear, but  these pieces are made so well that they don’t cause the constrictions mentioned above, especially if you wear the proper size.  

The other potential negative health effect is that you may stop exercising regularly because you look so good in your shapewear! Just remind yourself that you need to exercise for health reasons other than looking great.

Do I wear them? Absolutely. What changed my mind from my younger days? I no longer think that jiggling is sexy, perhaps because nowadays everything seems to jiggle as opposed to the discrete jiggling areas when I was younger. I’ll take that firm look anyday.

So, it looks like I finally gave in and wear a girdle. My mother would be so pleased.

*Please excuse the recurrent and relentless use of the word “jiggle.” Try as I might, I could find no synonym that worked.

**DISCLAIMER: As with the personally-used products that are mentioned in our book, neither of us has been paid – or otherwise convinced or asked – to mention any brand-name products.  We actually use the brands we mention.