At the dawn of the twentieth century, women discovered exciting new things to do with their bodies. Women fell in love with exercise and this helped heat up the debate over the healthiness of wearing corsets. An ad carried by the December 1902 issue of Munsey's Magazine, written like a letter from "the family doctor," immediately noted that articles debating the merits or faults of tight lacing...
The strong, modern women of the 1940's no longer desired the wasp waist corsets of previous generations. The new breed of woman wanted practicality. Hence, the advertisements of the time did not dwell heavily on waist reduction or social expectations, rather, the emphasis focused more on health issues. An example from Ladies Home Journal published in the February 1943 issue for Spencer Supports...
Victorian women liked their corsets tight. If a person looked up and down any busy street in the late nineteenth century, they saw townswomen that struck dramatic silhouettes. The corset, a tight fitting, boned garment, restricted movement and reshaped the natural position of organs inside a women's body.  A trade card from 1885 featured a corset typical of the period dubbed the Double Hip "Ironsides"...