Shapewear is an important part of creating a fashionable silhouette and reflects what society at the time views as beautiful. My thesis will cover corsets in the mid- Victorian period (1850-1879) in Britain. Corsets were carefully constructed undergarments made and mainly worn by women. This thesis claims that corsets were important tools for Victorian women, because they lessened class divisions, were a socially acceptable form of sexual expression, and allowed women control of their image. Using the scholarly work of Valerie Steele, I acknowledge that the corset has been viewed as an object of oppression, but that was due to anti-corset propaganda by Victorian doctors and politicians who sought to control women’s bodies and expression of identity. Although corsets were worn by men, toddlers, and pregnant women during the Victorian era, this thesis focuses on the interaction between women (not currently pregnant) and corsets.