i 8 tury, New York, 1965; Nancy Bradfield, Costume My demoting this minority report from text to 7 Notes in Detail, Women's Dress, 1730—1930, Boston, note is an explicit by-product of my disagreement to Pages 1968; Kunzle, "The Corset as Erotic Alchemy," with certain strains of feminist admiration for the pp. 134—39; Norah Waugh, Corsets and Crin- videos of Madonna produced in the late 19805. I 89-94 olines, London, 1954; and Theodore Zeldin, find myself increasingly uncomfortable with inter- France, 1848—1945, vol. 2: Intellect, Taste and pretations of her work that argue that Madonna- Anxiety, Oxford, 1977, p. 437. in-black-merry-widow has achieved a salutary, 125. Kunzle, "The Corset as Erotic Alchemy," critical political distance from the woman- p. 164. objectifying, pornographic tropes that she often 126. Ibid., pp. 120-27. relies upon in her performances. See, for example, 127. "Genees par les bottines a hauts talons Ramona Curry, "Madonna from Marilyn to dont elles n'ont pas 1'habitude, embarassees Marlene — Pastiche and/or Parody?" Journal of par les corsets qu'elles ne portent que depuis Film and Video 42, no. 2 (Summer 1990): 15 — 30. peu ..." (Georges Grison, Paris horrible et Paris Because I think Madonna is rehearsing those wor- original, Paris, 1882, pp. 296-97). risome conventions rather than parodying them, I 128. An alternative reading of the corset is pos- have found myself rethinking my own earlier sible, but it will be found controversial if not infu- thoughts about Marion and her corset, too. riating to certain feminist analysts of the tyran- 129. "Ce jupon si roidement empese . . ." (Fe- nies of the nude. I have put this analysis in a note neon, Oeuvres, p. 378). rather than in the text because I am not so sure of 130. See my "Representations of Prostitution," its validity myself. In other words, I believe I have pp. 90-94. changed my mind since 1987, when I wrote the 131. Another example of this type of text is that following. of E. de la Bedolliere, "Les Boulevards de la Porte A woman who wore a showy red corset may have Saint-Martin a la Madeleine," in Paris Guide par donned the item of her own accord, in order to les principaux ecrivains et artistes de la France, please herself. And the pleasure in question is sex- vol. 2, Paris, 1867, p. 1,296: "A 6 h., grand remue- ual. Although David Kunzle has called attention menage! le faubourg descend! Les habitantes to "a kind of female sexual assertion" in corset- des quartiers Breda et Notre Dame de Lorette wearing, an advertisement for the possession of an s'avancent a la conquete des Boulevards. C'est une active, publicly displayed sexuality (David Kunzle, legion que signalent de loin le cliquetis du jais, Fashion and Fetishism, p. xviii), I refer here to a 1'odeur du muse, le frissonnement de la soie. . . . form of masturbation, to the inner-directed and Cette troupe feminine s'egaie, comme disaient les autoerotic, to a salutary form of female jouissance. chouans, et prend des positions strategiques, de- A minority strain of present-day feminist thought puis le passage Jouffroy jusqu'a la rue de la addresses this issue: "High heels and corsets pro- Chaussee-d'Antin. Jamais ni d'un cote, ni de vide intense kinaesthetic stimulation for women, 1'autre, elle ne va plus loin" (At 6 o'clock, great appealing to the sense of touch but extend- hullabaloo! the outskirts of town descend! The in- ing more than skin deep. These frivolous acces- habitants of the Breda and Notre Dame de Lorette sories are not just visual stimuli for men; they are neighborhoods advance to conquer the boulevards. also tactile stimuli for women" (Beatrice Faust, It is a legion that signals from afar the jingle of jet, Women, Sex, and Pornography: A Controversial the odor of musk, the flutter of silk. . . . This femi- and Unique Study, New York, 1980, p. 53.1 learned nine troop makes merry, as the Chouans [the of this extraordinary book thanks to Elizabeth Breton royalists] would say, and takes up strategic Wilson, Adorned in Dreams). In Gervex's Rolla, positions, from the Jouffroy passage all the way to the discarded corset had already overdetermined the rue de la Chaussee-d'Antin. They never go be- Marion's illicit sexuality, but that a tight corset yond this territory at either end). might have given erotic pleasure to its wearer 132. Gustave Mace (LaPoliceparisienne: Unjoli would certainly have been an unspeakable and monde, Paris, 1888, p. 329) spotlights the notoriety infuriating consideration, especially since this of the same section of boulevard in very specific standpoint claims a power of resistance for the terms. For an evening eyeful of vice and debauch- tight-laced prostitute. ery, he recommends the corner of the rue du