Anticorset

From the Reverend Saltzmann, who offered a prize for the best anticorset essay in 1788, via Soemmerring's winning the award, via the burning of the corset by pan-Germanic student fraternities in 1817 […]

Alcott, quite possibly influenced by his female colleagues, embraced a women's issue when he urged the founding of anticorset societies, whose members "signed the pledge" not to wear them.

The S-curve blunted the athleticism and mobility of the Gibson girl, and the obvious manipulation of the body necessary to create the S-curve silhouette was an easy target for anticorset agitation which defended the "natural" body.