Christa R. (1968)

My interest started when I first worked eighteen years ago in a corset and dress shop which acquired period corsets for window-display. I would try them on secretly, and then began to imitate them myself, in the finest materials. Whenever I see a beautiful material, I imagine it as a corset, not a dress. About seven years ago I met Mr. G--, who was very enthusiastic about tight-lacing, and brought me down ''with gentle violence'' (mit sanfter Gewalt) to 50cm (20 inches). This was the Taming of the Shrew. I reduced a further 5cm on my own. Although I could hardly admit it, I loved these corsets passionately. With them I felt for the first time what it really means to be a woman. This peculiar, tingling, exciting feeling during the lacing. An indescribable feeling, one approached fainting point, down to 48cm it is O.K., but tighter than that, it can become damned uncomfortable. Then desires are aroused, desires that reason can simply not suppress. Desires for caresses. But one must have the right partner, otherwise it is all purposeless.

Women tend to have a very hostile reaction; my family thinks I am simply crazy. The Lords of Creation are wild about this figure of 94-45 86 (37-17 1/2-34; height 5ft. 6in.), but appearing thus in the streets is no easy matter. Don't ask about all the unpleasant comments and approaches I have had to put up with. It is simply horrible to be treated like a prostitute. And the fact that I usually wear high stiletto heels makes my appearance all the more provocative. I adopt an icy cold manner, but sometimes I have difficulty in restraining myself from rewarding some impertinence with a box on the ear. I often hide the wasp-waist in public.

People think I am an impossible revolutionary person, merely because I am different from others and do not allow myself to be pressed into a single mould.