You've come a long way, baby!

I've just finished a Victorian-period book called Oscar Wilde and a Game Called Murder.  It blends actual events (based on the journals of Oscar Wilde and Robert Sherard) with a healthy dose of fiction (such as Wilde likening himself to Sherlock Holmes -- although Wilde and Arthur Conan Doyle actually were great friends, and Doyle is a regular character in the book series, too).

In one scene, Wilde's wife hosts a fundraising party for the Rational Dress Society.  According to the book, "The Society believed that no woman should be forced to endure the discomfort and risk to health of overly tight-laced and restrictive corsetry, nor be obliged to wear, in total, more than seven pounds of undergarments."

The next time you hear a woman say she wants to lose weight, tell her to take off her underwear. ;)