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Kate: Well, I'm impressed, Hannah, I didn't think there'd be room inside your brace for that huge breakfast.

Hannah: There isn't, I'm going to have to loosen the straps a bit. I almost didn't wear it today, it felt silly putting it on, given that you know about it.

Kate: Know what about it?

Hannah: That... I don't need it.

Emma: So it's not for scoliosis?

Hannah: No, I thought you knew that, which is why I wasn't sure how to answer Angie's question.

Kate: You handled that well then. No, I convinced Em that it's real, for scoliosis, and not connected to your pretending. It's custom made isn't it? That's what made me sure it was real.

Hannah: Yes, you're right, it is custom made, and for scoliosis, but for someone else, a woman in Germany, I imagine. I bought it second hand on eBay, it was just a very lucky fit.

Kate: But if you don't have scoliosis aren't you worried that it's going to cause you problems?

Hannah: I think it's safe, the shell is very nearly symmetrical and I think my posture's pretty good in it. I think it was probably a late stage brace when the original owner's treatment was almost done.

Emma: Your posture does look perfect, but isn't it brutal to wear?

Hannah: Not at all, once I get used to the tight waist it's very comfortable, even around the hips where these things typically hurt. I absolutely love putting it on and feeling the pressure of it and the support and security it gives me.

Kate: That's amazing, for an eBay find, it looks like it was made for you.

Hannah: Well, this is my third one, the previous two didn't fit me at all, that's the problem with buying from photos. When I saw this one I was sure it would be right, but it was really disappointing. It was awful to wear, there were some nasty asymmetrical pads inside it and I could only tolerate it for about ten minutes at a time, it felt like someone had his knee in my ribs. But with the pads ripped out it's perfect. It must have been hell for the previous owner, she would have had humps exactly where the pads were, so it must have been twice as uncomfortable for her as for me. And if this was her last brace, her first ones must have been absolute torture. I often wonder who she was and how she's doing.

Emma: Well, it's certainly a very flattering shape, I think Scarlett O'Hara would be quite envious.

Kate: Yes, it actually makes me think of the period corsets I used to wear when I was at university. I was part of a historical re-enactment society and we used to get dressed up in lovely period costume. My favourites were the late Victorian and Edwardian ones. They also took some getting used to at first, but then they felt lovely to wear.

Emma: Of course! Our Katie was once a tight-lacer! You've mentioned it before but I'd forgotten all about it.

Hannah: You must have made a fabulous Gibson Girl, Kate, I can just see it.

Emma: So Katie, you must know exactly what Hannah's talking about with the way this feels then.

Kate: Well, no, they were different obviously, they were elaborate fashion corsets, exquisitely made, with lots of silk ribbon and lace and bows. Just putting one on made me feel like I was Lady Catherine.

Emma: But if you ignore for a moment the historical aspect of it, or how other people perceive it, and think about the feeling, just the physical sensation of being laced up in a corset, that would be just the same as this, surely? The small waist, the tight embrace, restriction, posture, and so on.

Kate: But it's apples and bananas, Em. A fashion corset and a scoliosis brace are polar opposites.

Emma: Why?

Kate: Well corsets are beautiful, they're all about elegance and poise and femininity and grace. And of course social status, at that time the quality of one's corset was as good an indicator of social class as one's accent, so a fine corset meant wealth and authority. Medical braces are the opposite, everything about them says imperfection, disability and deformity. They're a badge of weakness. Sorry Hannah, but Em did ask.

Emma: But hang on, not everyone thinks fine corsets are beautiful, or empowering. A feminist would have nothing good to say about them, she'd never try one on for fun and think "Ooh, nice, I feel like a Duchess, I think I'll wear it all day". It would be impossible for her to ignore what it represents to her, as a feminist: a symbol of women's suffering in a male-dominated society, how it exaggerates our small waists to the point of physical harm - purely to make us more appealing to men, how it restricts and impedes us to make us less able and less healthy, again to disempower us and increase our dependence on men, et cetera, et cetera. To a feminist the corset is all those things, it can't be separated from them, and she can't see it any other way. I'm sure she'd even argue that if you enjoy wearing a corset, or high heels for that matter, then you must be in favour of the oppression of women, the objectification of women's bodies, and so on, which is obviously nonsense.

Kate: Of course it's nonsense. I loved the feeling of wearing a corset, and high heels, and while I'm obviously aware of all that symbolic stuff, it never came into it for me.

Hannah: Well there you are, Kate, that's it exactly. I enjoy this brace, and this wheelchair, without any of the negative associations that they might hold for you. As real as those negatives may be to you, they don't come into it at all for me, I can ignore them. I just love the way these things feel, or the way I feel when I use them. Just like a lot of women feel about high heels, I suppose.

Kate: I suppose I've never really considered the possibility that anyone could look at a brace or a wheelchair, or any medical device, and not see what I see, what it means. But yes, I suppose that on the inside, without the associations, the corset and the brace would have a lot in common in the way they feel on your body.

Hannah: Just the physical sensation side of it, yes.

Kate: And it's really as simple as that for you, that feeling? Because then I think I might be starting to get it.

Hannah: Well, I think it is.

Emma: Yes, so do I.

Kate: The negative emotional baggage that I attach to all things medical runs so deep that I honestly couldn't see beyond it, I never imagined anyone could. That feminist analogy helped a lot Em, thank you. It's probably going to take me a while to really process it, but I've had a bit of an awakening, I feel like such a twit for not getting it sooner, and Hannah, I apologise for being such a bitch last night.

Hannah: Nothing to apologise for Kate, nothing at all.

Emma: Don't beat yourself up, love, your aversion to medical stuff is perfectly understandable. Of course there's another aspect to this - no matter how much you love wearing beautiful period corsets you can only do it when the right occasion comes along, which isn't very often. If Hannah were to start wearing a Victorian corset every day people would think she's a complete nutter, but if she wears a brace every day no-one questions it, they assume it's an ordeal for her when in reality she's loving every moment of it and hiding her pleasure in plain sight. It's brilliant. The only corsets I ever tried on were some rubber and leather fetish ones, and they felt really amazing, so I envy you, Hannah, for being able to enjoy that feeling all the time.

Kate: Yes, I get that, I do, and now I'm a bit jealous too, if I'm honest.

Hannah: Kate, you mentioned grace and poise when you were describing your corsets. For me using a wheelchair is also about grace and poise, it has been since my earliest childhood impressions of wheelchairs.

Kate: Within reason though surely, I mean nobody could ever look graceful trying to push a big hospital chair up a hill.

Emma: Or any chair up a hill really.

Hannah: OK, I take your point, not up a hill.

Emma: And it's anything but graceful when you're trying to push over big cobbles.

Kate: Yes, nothing graceful about wheeling over cobbles.

Emma: Or across a soft lawn, that's why garden weddings are always such an ordeal.

Kate: Or gravel drives, all very nice for the Jaguar, but awful in a chair. Your castors sink in up to the footplate and you tip out on your hands and knees. Not graceful at all.

Emma: And snow and ice obviously, not so graceful sliding backwards down a ramp and tipping out at the bottom.

Hannah: Ha-ha, OK, OK, I get it! So cobbles and lawns and gravel drives are out, and uphills, and winter. Goodness me. I'll have to approach this a different way: surely you'll concede that long smooth floors are nice, like airports and shopping malls, where it feels like you're ice skating and you glide for miles on each push?

Emma: That is nice, yes, I'll certainly give you that.

Hannah: And you can pretend you're a princess, and only you get to glide effortlessly, like a swan, everyone else has to walk. They've been on their feet all day and their shoes pinch, and they're really envious of you gliding by.

Kate: Well I can't say I've ever felt like a princess, or felt that anyone is envious of my chair.

Hannah: But you could, if you pretended, just for fun?

Kate: Yes, I suppose I could.

Hannah: There's another little game I like to play in my head, along the same lines: when you enter a room full of standing people, you imagine that everyone stood up just before you entered, out of respect for you, like soldiers do for an officer.

Kate: Now that one's just silly.

Hannah: I know, it's very silly, but it's fun to do. Everyone turns and stares at you anyway, so it's just a way of having some fun with that attention. You are the princess and they stand just for you, so you smile at everyone as though you're saying 'Carry on' or 'As you were' or whatever officers say to their men.

Emma: That does sound like fun, I'm going to try that.

Kate: I still think it's silly.

Emma: Well it's no sillier than that public speaking trick of imagining your audience naked so you feel superior, but a lot of people swear by that as way to combat stage-fright.

Hannah: Exactly. Try it, just a little bit in your head, just for a giggle.

Kate: OK, I might give it a try. I still think it's silly though.

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Kate: Well, I'm impressed, Hannah, I didn't think there'd be room inside your brace for that huge breakfast.

Hannah: There isn't, I'm going to have to loosen the straps a bit. I almost didn't wear it today, it felt silly putting it on, given that you know about it.

Kate: Know what about it?

Hannah: That... I don't need it.

Emma: So it's not for scoliosis?

Hannah: No, I thought you knew that, which is why I wasn't sure how to answer Angie's question.

Kate: You handled that well then. No, I convinced Em that it's real, for scoliosis, and not connected to your pretending. It's custom made isn't it? That's what made me sure it was real.

Hannah: Yes, you're right, it is custom made, and for scoliosis, but for someone else, a woman in Germany, I imagine. I bought it second hand on eBay, it was just a very lucky fit.

Kate: But if you don't have scoliosis aren't you worried that it's going to cause you problems?

Hannah: I think it's safe, the shell is very nearly symmetrical and I think my posture's pretty good in it. I think it was probably a late stage brace when the original owner's treatment was almost done.

Emma: Your posture does look perfect, but isn't it brutal to wear?

Hannah: Not at all, once I get used to the tight waist it's very comfortable, even around the hips where these things typically hurt. I absolutely love putting it on and feeling the pressure of it and the support and security it gives me.

Kate: That's amazing, for an eBay find, it looks like it was made for you.

Hannah: Well, this is my third one, the previous two didn't fit me at all, that's the problem with buying from photos. When I saw this one I was sure it would be right, but it was really disappointing. It was awful to wear, there were some nasty asymmetrical pads inside it and I could only tolerate it for about ten minutes at a time, it felt like someone had his knee in my ribs. But with the pads ripped out it's perfect. It must have been hell for the previous owner, she would have had humps exactly where the pads were, so it must have been twice as uncomfortable for her as for me. And if this was her last brace, her first ones must have been absolute torture. I often wonder who she was and how she's doing.

Emma: Well, it's certainly a very flattering shape, I think Scarlett O'Hara would be quite envious.

Kate: Yes, it actually makes me think of the period corsets I used to wear when I was at university. I was part of a historical re-enactment society and we used to get dressed up in lovely period costume. My favourites were the late Victorian and Edwardian ones. They also took some getting used to at first, but then they felt lovely to wear.

Emma: Of course! Our Katie was once a tight-lacer! You've mentioned it before but I'd forgotten all about it.

Hannah: You must have made a fabulous Gibson Girl, Kate, I can just see it.

Emma: So Katie, you must know exactly what Hannah's talking about with the way this feels then.

Kate: Well, no, they were different obviously, they were elaborate fashion corsets, exquisitely made, with lots of silk ribbon and lace and bows. Just putting one on made me feel like I was Lady Catherine.

Emma: But if you ignore for a moment the historical aspect of it, or how other people perceive it, and think about the feeling, just the physical sensation of being laced up in a corset, that would be just the same as this, surely? The small waist, the tight embrace, restriction, posture, and so on.

Kate: But it's apples and bananas, Em. A fashion corset and a scoliosis brace are polar opposites.

Emma: Why?

Kate: Well corsets are beautiful, they're all about elegance and poise and femininity and grace. And of course social status, at that time the quality of one's corset was as good an indicator of social class as one's accent, so a fine corset meant wealth and authority. Medical braces are the opposite, everything about them says imperfection, disability and deformity. They're a badge of weakness. Sorry Hannah, but Em did ask.

Emma: But hang on, not everyone thinks fine corsets are beautiful, or empowering. A feminist would have nothing good to say about them, she'd never try one on for fun and think "Ooh, nice, I feel like a Duchess, I think I'll wear it all day". It would be impossible for her to ignore what it represents to her, as a feminist: a symbol of women's suffering in a male-dominated society, how it exaggerates our small waists to the point of physical harm - purely to make us more appealing to men, how it restricts and impedes us to make us less able and less healthy, again to disempower us and increase our dependence on men, et cetera, et cetera. To a feminist the corset is all those things, it can't be separated from them, and she can't see it any other way. I'm sure she'd even argue that if you enjoy wearing a corset, or high heels for that matter, then you must be in favour of the oppression of women, the objectification of women's bodies, and so on, which is obviously nonsense.

Kate: Of course it's nonsense. I loved the feeling of wearing a corset, and high heels, and while I'm obviously aware of all that symbolic stuff, it never came into it for me.

Hannah: Well there you are, Kate, that's it exactly. I enjoy this brace, and this wheelchair, without any of the negative associations that they might hold for you. As real as those negatives may be to you, they don't come into it at all for me, I can ignore them. I just love the way these things feel, or the way I feel when I use them. Just like a lot of women feel about high heels, I suppose.

Kate: I suppose I've never really considered the possibility that anyone could look at a brace or a wheelchair, or any medical device, and not see what I see, what it means. But yes, I suppose that on the inside, without the associations, the corset and the brace would have a lot in common in the way they feel on your body.

Hannah: Just the physical sensation side of it, yes.

Kate: And it's really as simple as that for you, that feeling? Because then I think I might be starting to get it.

Hannah: Well, I think it is.

Emma: Yes, so do I.

Kate: The negative emotional baggage that I attach to all things medical runs so deep that I honestly couldn't see beyond it, I never imagined anyone could. That feminist analogy helped a lot Em, thank you. It's probably going to take me a while to really process it, but I've had a bit of an awakening, I feel like such a twit for not getting it sooner, and Hannah, I apologise for being such a bitch last night.

Hannah: Nothing to apologise for Kate, nothing at all.

Emma: Don't beat yourself up, love, your aversion to medical stuff is perfectly understandable. Of course there's another aspect to this - no matter how much you love wearing beautiful period corsets you can only do it when the right occasion comes along, which isn't very often. If Hannah were to start wearing a Victorian corset every day people would think she's a complete nutter, but if she wears a brace every day no-one questions it, they assume it's an ordeal for her when in reality she's loving every moment of it and hiding her pleasure in plain sight. It's brilliant. The only corsets I ever tried on were some rubber and leather fetish ones, and they felt really amazing, so I envy you, Hannah, for being able to enjoy that feeling all the time.

Kate: Yes, I get that, I do, and now I'm a bit jealous too, if I'm honest.

Hannah: Kate, you mentioned grace and poise when you were describing your corsets. For me using a wheelchair is also about grace and poise, it has been since my earliest childhood impressions of wheelchairs.

Kate: Within reason though surely, I mean nobody could ever look graceful trying to push a big hospital chair up a hill.

Emma: Or any chair up a hill really.

Hannah: OK, I take your point, not up a hill.

Emma: And it's anything but graceful when you're trying to push over big cobbles.

Kate: Yes, nothing graceful about wheeling over cobbles.

Emma: Or across a soft lawn, that's why garden weddings are always such an ordeal.

Kate: Or gravel drives, all very nice for the Jaguar, but awful in a chair. Your castors sink in up to the footplate and you tip out on your hands and knees. Not graceful at all.

Emma: And snow and ice obviously, not so graceful sliding backwards down a ramp and tipping out at the bottom.

Hannah: Ha-ha, OK, OK, I get it! So cobbles and lawns and gravel drives are out, and uphills, and winter. Goodness me. I'll have to approach this a different way: surely you'll concede that long smooth floors are nice, like airports and shopping malls, where it feels like you're ice skating and you glide for miles on each push?

Emma: That is nice, yes, I'll certainly give you that.

Hannah: And you can pretend you're a princess, and only you get to glide effortlessly, like a swan, everyone else has to walk. They've been on their feet all day and their shoes pinch, and they're really envious of you gliding by.

Kate: Well I can't say I've ever felt like a princess, or felt that anyone is envious of my chair.

Hannah: But you could, if you pretended, just for fun?

Kate: Yes, I suppose I could.

Hannah: There's another little game I like to play in my head, along the same lines: when you enter a room full of standing people, you imagine that everyone stood up just before you entered, out of respect for you, like soldiers do for an officer.

Kate: Now that one's just silly.

Hannah: I know, it's very silly, but it's fun to do. Everyone turns and stares at you anyway, so it's just a way of having some fun with that attention. You are the princess and they stand just for you, so you smile at everyone as though you're saying 'Carry on' or 'As you were' or whatever officers say to their men.

Emma: That does sound like fun, I'm going to try that.

Kate: I still think it's silly.

Emma: Well it's no sillier than that public speaking trick of imagining your audience naked so you feel superior, but a lot of people swear by that as way to combat stage-fright.

Hannah: Exactly. Try it, just a little bit in your head, just for a giggle.

Kate: OK, I might give it a try. I still think it's silly though.

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