00:00Science. Women. Wyance. Hi, I'm Laura Wilcox and this is FemEd. I'm your
00:07scientific ambassador in this series. Sure, I'm not technically a scientist or
00:13medical doctor by society's unrealistic standards, but I had scoliosis when I was
00:18a teenager, so I know a lot about medicine stuff. Today on FemEd Waist
00:24Trainers, it was the great social scientist Sir Mixlott who once said,
00:28little in the middle, but she got much back. Dr. Mixlott's words highlight our
00:33culture's obsession with the hourglass figure. Why do we revere the hourglass
00:37figure? Well, on a biological level, women with a 0.7 waist-to-hip ratio, which is a
00:44waist that's significantly smaller than the hips, are seen as more fertile, more
00:48likely to produce healthy offspring. It's that little in the middle and you got
00:52more kids. And on a social and cultural level, there are the Kardashians, a group
00:59of women who have taken to Instagram to tout the waist trainer as a magical device
01:04that can help any woman mold her body into an hourglass figure. I would never
01:12drink chemicals. So this is a waist trainer. I'm gonna conduct an empirical study to see
01:17if it works and if women should be using it. I will begin by trying it out on myself.
01:37This is a large? Just no. I feel like I'm gonna snap my ribs. Right in my nuts, here.
01:57I'm gonna go to a doctor. I spoke to my colleague Dr. Holly Phillips about the waist trainer. Dr.
02:05Holly is a general internist primarily treating women. And while I didn't opt to
02:10pursue an advanced degree in medicine, I think it's clear that I can rise to meet
02:14Dr. Holly at her level. When I put this on, describe to me what's happening to my
02:19internal organs. The MRI that I saw on my patient who was wearing one at the time,
02:26you can actually see her ribs moving into her liver. So the liver had ripples where
02:32the ribs were. She didn't have any long-term damage. It's sort of like if you
02:38have like a tube of squeezed cheese. You can squeeze it, but the cheese is gonna squirt out.
02:45People that I've talked to who wear these say at first it's very hard and then it
02:49seems to get easier and easier and easier. I think they're just getting better at
02:53blocking out their pain. Wow. That's something horrifying about that thought. Would you ever
02:59recommend this to any of your patients? No. This isn't like gonna permanently give me
03:04that hourglass figure that I want. No. A lot of women in America get their medical
03:09advice from the Kardashians. Which is another question actually, do you feel
03:14like they're a threat to your field? No. I hope that scoliosis becomes like the hot
03:22thing. Why do you think a woman would wear something like this? I think this is just
03:28for like image and like it's not actually being healthy. If you could just like give
03:33a pull. Do you feel like it makes a woman look sexier? No. I'm sure. I don't know what's
03:40going on here. This is a large by the way. Do you want to try it on? I don't. I
03:44would
03:44never try that. Maybe we start in the middle. I feel like that's the worst place to start.
03:49Do you think that there's like a male equivalent of the waist trainer? A toupee? Do you have a
03:58message out there for all the ladies who might think that they need to try this? I don't. If
04:03this makes you happy, you haven't found real happiness. I can't keep going. I'll start
04:09screaming. You're a terrible lady in waiting.
04:17Ladies, thank you so much for taking this scientific journey with me. After exhaustive
04:22research and compiling all of the data, I have determined that this waist trainer innovation
04:29is basically just a corset that requires an entire football team to put on. Seriously.
04:36I had so many people try to help me and I couldn't get it on.
04:39Should you wear a waist trainer? Well, really, it's up to you. If this sort of thing is important
04:44to you, then go for it. Look, there are tons of pressures from the biological side, from
04:50society telling you to have an hourglass figure. But at the end of the day, you need to look
04:55inside of you. Will this make you feel good? Will this make you happy? Because when I look
05:00inside, I like where my organs are. So they're going to stay that way.
05:09With everyone, hopefully you'll happen in a moment.
05:10And I hope youổne the
05:11And I know how...
05:11So we're all sick.hips
