The hidden history of women's undergarments is being released

Becker County (WDAY TV) -- It's a taboo topic most people don't feel comfortable discussing: women's underwear. For one night, that's all the Becker County Museum is talking about. It's hosting an event on the hidden history of ladies lingerie.

In the basement of the Becker County Museum, tucked away in boxes, Amy Degerstrom is revealing the dirty truth, about a time when women were considered prim, and proper.

Degerstrom: "there's all these interesting back-page stories in the Township News."

She's talking about the under-side of the undergarment world. Sorting through stacks, we find this corset -- for an 8-year-old! Children donned those as young as 3 to build a sexy silhouette, paying a high medical price for fashion, like under-developed lungs.

Degerstrom: "the shortness of breath, the stillbirths. Women wore corsets until the 7th month of pregnancy."

Amy's researching for the first Hidden History Happy Hour. The museum will introduce people to our sordid past. When women used to wear 20 pounds of painful clothing. All hoping to hook a husband.

Degerstrom: "That era of hoop skirts and bustles and petticoats and corsets."

Perhaps what was most surprising, out of all these garments, is that we found something that is taboo in our modern society: underwear with a hole cut in the middle, was popular with past women.

Degerstrom: "If you have a big hoop skirt on, the only way to use the restroom is if it didn't have a center."

It's on February 8th, the same night of the Daddy-Daughter dance in D.L.

And the Cultural Center needed a way to keep the women busy.

Mitchell: "it's a way to get the moms, the mamaratzi as we call them, out of our building and doing their own activity that evening."

So why not give them the dirty details of past, local women? Let's face it, we're all interested. Whether we admit it, or not.

The event starts at 7. Tickets cost 10 dollars in advance and 12 dollars at the door, for the presentation, apps, and drinks.

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