What was Ethel Granger's cause of death?

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Hello MyBestAnswer members, I have a question about Ethel Granger's cause of death. Could someone please provide an answer as soon as possible? Thank you!

Adeline Goyette · Accepted Answer

She may have died of natural causes. Reports only managed to mention that Ethel Granger, who had the smallest waist in recorded history, measuring a mere 13 inches, passed away in 1982.

She possibly also suffered from an illness due to the damaging effects of tight corsets.

Ethel’s waist was a result of her husband, William Granger, who was obsessed with the idea of a wasp-waisted woman. Vogue Italia explains:

Before their marriage, Ethel was a plain, unsophisticated twenty-three-year-old girl who wore the shapeless dresses of the 1920s that William despised. William told Ethel about his appreciation for corsets and expressed his wish to feel one around the waist of his wife. One epochal day, when William put his arm around Ethel’s waist, she asked, “Darling, can you feel any difference?” He could: a pair of corsets that tied Ethel into 24 inches, more or less her natural waistline. The process of Ethel’s waist modification began. Initially, Ethel was satisfied with wearing a corset only during the day, but William convinced her to keep it on while sleeping.

Von S?mmerring, a physician and well-known anatomist, argued that the back-laced corset, as worn by fashionable ladies of the time, constituted a health hazard by compressing the ribs and other internal organs and leading—he claimed—to tuberculosis, cancer, and scoliosis, or curvature of the spine.

In 1908, a doctor used X-rays to highlight the damaging effects of tight corsets on a woman's body.

The effect of tight restriction on the lungs was particularly troubling; the lower lobes of the lungs are prevented from expanding fully when taking a breath, resulting in extra strain. This exacerbated lung conditions such as tuberculosis and pneumonia, which affect the lower lungs first, making the conditions much more serious—and both illnesses were much more prevalent before the invention of vaccines in the 20th century. Read more at CNET.com.

Madie Hilpert

What was Ethel Granger's cause of death?

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