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15-Inch Waist
Status: Real
image The picture to the right has not been photoshopped (would that it had). That woman's waist really is that thin. She's Cathie Jung, who holds the title in the Guinness Book of World Records for the Smallest Waist on a Living Person:

Cathie Jung's waist is about the same size as a regular jar of mayonnaise. She's been wearing a corset every day for the past 12 years, and she now wears one 24 hours a day. "I probably have around 100 of them," says the corset queen.

The pictures of Cathie remind me of the Stomach-Sucked-In picture I posted earlier this year. (via The Presurfer)
Categories: Body Manipulation
Posted by Alex on Tue Nov 15, 2005
Comments (71)
More from the Hoax Museum Archives:
she reminds me of barbie, and that's not a good thing!
Posted by Yushi  on  Tue Nov 15, 2005  at  11:51 PM
Youch...that looks so gross. And how badly distorted must her vital organs be from wearing corsets all the time.
Posted by Smerk  on  Wed Nov 16, 2005  at  12:54 AM
heyyy i read that womans story in new zealand womens weekley (it gets boring during lunch breaks)

they showed x rays of her and her heart seemed to be making its way up to her shoulder... i swear


no it aint healthy but if it makes you happy then it cant be that bad
Posted by joeodd  on  Wed Nov 16, 2005  at  01:19 AM
She looks disturbingly like a blow-up doll...
Posted by Nettie  on  Wed Nov 16, 2005  at  03:17 AM
She does look very much like a "fashion doll." Well, her bosom should be more pointy, but other than that, she does. And yet, this is the ideal we see in Disney movies and even grown-up animation, and we hand to our kids as presents.
Posted by cvirtue  on  Wed Nov 16, 2005  at  03:36 AM
Sick! Ugh. Animated females do tend to look weird, but it looks much worse on a real woman. *faints*
Posted by Reynard Muldrake  on  Wed Nov 16, 2005  at  05:08 AM
Late 19th century, this was quite 'en vogue' and known as a 'wasp's taile'. Quite a lot of women looked like this back then. Of course, they soon discovered that they had damaged internal organs, and Darwin struck in having them die in childbirth.

I think this gal looks abhorent. If you do this to yourself, there's a screw loose somewhere.
Posted by LaMa  on  Wed Nov 16, 2005  at  07:24 AM
It's definitely not real. She's just inhaling for the picture. Exhale, and it all comes back. I have a cousin who can do it too.
Posted by booch  on  Wed Nov 16, 2005  at  10:09 AM
Again, Booch has befuddled me. By "not real" do you mean that the women is holding her breath or "sucking in" her stomach muscles? I would categorize that as "real", and "not real" to mean that the image has been altered, either digitally or through photo retouching (admittedly becoming a lost art) I suspect Booch of merely wanting to stir up comments, in which case, the comment succeeded.
Posted by Gearyster  on  Wed Nov 16, 2005  at  10:25 AM
You have to wonder what she looks like in the nuddy, without a corset. I think the tights in this photograph are a mistake, because they make her legs look as if they are made of plastic, and as noted above she looks a bit doll-ish.

According to her website she is married to an orthopaedic surgeon, so presumably there aren't any major health risks to wearing her corset, at least not regarding her ribs and spine. From my experience of orthopaedics two of the biggest spinal risks are sudden compression and excessive and prolonged flexion, i.e. slouching, and so the corset would help her in these two respects. And I suppose the liver is squidgy and can mould itself into shape.

Her website states that she wears a corset all the time except when showering. As a man my immediate thought is of sex; when confronted by anything involving corsets, or indeed anything at all my first thought is of sex. And so presumably Cathie either goes on top, or her partner is very gentle, or she breathes rapidly but shallowly. Or they don't bother. I'm sorry, if you're reading this. I can't help it.
Posted by Ashley Pomeroy  on  Wed Nov 16, 2005  at  11:07 AM
YUCK :sick:
Posted by Craig  on  Wed Nov 16, 2005  at  11:18 AM
I sort-of agree it is a "fake" waist, but not that she is holding her breath/sucking it in for the pic. Without the corset, her waist would not be 15" around. I saw her on a TV show, years ago, and as I recall, they don't measure her waist, they measure the inside of her corset to find out how big it is set for. They mentioned that without the corset, she had a 22" waist. That, in my opinion, in her real measurement. She should hold the record for tightest corset, not smallest waist.

The tiny waist looks ok in the Victorian dresses (she and her husband are enthusiasts and members of some re-enactment society), but looks incredibly freaky in street clothes. Yuck.
Posted by Yvonne  on  Wed Nov 16, 2005  at  12:42 PM
Forgot to add: as I recall, hubby also wears a corset, but only to their re-enactment events, not every day. A man's corset, of course, doesn't make him wasp-waisted; it makes him look like that cartoon guy that is always on the cover of the New Yorker: pigeon chested.
Posted by Yvonne  on  Wed Nov 16, 2005  at  12:44 PM
Didn't William Shatner wear a corset? Because he was too pudgy to be a believable captain?
Posted by Citizen Premier  on  Wed Nov 16, 2005  at  04:29 PM
Ewwwwwww!!!

And it's almost dinnertime, too.
Posted by Big Gary in a state of shock  on  Wed Nov 16, 2005  at  05:30 PM
In Gone With The Wind, Scarlett O'Hara had an 18 inch waist.
Posted by katey  on  Wed Nov 16, 2005  at  05:32 PM
ew! <gag>
Posted by thephrog  on  Wed Nov 16, 2005  at  06:32 PM
What's the big deal? The Guinness world record was 13", and there is documented evidence that 15" was almost common for the ladies of the court in medieval England because of women being more diminutive in those days.
Posted by eriC draveS  on  Wed Nov 16, 2005  at  07:48 PM
the big deal is that if people look werid in anyway that they have inflicted on themselves (corsetry, cosmetic surgery, or just being fat) its ok to make fun of them, cuz its not like they were born like that,
Posted by joeodd  on  Thu Nov 17, 2005  at  12:15 AM
it is not ok to make fun of them. it is ok to be grossed out by them. get your thinking straight, joeodd! this isn't about poking fun, it's about the fact that she doesn't even look normal. she looks hideous. but if that makes her happy, more power to her. her husband obviously doesn't mind.
but, ew!
Posted by thephrog  on  Thu Nov 17, 2005  at  05:03 PM
kay ill remember that next time i see a group of special needs children
Posted by joeodd  on  Thu Nov 17, 2005  at  09:32 PM
It's funny when people get into the realms of the extreme and don't realize how they appear to others.
But this is how they want to look, and it appears pleasing to them.
I actually went to her website & read about her story.
This struck me funny:
"Cathie, as a young girl, spelled her nickname with an "ie" instead of a "y" because the latter letter descended to the next line and got in the way of her writing."
She got rid of the 'y' cause it was in her way! Seems like she's always been a person of extremes..
Posted by Electra  on  Fri Nov 18, 2005  at  08:39 PM
Ew... Eww.. eeeeeewww....

She looks like she might snap in half.

Plus, honestly, the rest of her isn't that great looking.
Posted by Robin Bobcat  on  Sun Nov 20, 2005  at  11:37 AM
i was seriouly begining to wonder if she was a man
Posted by fool  on  Sun Nov 20, 2005  at  11:37 PM
i admit she does look kind of mannish in that photo... its the jawline
Posted by joeodd  on  Mon Nov 21, 2005  at  01:20 AM
Just the other day, I saw "Plan 9 from Outer Space," which features a great cameo by Vampira (who was the inspiration for the later TV character Elvira, Mistress of the Dark), and I noticed that Vampira sported a profile very similar to Cathie Jung's. I don't know what kind of undergarments Vampira was wearing, but they must have been prodigious.
Posted by Big Gary in Gun Barrel City, Texas  on  Mon Nov 28, 2005  at  03:28 PM
:sick: i think there should be some sort of law against this sort of sickness . We shouldnt be praising her by putting her into the guiness book of records anyway i think that its very wrong.
Posted by lauren  on  Thu Dec 08, 2005  at  10:26 AM
I wonder... What DOES she look like on the inside?
Posted by Rachel  on  Tue Jan 10, 2006  at  12:50 AM
I see that I am in the minority, but I admire anyone devoted enough to any cause to be the best. Tight lacing to 15" is every bit an accomplishment as running the 100 Meter in the fastest time, or building the biggest bicepts. The woman's a grandmother, so don't expect a beauty queen to go with the figure.
Posted by Jim  on  Sat Jan 21, 2006  at  02:55 PM
you know, she does remind me of barbie...freaky
Posted by Eva  on  Mon Feb 20, 2006  at  07:17 PM
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