Fashion historian Valerie Steele explained, "the origin myth emphasizes the role of an individual woman, a queen, who is associated with a cruel, tortuous fashion. Thus, the author of the fetishistic book The Corset and the Crinoline (1868) claimed that metal corsets were customarily worn 'in the time of Catherine de Medici,' when 'extraordinary tenuity was insisted on, thirteen inches waist measure being the standard of fashionable elegance.'" Talk about unrealistic beauty standards.