1793 saw the emergence, vogue, and decline of ‘the pad’, a fashionable false belly worn by women under their outer garments. At the time, the pad was most explicitly condemned as a disguise for illegitimate pregnancy and as a distorter of the ‘natural’ female shape — the slender waist. However, as this article will uncover, underpinning these more common critiques of the pad was the suspicion that it concealed and imitated the ‘fat’ female belly. Indeed, as I argue, the unsettling effect of the pad was notably due to the way in which it rendered the female wearer's body illegible, particularly to those who wished to police it.

中文翻译：

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护垫、“肥胖”腹部和女性食欲的政治

1793 年见证了“垫子”的出现、流行和衰落，垫子是一种时尚的假肚皮，女性穿在外衣下面。当时，卫生巾被最明确地谴责为非法怀孕的掩饰以及对“自然”女性体形（纤细腰部）的扭曲。然而，正如本文将揭示的，对卫生巾更常见的批评的基础是怀疑它隐藏和模仿了“肥胖”的女性腹部。事实上，正如我所说，护垫的令人不安的效果主要是由于它使女性佩戴者的身体变得难以辨认，特别是对于那些希望对其进行监管的人来说。