Keira Knightley has claimed corsets are the reason women were always
considered "the weaker sex".

The 23-year-old actress - who has donned the restrictive undergarments in
period dramas including 'Pride and Prejudice' and 'The Duchess' - says the
waist cinchers stopped oxygen getting to the brain, making females seem less
intelligent than they were.

She told Hamptons magazine: "It's obvious why women were called the weaker
sex, because you can hardly breathe in a corset. It's a fight just to get
oxygen to your brain."