Symbolism Of The Modern Girl

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The modern girl is a symbol known all around the world, and though she took part in a relatively short period of history; todays fascination with the modern girl still lives on. Education and literary writings gave rise to the modern women we remember today; without increased education accesses and literary works made available to women the social changes in history would not have been possible. The idea of the modern girl not only gave women a new ideal to live up to, but also encompassed the changing societal structures all around the world. This is no exception in Asia; modern girl trends swept over the continent giving change to education, political involvement, fashion and more. Women in Asia became the symbol of what their nations needed …show more content…

Along with this fear there was strong opposition to the education of women and their involvement in public matters. The modern girl did however, help to push the growing of a capitalist economy and for better or for worse, this is what the government wanted. There were new products for women to buy when attempting to embody the modern women, including hair, make- up clothes and literature. This within itself started a new sector of society, including films, magazine, and advertisements. With so much representing the modern girl, both the good and bad, one may assume that the modern girl now embodied the tensions in Chinese and Japanese societies and the world as a whole. Though one crucial area needs to be evaluated in order to fully look at the modern girl we need to evaluate what events help give rise to this character, for the sake of this paper the focus on educational opportunities and accesses for women and the popular works of poetry and …show more content…

This could not be more true when looking at Chinas monumental defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War. Many Chinese civilians where viewing their country as the new losers under Social Darwinism, and many of them thought adopting western political and educational systems would be the answer to their problems. Society thought they needed to produce more enlightened women to raise children better suited for society. The new education system included, and essentially revolved around, women’s education and schools for girls. During this time girl’s schools where not teaching math and science but rather focusing on Chinese, English, physical education and home economics, including needle point, in an effort to make women better suited to raise perfect future citizens. Nonetheless, these educational opportunities, though done in what now is considered oppressive reasoning, women where still able to take these opportunities to learn about the world and new ideas, how to read and write, and the opportunity to not fully rely on a father or husband. Further embodying the new modern women, by laying the ground work of education and

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