The Impact Of The Gibson Girl On American Culture

"Wear a blank expression/and a monumental curl/And walk with a bend in your back/Then they will call you a Gibson Girl."(Camille Clifford) In each turn of the century, there is a fashionable icon and role model for girls to follow. Some were real people like celebrities and models; for example, in the 1950s, the known fashionable icon is Audrey Hepburn. Then in the 1960s, barbie became a cultural icon. While in the late 19th century, the cultural icon was a drawing of a girl, a vision created by Charles Dana Gibson. The models Evelyn, Camille, and Irene became models of the original "Gibson Girls" that changed the way America thought about women. The Gibson Girl was a vision of an ideal woman created by Charles Dana Gibson in the 1890s and influenced Americans in aspects of fashion, gender roles, and character. The Gibson Girl made a huge impact on American culture by creating a gauge by which beauty could be understood and measured. By creating a consumable, mass-produced vision of how American women should look, the Gibson Girl shaped American perceptions of beauty. During the Victorian Era, the hourglass silhouette that featured ample curves was the most popular figure. On the other hand, the Gibson Girl popularized the S curve figure that became in vogue during the

"by the turn of the century, women could have both higher education and social approval, symbolized by the connection of college life with the Gibson Girl, an American beauty. (Palso)" Not only were women allowed to attend college, they can also participate in various types of sports. Through depictions of the Gibson Girl bicycling, playing tennis and golf, horseback riding, swimming, and the like, the idea of the athletic girl was