The world of women's bathing suits, swimming and swimwear developed throughout time with the expectations of making bathing an enjoyable social experience.(Kidwell, 117) While the focus of my advertisement draws on the bathing accessories women bought and wore in 1914, it opens up the entire realm of morality and modesty in that age. I will touch on the social, political and cultural implications of the advertisement I chose and ask why things were the way they were not so long ago. While researching this advertisement, I've realized that everything is relative. No wonder women wore dresses and shoes while swimming. They weren't even given the capability to learn to swim. The expectations from the early
1900's are so different than what they are today that we need to realize that they were in a completely different mindset. On the surface, the advertisement I chose is about women's bathing accessories, but as we dig deeper, we can see that it deals with women's equality. Women once wore shoes, hats, and bathing dresses to swim in. A bathing dress alone weighed about 30 pounds when wet, aside from the accessories that women felt obliged to wear.
Women were not expected to swim in that attire, they were expected to bathe.(Carter, 223) This advertisement for swim accessories at Macy's was made during a time of change. The fact that women were expected to wear all of this attire in the water confirms the fact that women were not expected to swim as of 1914, but instead to bathe for social pleasure. Women were starting to learn to swim athletically instead of standing in the water socializing.(Kidwell,118) This was not only the turning point for women's clothing and swimwear to become less restricting, but also the time for athleticism and for women to stand up for themselves and gain equality. This ad was written 6 years before the 19th amendment to the U.S. constitution was ratified, the amendment that gave equal voting rights to women. Back then, it was illegal for a woman to vote. I guess it doesn't surprise me that we were wearing dresses in the water. In reality, though, "back then" was only 79 years ago. America was free but not equal.
This poem about female swimmers in the 1920's written by
Grantland Rice depicts the male perception of women's ability as a whole: With the women in their swimmin'
Turning Records into wrecks With the ladies raising hades
In a matter quite complex, With their biceps getting stronger Where their strides are getting longer In about four generations Who will be the weaker sex?(Kidwell,120) It sounds like this man is scared that women might someday
Another issue that the writer seemed to have swept below the carpet is the morality of women. First, women seemed to have been despised until they started excelling in mass advertising. Also, the author seems to peg the success of the modern woman to clothing and design. This means that women and cloths are but the same thing. In fact, it seems that a woman’s sex appeal determine her future endeavours, according to the author. It is through this that I believe that the author would have used other good virtues of women to explain
From coast to coast people were reading the exploits of a new type of woman called flapper. Prior to World War 1 Victorian ideals still dictated the behavior of American women and girls. Frederick Lewis Allen describes the traditional role of women. Women were the guardians of morality. They were made of finer stuff than men. They were expected to act accordingly. Young girls must look forward in innocence to a romantic love match which would lead them to the altar and to living happily ever after. Until the right man came along they must allow no male to kiss them. Flappers did the opposite. Flappers danced the Charleston, kissed their boyfriends while they played golf and sat behind the wheels of fast cars. The liberated usually young female disdained the traditions of her mother and grandmother before her. Flappers would smoke and drink alcohol, she cut her hair and wore short dresses. They also changed their views on courtship rituals, marriage, and child rearing. With these they could have the same freedom as men could. The time period also saw a highly physical change in women’s lives like how they dressed and looked. For the first time in American history women could choose to be free from long hair and voluminous clothing. Before the women changed they wore very restrictive clothing consisting of long skirts with layers of petticoats over tightly laced corsets that produced an hourglass figure with wide hips and a narrow waist.
Having invested 27 million dollars and eleven years of research, Du Pont de Nemours Inc. roused world-wide interest when the company displayed the first ever nylon stockings in the New York World Fair in 1938. Nylon apparel, including women's lingerie and foundation garments, soon appeared on the American market in wide varieties. Unfortunately, the quantities were limited. Women paid deathly high pre-war prices to obtain a pair of these famous nylons; they quickly became a symbol of status and wealth (Ewing, 111). Its heyday, however, was brief, for in February 1942, America's nylon literally went to war with the soldiers, and nylon stockings temporarily became extinct. Post-war attitudes toward nylons and other underwear drastically differed from those of the pre-war. This 1952 Du Pont Nylon ad coincides with this change. The advertisement indicates not only the remaining post-war patriotic sentiments, but also the progress women made since the 1930's in obtaining more freedom, independence, and simplified lifestyle.
It seems if a woman does not follow what the television or magazines do, they will be considered a ‘disgrace’ to society. “By the 1930’s, mass advertisements on radio and in magazines persuaded women to purchase cosmetic products by appealing to her fear of growing old or being rejected by social acquaintances,” (Gourley 56). The beauty industry specifically targeted women, using the ideas of an often highly feminine related idea of vanity. This also talked about women’s apparel in clothing and how they weren’t able to dress casually since they would be titled, slob. As looks represent a lot in a woman, the body type of a woman has always struggled with maintaining since the ‘perfect’ body types are not what everyone has. “In the 1890’s women had full bosoms, round hips. In actual measurements they were probably no rounder than Miss Cox but they seemed so because they were shorter, tightened their waists into an hour-glass effect … Now, though, the ideal figure must have a round, high bosom, a slim but not wasp-like waist, and gently rounded hips” (“This is What…”). Ideals women that society has pushed onto women to be for them to have any chance in romance. Though many women can drift away from this the women, though they won’t admit to it, had struggled to meet the ‘set standard’ for women. This shows how after women have gained the rights of voting, gender roles
In the 1997 article Listening to Khakis, published in the New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell effectively paints a vivid picture of the thought and science that goes into advertising campaigns. Gladwell begins his paper by focusing on the Dockers’ advertising campaign for their line of adult male khaki pants, which he labels as extremely successful. This campaign was the first line of successful fashion advertisements aimed directly toward adult males (Gladwell, 1997). This campaign was cunningly simple and showed only males wearing the pants being advertised with the background noise filled with men having a casual conversation (Gladwell, 1997). This tactic was used because studies showed that Dockers’ target market felt an absence in adult male friendships. (Gladwell, 1997). The simplicity of the advertisements was accentuated as to not to deter possible customers by creating a fashion based ad because, based on Gladwell’s multiple interviews of advertising experts, males shy away from being viewed as fashion forward or “trying to hard” (Gladwell, 1997).
Frederick Lewis Allen, in his famous chronicle of the 1920s Only Yesterday, contended that women’s “growing independence” had accelerated a “revolution in manners and morals” in American society (95). The 1920s did bring significant changes to the lives of American women. World War I, industrialization, suffrage, urbanization, and birth control increased women’s economic, political, and sexual freedom. However, with these advances came pressure to conform to powerful but contradictory archetypes. Women were expected to be both flapper and wife, sex object and mother. Furthermore, Hollywood and the emerging “science” of advertising increasingly tied conceptions of femininity to a specific standard of physical beauty attainable by few. By 1930, American women (especially affluent whites) had won newfound power and independence, but still lived in a sexist culture where their gender limited their opportunities and defined their place in society.
People have used women in print media to sell their products since the mid-19th century. The women in the ads were portrayed with thin waists, large breasts and stylish clothing. As the roaring 1920’s moved in, American women scored voting rights and birth control. Due to World War I, it became necessary for women to work. The print world began to portray women in a boyish, sexy fashion. Hemlines rose for sex appeal. Breasts were bound so women didn’t appear too feminine in the work-place. Hair was cut shorter for convenience and the flapper-girl was born.
During the early stages of the Industrial Revolution, the role of working-class women became a burden to what one would call British National Identity. As one can note from Deborah Valenze’s book The First Industrial Woman, women who began to work in order to support their families were seen as a masculine because they would dress showing more skin. The new evolving identity of working class women became criticized not only by men but also by women of higher economic status. This would eventually lead to the first feminist wave in Britain from 1848 through 1920. This new wave in Britain was a reaction to the way working women had been put down by British society in the earlier period of the Industrial Revolution. Therefore, the ‘gentle lady’ of the Victorian Age became unacceptable, the role that domesticity was the right role to be played by women became a critique. The suffrage movement in many ways led women to embrace a new form of ‘masculinity’ in clothing. The working class woman’s ‘masculinity’ became one to be praised. One can begin to see this at the end of First Feminist wave in the 1920s when the flapper style became the new fashion. Society in Britain had become one of man v. woman, and women retaliated through fashion by adapting masculine style clothing to cover their curvaceous figures. Nevertheless, the Second World War’s impact on society brought with it a new ideology of Britain v. the outside enemy, which brought a revitalization of traditional women roles illustrated by the clothing. The following is an analysis on women’s clothing post the First World War and through the Second World War.
Other aspects strengthen the advertisement design's sexual appeal. The foreground woman's strapless swimming suit, highlighted in red, is the most notable example. Her chest prominently resides above horizontal boxes in both th...
Early in the process of mass market consumers, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers realize significance of using their advertising to target women. Ads were designed and published to speak primarily for women. In the years preceding World War I, marketing techniques targeting women consumers became increasingly effective. Throughout history, women have always struggled for a recognized place in society. Despite the activities of the Suffragettes, support of the Labor Party and some members of the Liberal Party, women still had very few rights in 1900 and certainly no political rights. During the 1900’s women were still trapped in the “cult of domesticity” (Srivastava). A good illustration of the life of women early during those days can be seen in the advertisement O-cedar print ad year 1900 (fig. 1 below). This print ad speaks to house wives, saying that they have a wide variety of products to choose from. Ranging from a polish to protect her floor wood and furniture, dusting pads and mops that, according to their ad “reduce cleaning, dusting and polishing to almost nothing”. It is obvious that this advertisement reflects the stereotypical depictions of women as a “Happy Homemaker”, apron-clad and committed mothers portrayed in self promotional ads.
In the article, “The Fashion Industry: Free to Be an Individual” by Hanna Berry, Berry discusses how for decades women have been told to use certain products and that if they used those products they would be beautiful. Women over the years have believed this idea and would purchase items that promised to make them prettier, thinner, smarter and even more loved. However, in reality it was never what they wore on their bodies that helped them be any of those things; but what it did help with was to empower women to become fearless and bold by what they chose to wear on their bodies as a form of expression.
Women used to dress very conservatively and strict before the turn of the decade. Clothing consisted of fitted dresses, long skirts, and corsets in lady like manners. Since the 1920’s brought women’s rights along, young women decided that they were not willing to waste away their young lives anymore being held down to the rules; they were going to enjoy life. The younger generations of women were breaking away from their old habits and their fashion statements changed their roles in society completely. Women were modeling their lives after popular icons...
In the early 1900’s the ideal woman would be dressed with long dresses and would normally have long hair. Several events such as World War I, in July of 1914, changed women’s role in society. They were not only taking care of the children and the household but they were also taking the role of a man. As men went to war, women replaced them in factories. This caused woman to be more independent. Women realized that having a job was something that could be done; their sex didn’t restrict them from taking this action. This was extremely important as it lead to women being more confident and capable. In the 1920s young women began to change. They went from having long dresses and long hair, to a short haircut and wearing dresses that were above the knee. Women developed a greater interest in looking attractive. According to Russell L. Johnson, the beauty industry grew rapidly as cosmetic expenses sky rocketed from 750 million to 2 billion dollars (Johnson 3). This was one of the causes of the sexual revolution. Women became “ less formal but more expressive (Mag...
Through the application of physical appearance, audience and text the ad unfortunately paints women in a negative manner. The ad employs tactics that reel society into believing that women must put a man on a pedestal in order to gain his admiration. Women have the right to be treated equally and deserve to be represented in a positive light so the culture can fray away from following beliefs similarly portrayed in this 1930s advertisement. We must teach the next generation that although it is in our nature to nurture those around us, there are no boundaries or restrictions for women to excel in society for the
6. Hammond, Colleen. "Dressing with Dignity - History of Women's Fashion Industry - How to Fight Sexual Revolution and Immodesty in Dress!" N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Dec. 2013.