Monday, October 22, 2012
Feminine stereotypes
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Women Soldiers in the Civil War
Frances Clayton
Women were not legally allowed to fight in the Civil War, but that most certainly did not stop them. There were thought to be 400 women who fought in the civil war. Women joined the army for the same reasons men did; they believed in a cause and wanted adventure. It was also possible that some women joined the army because they felt trapped at home or were a burden to their parents financially.
WWI and WWII ads aimed towards women
This is another advertisement promoting the Women's Land Army in the US.
Advertisements depicting patriotic women growing their own food was common during the World Wars.
Women were encouraged to can their food.
Manys ads depicted women wearing dresses made out of American flags. This was a way America encouraged patriotism among women. America's goal was to get everyone (even children) involved in an effort to help the country during the war.
Women's Land Army (Britain and America)
During World War I England and Wales created the Women's Land Army, an organization that encouraged women to take over farm work that men would normally do. The lack of men due to the war left women no other choice but to do the work themselves. America also created a Women's Land Army soon after. Both countries used the Women's Land Army through the first and second world war.
http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1280&bih=929&tbm=isch&tbnid=lGU6d1IEMGbNcM:&imgrefurl=http://www.thefourservices.co.uk/landarmy_in_ww2.htm&docid=lO_glAF_pAjQDM&imgurl=http://www.thefourservices.co.uk/LandArmy%252520-%252520Keep%252520the%252520Farms%252520Poster.jpg&w=700&h=1057&ei=VMZ1UOT2L-XEyQHXvoGAAw&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=264&sig=100177833013943923729&page=1&tbnh=139&tbnw=92&start=0&ndsp=34&ved=1t:429,r:12,s:0,i:110&tx=65&ty=91
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Lillian RussellThe late 1800s was one of the few periods in history when slimness was not considered desirable. Women were supposed to have big busts and wide hips. Waists, however, were supposed to be small, and women still wore tight corsest to squeeze theri waists in. An Englishman reported that American women seemd to be morbidly frightened of getting thin. "They are constantly having themselves weighed and every ounce of increase is hailed with delight, and talked about with the most dreadful plainness of speech" he reported. A "beautiful Connecticut girl" he added, told him proudly that she had "gained eighteen pounds in flesh since last April."
The great American beauty of the age was Lillian Rusell, famed singer, actress, and dinner partner of Diamond Jim Brady. At her thinnest, the five-foot, five-inch Russell weighted about 140 pounds, but she frequently exceeded 160.
Dance troupes from Europe that toured the United States featured chorus girls who were definitely Rubenesque and American stage shows followed their lead. In the 1890s, Metropolitcan Magazine claimed that the "regulation chorus girl type" had "thick ankles, ponderous calves and a waist laced so tight that the lines of the hips and bust were distorted into balloon-like curves." Perhaps fleshiness was appropritae in an era when Americans finally discovered the joys of appetite. Or perhaps it was a reaction against the "fairylike" women of the pre-Civil War era. Helen Hunt, a widow who had gone west in 1872 to escape ill health and depression, wrote to her sickly friends proudly reporting that she now weighted 163 pounds.
Photography became common, and when women had their pictures taken they demanded that theri cheekss look redder, their skin whiter, their hair brighter, until, one photographer complained, the subjects "looked like ghastly mockery of the clown in a pantomime." It was only a small step from tinted photography to tinted faces. Makeup was still considered the mark of a fast women, but the late-nineteenth-century equivalent of the jet-set used it anyway. Fashionable women used hot tongs to curl their hair into effortful coiffures, which were sprinkled with gold or silver dust for special occasions. They wore elaborate hats - huge affairs bearing flowers, lace, organdy, and every possible kind of feathers, from ostrich plumes to stuffed birds. The slaughter of wild birds for hat decorationss reached such outrageouss proportions that it led to the nation's first public environmental protests.
Source(s):
America's Women, 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates and Heroines by Gail Collins
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Introduction to Gender Roles in the U.S.
The people that are in a society attribute value to
everything in their society. Wooden crosses then become religious icons, paper
turns into a source of monetary wealth, and people are set into a societal
niche. Those people that are in those niches are set up with a price tag; they
are given a value. That seems a bit presumptuous for our time, but was in fact
a norm through out most of our history. Sadly, it still casts a shadow over
what we would like to think we have now.
Women’s history has struggled with its identity but
women have the power to find who they are and what value they should have. It
is a cliché but knowledge is power, with it you can protect your own rights and
answer questions like are why are women only worth the 60 cents they will make
to every dollar a man makes?
19th
Amendment
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or
abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall
have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
This Video highlights
the power behind knowledge and how knowing your rights are key. You would not
want to unintentionally sign your rights away so take advantage of them
Gender Roles of the 1950's
Women were viewed as primarily housewives whereas the men would work outside of the home.
The Roaring 20's
The Roaring 20's represented the decade's distinctive cultural edge in most of the major cities of the "west" for a period of sustained economic prosperity
Young women of the 1920's
The flapper became the image that represented the huge change that occured in the live's and attitudes of women during the roaring 20's
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