A Womans Body Image And Sexuality

Fashion in the early nineteen twenties was all about comfort. Men’s pants got wider and women stopped wearing their corsets and tight dresses, while older women of the age considered this scandalous and still held the thought that women should not show their ankle. Though the majority of adults disagreed with the fashion revolution, young women continually hiked up their skirts, stayed out late, and kept up with fashion trends. Times were changing, and thus the flapper age was born. Hemlines rose to the knee, and then later above it- exposing the muscular

Furthermore, in spite of women gaining independence they started to shock society by their rebellious fashion styles and attitudes. Their rebellious attitudes were shown mainly through fashion choices: hemlines got raised, more jewelry became worn, makeup got heavier and hair became shorter.1 According to the 1920’s Vanity Fair, these magazines allowed people to stay updated on Women’s Suffrage and fashion ideas. In the light of, 1920’s Vanity Fair, many of the images shown were of women’s fashion which consisted of ‘Flappers’ who were the progressive, sexually liberated woman of the 1920’s.45

Before the 1920’s, women’s attire was considered fairly modern. Women would have worn clothing with more of a silhouette than clothing that was loose and flowy. The length of their dresses never revealed more of their leg than just their ankle. Women received bad reputations when showing their knees or even their calfs. Women in the 1920’s also had a different ideal figure than most women do today. The body types women wanted to achieve also transformed into a more feminine look. This look consisted of low bust lines, higher hems lines, and showing off more curves than ever before. These women became unapologetically fearless.

Fashion has been a prominent aspect of a woman’s life throughout time. Women of different times and cultures have turned the routine of picking out clothes and putting together different ensembles into a sort of art, or a way to express and promote themselves. Many women also see fashion as part of their identity, or a way to manipulate the way people see them. What a woman wears can drastically change the way society views her - it can increase her chances of getting a job, or make her gain respect (or rejection) from her peers (Sika n.p.).

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

In order to generate astonishing revenue, Mouret’s Ladies’ Paradise employs techniques to create spontaneous desire by playing on customers’ sense of sight, which would help women, who make up the majority of department store customers, realize their independent desires for femininity. The first thing one sees when one walks into a brightly lit department store is the displays. In an appeal to his customers’ sight, Mouret throws brightly colored scarves in heaping piles on a display in the front of the store. According to Elaine Abelson, “Subtlety was not an attribute of merchants in the late nineteenth century. If there was color used, it appeared in massive displays” (44). Such flamboyancy attracts women wishing to release their own creativity, suppressed by the male-dominated society. The lack of harmony in the displays portrays Mouret’s belief “…that customers should have sore eyes by the time they [leave] the shop”

Dress reform has played an integral part of the women’s movement, health reform and political agendas. This paper will explore the time period of 1850 to 1930 in the United States of America concerning dress reform for women. It is important to explore this topic because the eighty year span marks a time of rapid change for women concerning health, leisure, independence, political and gender constraints and liberties. A description of the social forces must be discussed in order to have a distinct grasp of the reform movement. Next, the problems caused by fashion will reveal why there was a strong reform movement for dress and

Women’s role in the 1920s’ changed greatly because they were allowed new political freedoms along with freedoms in clothing along with hairstyles. Women were finally allowed to vote after 72 years of struggling to be heard.’ "We've come really far, really fast," said Jane Beseler, director of development for the La Crosse County Historical Society. "This generation of young women doesn't realize it because they've reaped the benefits of the women before them.’ (Lang print). Along with this new right, women started wearing shorter dresses; they wore clothes that made them look more boyish. Moving away from Victorian style, they wore shorter dresses and chopped their hair off into what is known as a bob. Dancing with their new “short” dresses gave many parents a heart attack. Not only were their daughters showing more skin than previous generations, they were flaunting it to men for attention. Along with engaging in smoking cigarettes and drinking, women showed that they were now equal to the males

Round, busty breasts are very arousing for the men of America. They promote sexual lusting and popularity. The more a woman flaunts her breasts, the status of her voguishness increases. Why must a woman’s popularity be based solely upon how busty or perky her breasts are? The answer is found by delving into when, how, and why the sexual status arose. The history of the breast depicts a highly distinguishable desire from today.

In today’s society, people tend to focus a lot on females and the problems they have concerning their body image based on popular culture, stereotypes, and other generalizations of how a woman “should look.” What we do not realize however is that males struggle with their body image as much as females do and are often not recognized in their fight to meet the expectations of society. Males struggle with all kinds of eating and body disorders just as females do and the expectations pushed on them by the media, women, and even other guys. There is a frightening lack of treatment because guy’s hardships are ignored and even overshadowed by women’s struggles. Males also go through the harmful effects and risks that come with the efforts they

During the women’s rights movement, rebellion was the trend for women. What followed was a drastic change in how women looked. Enter the flappers, the bad girls of the ’20s. They got rid of shapely corsets for straight waists and boyish figures. The “washboard profile”

Society has always been preoccupied with defining the “ideal woman”. Numerous artists from varies time periods have all had their go at trying to depict the perfect woman. Prior to the 20th century, curvy and voluptuous women were considered ideally beautiful. They used the term “rubenesque” to describe such women. Artists like Peter Paul Rubens, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, were famous for their illustrations of “rubenesque" women. Curviness was a desirable attribute for quite a while. The most iconic female figure of the early 60’s was Marilyn Monroe. The curvy blonde was the pinnacle of attractiveness back then and still remains one of the most beautiful women in American history. Although the beauty standards might have been different, women were still just as sexualized and pressurized as they are now. For example, pin-up girls, who were famous models or actresses whose photos were mass-produced, were under immense pressure to attain “perfection”. Their photos were highly retouched and stylized mostly by male artists who eventually create an unattainable human form. The ideal female form might have been heavier back then but it was just a scrutinized and retouched as it is now. Ironically, these years also saw society shaming

The main focus of her article is to show and explain how women's ideals of how their physical appearance should be has changed over time. The size and shape of women's breasts have become an important factor when considering female attractiveness. There has recently been increased enthusiasm for large breasts, resulting in a lot of competition for customers in women's magazines and the beauty industry for customers who want to transform their figures into a top-heavy shape. However, "representations of new breast styles are only meant to boost consumerism (Page 272)." As an additional result of the transformation of the body, consumer goods and services have quickly become much more common to fulfill this

Another area in which women made changes was with their appearance. Women used their attire and style to show an independence, a certain freedom in which they alone had control. Starting with the “Gibson Girl”, women dressed in long, slim dresses, freeing themselves of the poufy petticoats of yore. Women started wearing shorter dresses and shorter hairstyles, leading to “Flapper Jane”. “Women started wearing “less” clothing, shorter dresses, cutting off their hair, and just being more “sensual” than normal”, (Bliven, 1925).

Before the 1920’s, women’s attire was considered fairly modern. Women would have worn clothing with more of a silhouette than clothing that was loose and flowy. The length of their dresses never revealed more of their leg than just their ankle. Women received bad reputations when showing their knees or even their calfs. Women in the 1920’s also had a different ideal figure than most women do today. The body types women wanted to achieve also transformed into a more feminine look. This look consisted of low bust lines, higher hems lines, and showing off more curves than ever before. These women became unapologetically fearless.