Penelope’s Loom

  First, a note to you, Dear Reader; As you 'saw' with my last post, history is not just in writing, but is visual;  visceral.  Material culture as a form of historical analysis is just as important as a thousand page essay on Napoleonic strategy.  It's certainly more interesting. I am quoting below from a non-scholarly web article, just because I like how they said it. "Ah, corsets! The quintessential symbol of feminine beauty and elegance, or the bane of women's existence? It all depends on who you ask."  https://www.frenchmeadowscorsets.com/blogs/blog/the-history-of-corsets You would’ve thought by now, that the American woman learned a valuable lesson:  impossible, idealized body types are NOT conducive to good health--and I thought that by the end of the 20th century that women would be sensible in emulating fashion trends.  I include MEN in that statement as well, Dear Reader. Yeah, I wish I could tell you that, Dear Reader, but that's not the tru...

Women have a history, in the U.S., of being incredibly swayed by the images in the fashion pages. One of the ways some historians keep track of time, especially for American women, is to look at fashion magazines (as well as some film stars). First of all, let's take a brief gander at changes in the 20th century. For a long time, the so-called hour glass figure reigned supreme: Jane Russell, in "The Outlaw".  Russell was the 20th century epitome of the hourglass figure.  But, this was a remnant of an earlier fashion silhouette--the 19th century ideal...see below:  We're going to return to the corset in part two of this post. I know, ewwwwww, right? Actually, there's a genuine possibility that this woman had several of her ribs removed, in order to achieve this impossible silhouette. Let's take a brief look at relatively modern 'ideals' for women, just for a second, to show you  just how amazing fashion trends can 'cripple' women. Let's move...