Femininity Redefined

The Female Identity Crisis

 
       It may seem that the average woman of the fifties led a cushy life. Her husband earned the money, and she spent her days flitting about the house, playing with her new appliances and visiting friends.
       But this cushy life existed only in appearances. In reality, the average woman of the fifties was fighting against societal repression and searching to find a place in society and a purpose in life. Her roles, responsibilities, and conception of herself were being frantically rearranged by society.
       As soldiers returned from the war, the woman who was once praised for being Rosie the Riveter, was expected to surrender her job, and, in a large way, her independence too. After such a traumatic experience as World War II, everyone was anxious for things to return to "normal."
       But after all of this time, what was "normal?" Women were suddenly expected to revolve their lives around the upkeep of the family and the home, and to be fulfilled with this sole life purpose.
       To correct that statement, women WERE indeed given another purpose in life; to find a husband. The terrible loss of male lives during the war left a population disparity between the sexes that was all too real. Good Housekeeping frantically warned women that 1 in 7 of them would be forced to live alone all her life. There was a flood of women's magazines that doled out advice on how good ol' Rosie could "reinvent" herself in order to attract a husband. Coronet Magazine (1953), quotes:
                  "The smart woman will keep herself feminine. It is her duty to herself to be desirable at all times to the opposite sex."
 

       Cosmetics advertisements portrayed their products as the magic potients need to capture and keep that man. This Pond's Lipstick advertisement is from the May 1958 issue of Seventeen (6, p. 83) The caption on it reads:

"Oh-la-la! How alluring...

Pond's Enticing new lipstick shade- luciously light...bewtichingly bright!

Will he? Won't he? He will go overboard when he sees you in fabulous "French Coral" -Pond's flirtatious new lipstick shade. A light, lucious coral...kissed with pink! It's sweet, it's seductive. It's demure, it's devastating. Keeps your lips smooth, moist- never dries. It's so creamy! Touch your lips with glamorous new "French Coral" tonight, and you'll have a new love tomorrow!"

 
       While these absurdities may seem comical in our modern day world, it was the reality for women in the fifties. Some warned women that, to attract a man, she had to play down her intellect so as not to overpower or threaten him. These magazines bordered on brainwashing, convincing tens of thousands of women that marriage and homemaking should, and would, fulfill all of a woman's ambitions. At the same time, however, they set impossibly high standards, with advertisement spotlighting the ironic combination of glamour in an everyday household setting.
 
What does this have to do with fashion?
       As much as Dior should be lauded for his new and inventive vision of female beauty, he should be criticized for the repression of women that it helped to perpetuate. His designs allowed women to indulge in feeling beautiful and feminine, but societal pressures forced them to take this role to the extreme. By subscribing to the classical traditions of womanly beauty, it was as if woman were expected to step back into roles that dated back from the same era.
       The parallels of are all too obvious; the over-exaggeration of the classical female hourglass shape, the daintiness and frailty (as seen especially in the stiletto heels a woman was balanced precariously upon), and a sort of feminine self-consciousness.
        

 A classically posed woman modeling a classically cut dress in a mid-1950's Sears Catalogue. Note her elegance; her rounded shoulders, trim waist, downcast gaze, oversized glove that highlight the smallness of her hands, and a thin face atop a long, ballet-like neck. (14, p. 23)

     
      Models and advertisements personify these ideals of the happy, perfect housewife. They are photographed in ballet-like poses, which are naturally rounded, gentle, and poised. The models wear wide grins, which are meant to add to the "natural" quality that is set-up in the picture.

1956 Sears Catalogue models smile at right. (9, p. 49)
 
Examples of Magazine Ads Depicting the Perfect Feminine Image and Lifestyle:
 
                     
   
Saturday Evening Post, April 1956 (6, p. 35)               Saturday Evening Post, July 1956 (6, p. 59)
 
Mrs. America
       The ultimate example of this newly found, and strongly forced, image of femininity is in the Mrs. America pageant. Mrs. America was intended to represent the pnnacle of domestic life and married bliss. The contest included activities such as mopping the floor and making a perfectly taut bed. All of this was done, of course, in a full New Look skirt atop stilleto heels. This set a wonderful "role model" or example for women, but also pushed them to strive for an impossibly high, and therefore inevitably disappointing, standard. Mrs. America was the living incarnation of the afore mentioned magazine ads of the time.