The Popular Culture Association conference is about a month away, and I am not nearly where I hoped I would be. (This is typical.) The working title of the abstract was “Learning to be Female” but the chapter is now tentatively titled “From Female to Feminine”, which is closer to what I am envisioning. an excerpt:
Learning to be female is a lifelong process of education, being guided into each new stage of life along a cultural path shaped by beliefs about aging, class, and race as well as gender. We learn to continually measure our selves against socially-constructed and learned images of the female and standards of femininity.
So far, I have collected and examined images of girls’ clothing from Sears catalogs (1949-1959) and etiquette books from the same era, including those written for children. I have begun to gather information about Halloween costumes and clothing used for dress up play. Still to be done:
What am I leaving out? What sources would be useful and what questions do I need to be asking?
Learning to be female is a lifelong process of education, being guided into each new stage of life along a cultural path shaped by beliefs about aging, class, and race as well as gender. We learn to continually measure our selves against socially-constructed and learned images of the female and standards of femininity.
So far, I have collected and examined images of girls’ clothing from Sears catalogs (1949-1959) and etiquette books from the same era, including those written for children. I have begun to gather information about Halloween costumes and clothing used for dress up play. Still to be done:
- paper dolls
- dolls, especially fashion dolls (Barbie was introduced in 1959)
- Celebrities, heroines, and role models from books, movies, and TV
- School photos (individual and group)
- Our mothers’ styles and their influence (including mother-daughter fashions)
- Our grandmothers’ styles and their influence (gifts, photos, memories)
What am I leaving out? What sources would be useful and what questions do I need to be asking?
Mrs. Moyer’s 4th grade class, spring 1959. Ketler Elementary School, Westwood, New Jersey. (I was absent, so don’t bother looking.)
