For the podcast episode, click here. For the NOVA database article I referenced for the episode, click here.

The song, The Village by Wrabel, released in 2017, discusses the topic of being a transgender individual in a rejecting family or society. The lyrics relay, “They say, ‘Don’t dare, don’t you even go there. Cutting off your long hair, you do as your told.’ Tell you, ‘Wake up, go put on your makeup. This is just a phase you’re gonna outgrow.’” The protagonist of the song is expected to look feminine with long hair and makeup, representing their family’s traditional values. However, the protagonist attempts to refuse these values, cutting off their long hair in order to reflect their own values of individuality. This helps me answer my question by providing a clear example of how one may fight back against society’s values through their appearance, and be shut down for it. Also, this song adds another perspective of a transgender person, rather than just discussing cis women like in my first two posts. It proposes the question, why are women, or those perceived as women, the usual targets for forcing conformity?

When I was a child, around 2013 to 2020, I attended a rather traditional church with my family. All of the boys were expected to wear suits or button-ups, while the girls were expected to wear dresses or skirts. As a young boy (though I did not know that at the time) I heavily resented dresses. I found them to be far too long, far too heavy, and far too feminine for my tastes. I was also forced to wear restricting nylon tights, hard shoes, and occasionally my hair would be tied up so tight that I got a headache. Although these components made me squirm in discomfort all throughout church, I was still forced to conform to the standards of what a girl “should” look like. This extended all the way until my teen years when I left the church. In the church environment, my individuality in my style of fashion did not matter. What mattered was enforcing a sense of conformity among groups through fashion. Said conformity was dictated by the values of those in charge, such as traditional femininity, masculinity, modesty, and purity. I internalized this message until I was finally allowed to make my own decisions regarding my appearance, leading to me discovering how I could make my fashion reflect my own values, rather than others.

The background of my blog being a monochromatic typewriter adds to my argument because typewriters are quite old and antiquated, which lines up with my topic of fashion History. I also chose a black and white typewriter specifically to enhance this sense of a time long passed, since almost all forms of media are now in color unlike back then.

If you think my design is cool, you should also see this one!

The painting displayed, Shadow of a Ballerina, depicts a realistic photo of a 1950s American ballerina alongside her unrealistic shadow, who is painted to represent the beauty standard of the time, but exaggerated to its fullest extent. The shadow is also painted in a more impressionistic, abstract style, accentuating her detachment from how real women look. Meanwhile, the real ballerina is composed of an actual photo of a ballerina at the time, exemplifying how different she is compared to her idealized shadow. However, the ballerina’s shadow has significantly more roses at her feet when contrasted to the real ballerina, demonstrating how her overdone features, such as the hourglass shape and femininity, were highly valued among society. This helps me answer my question by clearly illustrating how women were valued in another decade of American history. It also proposes the question, are society’s values too unrealistic for the average person to achieve? When will people, especially women, be thin enough, white enough, or pretty enough for society?

Fashion is often blown off as shallow and pointless, and only matters to those who care too much about their appearance. However, fashion does have value in society other than just aesthetics. Fashion can help express the thoughts and feelings of a society at any given time. For example, in the 1930s and 1940s, fashion mannequins mirrored the beauty standards and values of the time such as thinness and whiteness.

The article, Real Women, Normal Curves, and the Making of the American Fashion Mannequin, describes the history of American fashion mannequins, and how they emulated the fashion trends of the 1930s and 1940s. A notable fact spoken about in the article is the prioritization of representing young, middle-class, slim, white women. This was especially favored in the 1940s, when American patriotism and pride in self-sufficiency further popularized products that fit thin frames.

The article also goes on to describe how mannequins were often distorted by surrealist artists, who sought to critique humans’ relationship with the artificial, in order to produce uncomfortable reactions. These surrealist ideas then went on to be absorbed into high fashion by designers like Elsa Schiaparelli. However, the surrealist mannequin displays were later sanitized to a more appealing, dream-like advertising tool. A prominent figure at the time, Lester Gaba, detested surrealism in the mannequin window display career field, going on to mock it in his own displays. Gaba’s realistic mannequins were somewhat diverse, but often reinforced ideas of whiteness and femininity as the “standard.” He attempted to branch out and create a mannequin that represented a black woman, though the effectiveness of this attempt is said to be debatable.

Gaba also created a famous mannequin named Cynthia, which was modeled after Cynthia Wells, who both served as a traditional window display mannequin and a companion. As an odd display of their relationship, he would take her with him on talk shows and carry her around town. Cynthia’s popularity helped carry Gaba through the ranks of the fashion industry before he had to abandon her due to being drafted in World War II. Gaba’s relationship with Cynthia also served as a form of protection against homophobia, as Cynthia seemed to play the role of Gaba’s wife.

Another prominent designer, Lillian Greneker, had another idea of inserting realism into mannequins. Greneker attached photographs of famous actors printed on film to translucent mannequins in order to create a recognizable form. Yet another mannequin designer, Cora Scovil, also used translucent plastic in her designs, though her mannequins were far more futuristic. All three designers, and their different takes on realism, created a sort of base for the “perfect woman,” despite their works often being based on real women. A contributor to the popularity of mannequins in the 1930s was their ability to emulate certain personality traits depending on the way they were positioned, along with their usual bored expressions. This added an element of life and character to the mannequins, which drew viewers in. Lester Gaba took advantage of this, creating an art piece that depicted a mannequin shopping, stopping to smoke, and then looking in a mirror, as a traditionally feminine woman of the era might.

Similar to mannequins, off the rack clothing of this time were often designed to fit an average or approximation of the “normal” or “ideal” body, which was based on thin, white women. Due to women creating less of their own clothing and buying more off the rack, they began to expect store-bought clothing to fit them despite their unreliable sizes. When a garment did not fit, the article claims that women often assumed that the problem was the size of their bodies, rather than the size of the clothing that was never meant to perfectly fit them in the first place. The dissonance between the ideal body presented in fashion and the realistic bodies of women in the 1930s and 1940s often caused issues with body image among the population. However, measurement studies were conducted in an attempt to combat this with limited success.

The article could help me answer the question by providing a clear timeline of the cycle of women’s beauty standards within a pivotal section of American history. In the article, fashion mannequins are first presented as emulating the existing beauty standards of real women of the time, which were young, middle-class, thin, white women. Then, designers of these mannequins took the beauty standard and exaggerated it to its fullest extent. Which, led to women viewing these idealized mannequins as the new beauty standard, trying to emulate it themselves. This enacts a vicious cycle of the beauty standard becoming more and more unattainable as values of whiteness, thinness, and others are distorted to an unrealistic degree, creating a clear caricature of the values of the time.

Popular fashions throughout United States history and how it represents society’s values at a given time.

How does the timeline of popular fashions in the United States represent the country’s values throughout history?

Working thesis: Women, or those perceived as women, are historically expected to conform to society’s values, such as femininity and thinness, through their appearance; however, they should not have to conform to these ideas if said ideas cause them distress or do not align with their identity or desires.