Final major project #2 Research: Confronting gender stereotypes
What is socially acceptable now but probably wasn’t in the past? This question sparked my research as I began looking into how women have become more accepted in society over the years. Feminists organisations were formed such as the suffragettes, that went through great length to create equality but what I found most interesting was looking into the history of objects that have become unisex, the norm in society.
A skort is a pair of shorts with a skirt attached above it, often worn in sports. But, what I found out was that they led to the evolution of trousers for women but were called the “bloomer costume”. In the 1850s, the bloomer costume was pretty much the same thing except there were trousers under a short skirt (I mean up to the knee) it was invented as a result of feminists “[complaining] their cumbersome clothes were politically at fault because the burden of fashion prevented women from partaking in the public world of politics, business and commerce” (Cunnigham, 2015, p.204).
“Women’s wearing trousers in public places went against strong gender roles and ideas of propriety or etiquette in dress. Pants were not considered feminine and hence were deemed unattractive on women. Cultural expectations of women definitely placed restrictions on their wearing trousers. Acceptance occurred only when trousers seemed a truly practical and logical choice for a specific activity” (Cunnigham, 2015, p.205).
During the early twentieth century, when the first wave of feminism entered the States, advertisers would call cigarettes ‘Torches of Freedom’ to encourage women to smoke by exploiting women’s aspirations for a better life (Wikipedia, 2020). Edward Bernays is famous for his advertising to the American public especially his campaigns to promote female smoking in 1929. Cigarettes, at the time, were equated with men, and as were women were starting to do things that men were doing Bernays wanted to use cigarettes as a symbol for women that the gender gap is being closed. Picturing women smoking outside of their homes (which was the only place at the time where women could smoke), in marches and publish these pictures around the world. “In 1923 women only purchased 5% of cigarettes sold, in 1929 that percentage increased to 12%, in 1935 to 18.1%, peaking in 1965 at 33.3%, and remaining at this level until 1977″(Wikipedia, 2020). The images used in the advertising campaigns differ by region. These photographs were not only used as symbols of creating equality between genders but also races “advertisements in South Africa have shown women crossing racial barriers as black women are shown accepting cigarettes from white men and in India, women have been portrayed in Western clothes with cigarettes as a sign of liberation and upward mobility”(Wikipedia, 2020). Also, just like the phrase “Torches of freedom” Tobacco companies were using these photographs as “an image of emancipation in eastern and central Europe where cigarettes are shown as symbols of Western freedom” (Wikipedia, 2020). Also, “in Spain they use images of women in masculine jobs, such as a fighter pilot, to appeal to young women– and the smoking rates among young women in Spain increased from 17% in 1978 to 27% in 1997″(Wikipedia, 2020).
Researching these things has given me a kind of guide of how to research such as the importance of looking into the details, what questions to ask but to appreciate the things I take for granted like my skinny jeans. Nonetheless, learning about these specific things, that are no longer categorised for a particular gender, has made me think about how to strategically think of ways to redesign something that either fits a new business prospect or can actively inspire people to engage in a campaign.
References:
Cunningham, P.A. (2015) Reforming Women’s Fashion, 1850-1920 : Politics, Health, and Art. United States: The Kent State University Press. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central
‘Torches of Freedom’ (2020) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torches_of_Freedom