Dress, Gender, and Sexuality at Smith College in the 1920S Kendra Van Cleave
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4 The Journal of American Culture Volume 32, Number 1 March 2009 Fashioning the College Woman: Dress, Gender, and Sexuality at Smith College in the 1920s Kendra Van Cleave On December 15, 1920, the student newspaper gender roles, caused extensive debate in the media at Smith College—one of the largest and most (Fass; Kitch 121–35; Latham; Peiss 134–66; prominent of the American women’s colleges, lo- Schreier 19–33; Standish 172–272; Steele 236–42; cated in the small town of Northampton, Massa- Yellis). But what meanings did women themselves chusetts—reported that the class of 1923 had ascribe to popular fashions and to what degree begun a ‘‘dress reform’’ movement ‘‘. with the were those meanings contested? Margaret Lowe, especial aims of appropriateness, modesty and who examined college women’s fashions at Smith good taste’’ (‘‘1923 Launches Dress Campaign’’ and other campuses during this period in order to 2).1 Students decided to create posters, hold understand changes in body image, argues in fashions shows and play competitions, and spread Looking Good: College Women and Body Image, the idea of dress reform through conversation and 1875–1930 that female students ‘‘. shaped their personal example (Class of 1923). The most strik- . attitudes about looks and self-presentation, ing aspect of this incident was the consensus with dating and marriage very much in mind’’ among a number of Smith College students that (111).2 Although this statement is true, other there was a need for dress reform in 1920. The layers need to be investigated. Especially in the nineteenth-century dress reformers, generally ma- early years of the 1920s, Smith women found ture women, promoted clothing that was quite the fashion poses popular on campus to be removed from the fashionable mainstream (Cun- controversial. Students linked fashion to women’s ningham 1–6). In contrast, the young women who progress, managing changing ideas of femininity attended Smith in the 1920s aimed to bring fash- and feminism as well as their role in a national ion back in line with their understandings of ap- consumer culture. At the same time, these propriate self-presentation. The Smith Alumnae women used fashion as one means of negotiating Quarterly reported, ‘‘(The sophomore class of) not only their attraction to but also their discom- twenty-three does not mean to start a dress ‘re- fort with the image of the sexually assertive form’ in the old meaning of the word. They feel woman. Attempting to shape their peers’ appear- that beauty is not incompatible with modesty . .’’ ances and the interpretation of them served as (‘‘Won’t You Take the Chance?’’ 234). one method through which Smith students nav- Scholars have documented that fashions of the igated the experience of being modern college 1920s, particularly as they related to changing women. Kendra Van Cleave is senior assistant librarian at San Francisco State University. Her research interests include fashion as social history as well as the history of dress. The Journal of American Culture, 32:1 r2009 Copyright the Authors Journal compilation r2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Fashioning the College Woman Kendra Van Cleave 5 Historical Context fashions had become connected to sexuality in the popular imagination. Christina Simmons argues that in contrast to earlier understandings of female Women’s fashions—the general look of the eroticism, which were based primarily on wo- clothes worn by women across ethnic and class men’s sexual availability within marriage, the boundaries throughout the United States—engen- model promoted in the 1920s was centered on dered debate in the 1920s, in large part because premarital sexual assertiveness (158). Many Ameri- they signaled such a sharp departure from the cans felt that the comparatively revealing clothing carefully molded female figure of earlier centuries. and visible cosmetics worn by young women The silhouette of the 1920s, evolving from the were the cause, or at least a consequence, of this designs of French couturier Paul Poiret intro- new conception of female sexuality (Fass 280–86; duced in 1908, incorporated comparatively looser Peiss 154; Steele 237). Carolyn Kitch, James construction, shorter skirts, and more relaxed McGovern, and Maureen Turim have demon- foundation garments (Ewing 92–108). As short strated how such debates originated in the 1900s hairstyles and visibly obvious cosmetics entered and 1910s with the icons of the Gibson Girl and the mainstream, they added significantly to the the vamp. However, they assumed a particular perception of a break from tradition (Ewing 95– fervency in the 1920s as public attention fixed on 96; Peiss 170–71). the flapper, who represented the modern young Yet much of this controversy can be traced to woman in both behavior and appearance changing ideas about the relationship between (Hirshbein 114). fashion and identity. In the early twentieth cen- As cultural critics considered the meanings of tury, advertisers, consumer magazines, retailers, women’s fashion choices, so too did individual and the motion picture industry aggressively pro- women, through both public debate and personal moted the new idea that individuals could achieve decisions. Those who attended Smith joined their self-fulfillment by constantly recreating them- peers at other women’s colleges in being at the selves through consumption. This shift had spe- forefront of changing gender and sexual roles cific ramifications for women, as fashion and (Solomon 157). Attending college was still rela- beauty products became fundamental to their tively unconventional; only seven percent of construction and expression of public and per- American women aged eighteen to twenty-one sonal identities.3 Elizabeth Wilson argues that one did so in 1920, increasing to ten percent by 1930; of fashion’s core functions is to define gender women made up 47.3 percent of the US college boundaries (117). As these boundaries shifted in student population in 1920 and 43.7 percent in the early twentieth century, fashion served as a 1930 (Solomon 63–64). However, as numbers logical focus for contention over changing gender grew, especially among women from upper- and roles and sexual mores. upper-middle-class families, they led to an in- Interpretations of fashion’s gendered meanings creased social acceptance for women’s higher were contradictory. On one hand, some Ameri- education. Margaret Lowe notes that most Smith cans understood the less cumbersom styles now students in the 1920s were white, Protestant, and gaining in popularity to be symbolic of women’s middle- or upper-middle class; about ten percent political, economic, and social progress.4 Ameri- were Catholic or Jewish and a small number were can women were increasingly active in the public African American (‘‘From Robust Appetites to sphere via higher education, employment, and Calorie Counting’’ 37). The normalization of col- political activism. Many perceived a woman’s in- lege attendance encouraged more conventional creasing ability to move comfortably in her cloth- gender and sexual models for college women, ing to be both a product and a cause of her particularly when combined with a growing na- nascent political, and economic power (Standish tional perception that single women and romantic 187, 195–96; Steele, 234–37). Meanwhile, female female friendships were deviant. While academic 6 The Journal of American Culture Volume 32, Number 1 March 2009 legitimize their growing interest in fashion, as well as to negotiate changing ideas of femininity and feminism. However, Smith women also si- multaneously contradicted progressive arguments when they acknowledged the high level of main- tenance required by popular styles and the con- formity of consumer culture and placed their own restrictions on the so-called progressive styles. By entering what was seen as a male realm, women’s college students of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries had personified the New Woman, and that sense of pioneering was still palpable to later students. When the practice of Figure 1. Students in front of Park House illustrate seniors wearing academic regalia to classes during campus fashions, 1925. Photographer unknown. Smith College Archives. their final semester was ended in 1921, an editorial in the Smith College Weekly declared, ‘‘. it is the tradition of Smith to be free from tradition. And pursuits were still emphasized, both peer and in- why should modern, emancipated American stitutional pressure urged students to turn away women deliberately adopt, even for two morn- from relationships with women in favor of rela- ings a week, a cumbersome mediaeval (sic) garb?’’ tionships with men. Dating fundamentally trans- (‘‘Caps and Gowns and Tradition’’ 2). The bob—a formed life at women’s colleges after World War I short, chin-length hairstyle immensely popular in as student attention shifted away from the college the 1920s—was often celebrated as a crowning community (Horowitz 282–85). achievement for women’s equality. An early ed- All these trends informed the debate that oc- itorial in the Weekly argued that the style repre- curred at Smith over the appearance of the college sented ‘‘. a sensible method of fixing the hair . woman. The clothing styles worn on campus it seems to be a really rational style and, just like ranged from practical skirts and sweaters for the sport skirt, should be considered a sign of classes to formal dresses for prom and other social progress’’ (‘‘Bobbed Hair and Progress’’ 2). Some activities (Figure 1), garments that were either students even described the ‘‘fight’’ to wear pop- purchased or sewn by students or their mothers ular fashions in terms that suggest women’s strug- (Van Cleave 56). Most significantly, this daily gle for suffrage. The Weekly proclaimed that, dressing took place in an era when clothing and compared with the hairstyles of earlier classes, style seemed remarkably laden with political and ‘‘. the simple bob (is) singularly ingenuous.