Fashion and Eroticism: Ideals of Feminine Beauty from the Victorian Era Through the Jazz Age
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.72 (639 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0195035305 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 346 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2018-01-16 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Quoted from inside cover: A Customer In this fascinating new study, Valerie Steele shows how eroticism formed the basis of the Victorian ideal of feminine beauty and fashion, indeed, how the very concepts of beauty and fashion are in essence erotic. Far from being passive sex objects, Victorian women, like their modern counterparts, chose to emulate an erotic ideal as an aspect of their own self fulfillment and were not merely presenting themselves as men wanted to see them.Fashion And Eroticism is not only a radical revision of our conventional understanding of Victorian fashion; it is also a major con
Fashiona and Eroticism is not only a radical revision of the Conventional understanding of Victorian fashion; it is a major contribution to the histyory of women and sexuality.About the Author:Valerie steele received her Ph.D. The traditional image of the Victorian woman presents her as strait-laced and prudish, her clothing an outward sign of her sexual repression and exploitation. Fashion and Eroticism shows how the New Look of "sexy" modern naturally from within the pre-war world of fashion and not as part of an intifashion movement. Even the notorious corset was neither fetishistic nor an unhealthy instrument of torture, she argues, although its comlex and ambivalent sexual symbolism aroused controversy. She shows that, far from being passive "sex objects," Victorian women, like their modern counterparts, themselves chose to emulate an erotic ideal as an aspect of their own self-fulfillment. from Yale University in 1983, and was the 1984 First Ladies' Fellow at the Division of Costume, National Museum of American History, the Smithsonian Institution.. This situation supposedly persisted until the Women's Rights Movement and World War I forced the world to acknowledge that women were liberated individuals with legs. Steele's conclusions are based on prodigious documentary evidence, including visual and material research, in costume collections in the United States, Great Britain, Europe, and even Japan. Yet Valerie