This is so exciting! This project took a detour over a year ago as I realized that it would require not only additional research, but also some serious re-thinking of the structure of the book.
You may remember this image:
You may remember this image:
The original plan was a fairly straight-forward cultural history of clothing for women over fifty, similar to what I had done in Pink and Blue for infants and toddler clothing. But the story would not let itself be told that way.
You see, we don't start "aging" at fifty; childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, middle age are also part of the journey. Learning to be female is not a weekend workshop or even a four-year-degree program. It is a lifelong process of being led into each life stage along a path shaped by cultural beliefs about aging and gender. So I revised the plan.
You see, we don't start "aging" at fifty; childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, middle age are also part of the journey. Learning to be female is not a weekend workshop or even a four-year-degree program. It is a lifelong process of being led into each life stage along a path shaped by cultural beliefs about aging and gender. So I revised the plan.
What's the difference? For one, the order of the chapters. Yes, I start with theory and history, but the rest is going to be more thematic. The second difference is that instead of writing about the clothing of all American women over fifty from, say 1920 on, I will be taking a much narrower approach. This book will explore clothing, age, and gender from the perspective of white, middle-class women who share a timeline: those born in 1949, or who graduated from high school in 1967. We have continually measured ourselves against mass media images of celebrities and models and shifting rules of gender expression. The generation who once wore dresses to school and played with Doris Day paper dolls would defy gender conventions as teens and young adults by discarding bras and wearing pants and miniskirts, then replace their jeans and t-shirts with power suits and lingerie from Victoria's Secret. And now what, as we approach our seventies?
My questions include: What is "age appropriate" clothing? How have changing constructions of femininity and sexuality loosened and/or restricted clothing choices for girls and women of any age? Who killed half sizes?
And I promise to be a more faithful blogger in the future, about all things gender and clothing. Cross my heart!
And I promise to be a more faithful blogger in the future, about all things gender and clothing. Cross my heart!
