MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

The Caboodle cosmetic case was a portable plastic container typically bought by girls/young women after its debut on the market in 1986. As an object of cultural study, it is at once the solid of its plastic case and the cavity of its interior; it is both a protective pastel shell and an empty space in which a young woman might store-and-carry valuables, makeup or anything else that she sees fit. With the hindsight of almost thirty years since the launch of this product, the social implications of the Caboodle are studied here through its marketing, popularity and personal recollections of use. In the Caboodle’s providing of an empty space that made anything possible to the young women who bought them, it became a porter of the American girl herself. From Michael Aaron Rockland’s writing on the tendency of Americans to seek adventure in mobility, through to Jean Baudrillard’s explanation of the human inclination to collect themselves through objects, the Caboodle’s possibilities of interpretation are endless and unique to each user. From what girls might have collected in their Caboodles to how and where they would use them will lay a ground work for a study of the American adolescent girl at the close of the twentieth century. Whereas earlier in the 20th century the woman was often identified with her home, remaining within that home and maintaining it’s interiors, the popularity of a portable container signified a shift as a new generation of young women were permitted to seek an independant life outside the home. Marketing of the Caboodle shows adolescent girls who need to be street-wise and mobile while always attending to the person within. These women have now grown and make up a large part of the highly-educated, professional female population. How did this product contribute?