Throughout history, the image of women has been used to sell products, to rally support behind a cause, for pleasure and any number of other causes. Though the purposes of these images has remained the same, the women in them have changed drastically. Every decade in U.S. history has seen its version of the ideal woman, from the Gibson girls of The Ladies’ Home Journals of the 1900s to waif look from “Baywatch” in the 1990s. Though few of these appearances were the norm for women, the expectation that women regard such images as perfection has forced women of every decade to change her personal appearance, by modest or drastic measures. These images have impacted the social climate of each decade and dictated the standards for all women. This research will employ socio-historical analysis of several depictions of U.S. women over the past hundred years. The paper will draw upon the theories of collective identity, feminism, hyperreality and media representation, among others to explain how changing beauty trends impact current and future women.
About the presenterSamantha Barbara Weiss
Samantha Weiss is has a BA in communications and an MA in English literature, with graduate certificates in Women and Gender Studies and TESOL. She hopes to be admitted to an Education PhD or EdD in the coming years. She is currently working as the Assistant Director of a daycare and developing an educational nonprofit, which will provide all learners educational support services in the form of tutoring, extra-curricular workshops, and summer camps.