Originally upon looking
at my topic, I was focused on the depiction of women’s fashions in a variety of
mediums and how specific clothing styles were tied to historical happenings of
the time. My scope has narrowed considerably as I developed my thesis topic
further as can be seen in this blog post. I am examining how women’s roles are depicted in fashion magazines. Through my
research of various journals and books, I have learned a lot about how tied the
feminist movement and its waves are to examining gender roles in society. While
I suspected that first wave and second wave feminism would influence how women
were represented in Vogue and other
fashion magazines, I did not expect that it would be as integral to
understanding these depictions. I have also learned about the impacts that the politics of race, class, and culture have on self-presentation.
While I have delved into sources accessible online and at
the RIT Archive Collections, I have yet to examine books published on my field
of interest. A majority of these books are not available at RIT’s library. Only
a few are offered through Interlibrary Loan. I will be purchasing some of these
books soon to further my research. I need to learn more about the feminist
movements between 1920 and 1980 – the 1st and 2nd waves of
feminism – as well as the role of media in determining women’s roles in
society. I need to delve into my case study of the Vogue magazines at the Archive and set up weekly research times to
examine my materials. My research process has led me to various lens of examining
women’s fashion; however, I believe my current focus is one that has staying
power.
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| Linda M. Scott's Fresh Lipstick: Redressing Fashion and Feminism is one of the books I plan to purchase for my research. |
As previously stated in
the aforementioned post, Dr. Tina Lent is my primary advisor for my thesis. My
secondary advisor is to be determined at the moment. The person I have in mind
is currently on vacation and unable to be reached until Monday, 11/09.
Your topic sounds very interesting. I think the library should have plenty of resources about they feminist movements, and women's roles in society, which would definitely help you understand why women were represented the way they were in fashion magazines.
ReplyDeleteJenna,
ReplyDeleteIt is really fascinating to see how your project has already evolved. Looking at gender roles in relation to fashion is an intriguing topic idea. I would be curious about potential interviews you might be able to conduct with some local advocates to expand the diversity of perspectives in your thesis.
Also, I'm not sure the kinds of materials that are there, but the University of Rochester Rare Books and Special Collections does have an archive of feminist materials - it may be worthwhile to reach out to someone there for insight.
Have you looked at the Microfilm section at the library? They have some very old magazines/newspapers in there. They are some times not at the very surface when you do searches on the wallace library website, so they can be missed.
ReplyDeleteI have not gotten to look at the microfilm yet. Thank you for letting me know about this!
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ReplyDeleteI cannot imagine how many fashion magazines there were in the span of sixty years! Will you be addressing the differences between magazines (primary sources) that focus on an older, mature audience, compared to ones written for a younger audience? Wealthy and middle class?
ReplyDelete