Strong Women
Jul. 20th, 2008 09:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
georginasand" Just remember, everything Fred Astaire did Ginger Rogers did backwards...and in high heels" ~Faith Wittlesey
Since spring of last year I have become enthralled with concept of strong women and how they manifest themselves in society. It started as a list compiled by myself and the previously mentioned soon-to-be-Turkish-expatriate (how's that for a snazzy title) in response to a rather sad presentation made by our TOK (read: IB-ized philosophy) on the same subjects. We thought his examples (Hilary Clinton, Brune Hilde, Scarlett O’Hara, and a painting of an unnamed dancer by...get this...a male artist) were rather weak so we complied a list (to date:166 women) of better choices. While the list itself was astounding the most interesting part was deciding on criteria:
"What makes a strong woman? We looked at women who weren’t coerced or bribed into action. We looked at women who easily could have walked away, but they didn’t. They weren’t prepared to accept the status quo. They could have remained silent, they could have taken the easy way out, but they didn’t. They are not wholly good, not wholly bad, nor were they all successful in their endeavors, but they saw a void that needed to be filled and did their best to fill it. The following list comprises of who we believe to be strong women from history and literature. There are of course thousands more who’s names are not know, but prove through their actions that fairer does not mean weaker."
But ever since then I have been on the look out for reference to strong women, to see how our criteria holds up to reality. On Saturday I saw a grad student play at UMKC about women in WWII (John Murrell's Waiting for the Parade). The play itself made a caricature of these women's stories but the dramaturgy notes made interesting points about how femininity and strength are not mutually exclusive.
Lipstick Smiles by Ashley Sventnam (dramaturge)
“For too long, the history of women has been a history of silence" (interjection: no, the irony of the quotation is not lost on me).
The idea of women in combat is relatively new. Of course, women have been involved in wars since the dawn of time. Until very recently however, women on the front lines were usually nurses or support personnel. ....
Although MIA on the battlefield for much history, women have long fought the 'war at home'. During WWII, women, still dealing with hardship of the Great Depression, were required to take on masculine roles while maintaining their femininity. When their husbands, sons, father, and brothers went to fight the Germans and the Japanese, the women stepped up to run farm and work in factories. They grew gardens to supplement their rations, and on top of that, still raised families. They also ran and participated in support organizations like the Women's Land Army, the Red Triangle Hostesses, and the USO
Canada (interjection: WFTP took place in Calgary, Alberta) was actively involved in World War II from late 1939 to the Axis defeat in 1945. For nearly 6 years Canadian women (like British and American women) were required to switch from their heels to their work books: Rosie the Riveter by day and Rita Hayworth by night. One example of women trying to maintain their feminine identity: women modeled their hair after the pin-up stars of the day, Deanna Durbin, Rita Hayworth, Anne Sheridan, and the like. These long flowing locks would get caught in the machinery when these women were on the assembly line. It got to the point where movie producers were told to encourage their starlets to sport shorter, more practical, hairstyles for the duration of the war.
For these women, daily life was a battle not dissimilar from the battles their men were waging overseas. Like all soldiers, these women had their armor. Lipstick, makeup, hairspray, all of the trappings of feminine beauty that allowed these women to maintain their identity. The most poignant example of this is leg makeup. Like some many other materials, silk was rationed during World War II because it was used to make parachutes. As a result silk stockings were often in short supply during the war. No self-respecting woman would dare go outside in a skirt without stocking. Some turned to wet tea bags, muddy water, bullion cures, and commercial products to stain their legs. As a finishing touch, they would use eyeliner to draw on the 'seam.'
Imagine, a women doing a man's work all day, comes home and removes her coveralls, head wrap and boots, one set of amour, and trades it for a skirt, a blouse, tea stained legs, and heels so that she can be a mother to her children and a proper wife to her husband. When the soldiers came marching home again, thy gladly put away the armor that allowed them to do men's work.
Murrell's honest depiction a women at war is extremely relevant today. Ware, of course, at war, and there are thousands of women keeping the home fires burning for their men overseas. One big difference is that there are also women in full combat armor, patrollingIraq and Afghanistan
Yet we put on our armor everyday. Special shampoos, makeup, anti-aging creams and potions, sunless tanners, Botox, hair dye, flat and curling irons, and the M16 of female weaponry, the Wonderbra. The challenge today is not entirely different from that faced over 60 years ago. Women are still expected to uphold the ideal of feminine beauty while competing with men for jobs and respects. alongside their male counterparts. At home or abroad, military or civilian, all women still fight battles e everyday against mankind. The armor is the same -- luckily for us, it is no longer a requirement to wear stocking or use tea bags to paint out legs.
“For too long, the history of women has been a history of silence" (interjection: no, the irony of the quotation is not lost on me).
The idea of women in combat is relatively new. Of course, women have been involved in wars since the dawn of time. Until very recently however, women on the front lines were usually nurses or support personnel. ....
Although MIA on the battlefield for much history, women have long fought the 'war at home'. During WWII, women, still dealing with hardship of the Great Depression, were required to take on masculine roles while maintaining their femininity. When their husbands, sons, father, and brothers went to fight the Germans and the Japanese, the women stepped up to run farm and work in factories. They grew gardens to supplement their rations, and on top of that, still raised families. They also ran and participated in support organizations like the Women's Land Army, the Red Triangle Hostesses, and the USO
Canada (interjection: WFTP took place in Calgary, Alberta) was actively involved in World War II from late 1939 to the Axis defeat in 1945. For nearly 6 years Canadian women (like British and American women) were required to switch from their heels to their work books: Rosie the Riveter by day and Rita Hayworth by night. One example of women trying to maintain their feminine identity: women modeled their hair after the pin-up stars of the day, Deanna Durbin, Rita Hayworth, Anne Sheridan, and the like. These long flowing locks would get caught in the machinery when these women were on the assembly line. It got to the point where movie producers were told to encourage their starlets to sport shorter, more practical, hairstyles for the duration of the war.
For these women, daily life was a battle not dissimilar from the battles their men were waging overseas. Like all soldiers, these women had their armor. Lipstick, makeup, hairspray, all of the trappings of feminine beauty that allowed these women to maintain their identity. The most poignant example of this is leg makeup. Like some many other materials, silk was rationed during World War II because it was used to make parachutes. As a result silk stockings were often in short supply during the war. No self-respecting woman would dare go outside in a skirt without stocking. Some turned to wet tea bags, muddy water, bullion cures, and commercial products to stain their legs. As a finishing touch, they would use eyeliner to draw on the 'seam.'
Imagine, a women doing a man's work all day, comes home and removes her coveralls, head wrap and boots, one set of amour, and trades it for a skirt, a blouse, tea stained legs, and heels so that she can be a mother to her children and a proper wife to her husband. When the soldiers came marching home again, thy gladly put away the armor that allowed them to do men's work.
Murrell's honest depiction a women at war is extremely relevant today. Ware, of course, at war, and there are thousands of women keeping the home fires burning for their men overseas. One big difference is that there are also women in full combat armor, patrolling
Yet we put on our armor everyday. Special shampoos, makeup, anti-aging creams and potions, sunless tanners, Botox, hair dye, flat and curling irons, and the M16 of female weaponry, the Wonderbra. The challenge today is not entirely different from that faced over 60 years ago. Women are still expected to uphold the ideal of feminine beauty while competing with men for jobs and respects. alongside their male counterparts. At home or abroad, military or civilian, all women still fight battles e everyday against mankind. The armor is the same -- luckily for us, it is no longer a requirement to wear stocking or use tea bags to paint out legs.
. . .
It puts things in a different light to the think that concealer and mascara are armor, rather than simply something to hide behind, especially considering that the pressure to uphold that ideal of feminine beauty (with whatever connotation you think it has) comes as much from each other as it does from men.
I remain,
Georgie
Postscript: This also explains why Queen Elizabeth had an inch of make-up on when she died. If anybody needed armor...
G.S
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no subject
Date: 2008-07-21 10:39 pm (UTC)"what she was wearing," by Denver Butson, from illegible address. © Luquer Street Press.
what she was wearing
this is my suicide dress
she told him
I only wear it on days
when I'm afraid
I might kill myself
if I don't wear it
you've been wearing it
every day since we met
he said
and these are my arson gloves
so you don't set fire to something?
he asked
exactly
and this is my terrorism lipstick
my assault and battery eyeliner
my armed robbery boots
I'd like to undress you he said
but would that make me an accomplice?
and today she said I'm wearing
my infidelity underwear
so don't get any ideas
and she put on her nervous breakdown hat
and walked out the door
I'm almost certain that I've showed you this before, but there's nothing like rehashing a good poem. So.
WE ARE SEEING THE X-FILES AT MIDNIGHT THURSDAY, YES? YES?
no subject
Date: 2008-07-21 10:49 pm (UTC)and YES,YES,YES!!!
no subject
Date: 2008-07-21 10:54 pm (UTC)IF we are seeing THAT MOVIE, then it may be up to you to acquire tickets, as I am fucking going out of town AGAIN, out Tuesday and probably back Thursday.
Because Dad seems to have this thing where he "didn't know the premiere was Thursday."
PUT DOWN THE HAMMER, MERRY. PATRICIDE IS WRONG.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-21 11:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-22 04:27 am (UTC)