Discussion Questions
July 16, 2013
- For the historian using advertisements as evidence to reconstruct the
past, how can we reconcile the social tableaux advertisements described
by Marchand with testimony such as "When the Whistle Blows" or "I Am
Only a Piece of Machinery"?
- What were the common female advertising stereotypes, according to
Marchand, and what can they tell us about society and gender during the
period?
- What are the limitations of advertising as "mirrors of society" for the
historian? As historians, how can we use advertising to study the
period?
- "Women were as much victims as they were beneficiaries of the new
technologies, freedoms, and consumerism of the 1920s." Discuss with
specifics this contention.
- How did the "freedom" of the 1920s alter female sexuality during that
decade?
- According to Dell, what was the ideal to which she referred? How
"modern" was her perspective, in light of what else you have read?
- To what degree do you think the image of the New Woman was a conscious
creation of advertising and media specifically, and society generally?
- Considering all of the materials relating to women in tonight's
readings, how would you sum up the situation of women during the 1920s,
bearing in mind both the specifics of the readings and the nuances of
assessment necessary for historians.