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In the chapter SARTORIAL PRACTICES AND METAPHORS IN THE REPRESENTATIONS OF THE BRITISH SUFFRAGETTES AND THE FLAPPERS the evolving notion of femininity is discussed on the basis of the visual and textual representations of the British suffrage movement and the Flappers. Although the suffragettes’ militant campaigns for voting rights are commonly dissociated from fashion, in fact the visual display of carefully selected items of clothing (the Women’s Social and Political Union [WSPU] colour scheme and accessories – badges and sashes) was widely used by Emmeline Pankhurst and her fellow activists to gain visibility and increase public support for the suffrage movement. Because, as commented by Katrina Rolley (1990), the suffragettes were frequently confronted with unfavourable representations of themselves in the press (as is exemplified through the analysis of selected political cartoons by W.K. Haselden), they retaliated by increasing their public visibility and creating what Lisa Tickner terms as “the spectacle of women” (1989). Based on an analysis of Emmeline Pankhurst’s autobiography, the chapter argues that the leader of the WSPU found sartorial practices a key representational site for the construction of the politically conscious femininity. Also, the examination of the contents of the WSPU magazine Votes for Women points to the inseparability of the visual from the textual construction of the suffragettes’ identity. The Flappers, who unlike the suffragettes, are frequently dissociated from the realm of politics, are seen as having been entangled in political debates about women’s enfranchisement (Bingham 2002), with their derogatory representation in the press being aimed at discrediting young, ambitious and liberated women. As demonstrated by an analysis of the sartorial metaphors in the selected cartoons, while Flappers were overtly attacked for their ignorance, negligence and indulgence, the Flapper’s style was deployed by the cartoonists in order to police women into adopting more conventional and traditional feminine identity. As argued in this chapter, the use of Flapper’s dress as a metaphor of deviant and deficient femininity as well as unfavourable representation of Flappers in popular writing reflected the interwar policies, which after the disruptive period of WWI strongly advised the retreat of women into the domestic space. In fact, in the turbulent years preceding the Second World War (WWII) the concept of the ideal woman, hinged on the notion of maternity, saw devoted mothers as being pivotal in the process of strengthening the already faltering imperial project.
In the fourth chapter entitled THE UNIFORMED FEMINITY OF THE WARTIME FASHIONS, metaphor theory is applied to the propaganda posters of WWI and WWII in order to demonstrate that while both wars resulted in a re-imaging of women, the new femininity ideals were communicated and expressed sartorially. Through the depiction of women in uniforms, propaganda ←14 | 15→posters during WWI effectively dismantled the division between female private and domestic spheres and the male public sphere, questioning and challenging the long-established notions of femininity and masculinity alike. While in the earlier posters, women could still be found performing their traditional roles of mothers and wives that is were excluded from the theatre of war and at the mercy of their male soldier-saviours (husbands, brothers, and sons), as the war progressed and female military services were established, the representation of women shifted visibly. The later posters, therefore, invariably presented young, smiling and uniformed women actively contributing to the war effort. The centrality of the professional experience that many women gained during the Great War for the new idea of femininity is expressed in one of the most renowned autobiographies of that time Testament of Youth (1933) by Vera Brittain. In her work, Brittain not only casts herself as a representative of the new generation of women, but most importantly frequently comments on the importance of sartorial practices for the construction of femininity. During WWII, femininity became redefined with propaganda posters, drawing a distinction between fashionably dressed women and the uniformed women, with the former being seen as a potential security threat and the latter regarded as the patriotic femininity ideal. Also, the Utility Clothing Scheme devised and implemented by the British government in 1941 proved the existence of vital connections between fashion and politics, for the Board of Trade issued regulations concerning the design and fabric specifications of all clothes manufactured in Britain during the war. The simplified cuts and less ornamental designs swiftly became the sartorial metaphors of patriotism, as well as of more serious, and less frivolous femininity.
The next chapter is devoted to an analysis of the significance of subcultural fashions based on such British subcultures as the Teds, the Mods, and the Punks. Because of the widely recognised relevance of youth cultures for the changes in the way identities were defined and expressed, this section of the book reassesses subcultural attire as a metaphor of ideas about gender and class identities. Setting the scene for the arrival of the Teds, Mods, and Punks in their social contexts, particularly in relation to the dominant concepts about femininity, will allow us to appreciate the revolutionary character of the fashion choices worn and popularised by the female members of these youth groups. Since earlier theories of British subcultures paid marginal attention to women, treating the youth movements as predominantly male phenomena, by combining subcultural studies with fashion theory and metaphor theory the present study offers insights into the area of female subcultural fashions as arenas for the reconstruction and negotiation of female identity. The borrowing of the male elements of dress by the Teddy Girls, the referencing of Edwardian girls’ dress styles by the ←15 | 16→Mods, as well as the adoption of ugliness as the primary aesthetic criteria by the Punks, can all be seen as defiance of those social norms regulating appropriate female clothing as expressive of gender or class identity. The application of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory, allows us to interpret the shocking outfits worn by female members of the subcultures as visual metaphors of rebellious femininities, communicating such values as individualism, self-expression and freedom, and rejecting the qualities traditionally associated with femininity such as self-sacrifice, subservience, orderliness.
The chapter entitled ANTI-FASHION OF THE SECOND WAVE FEMINISM also discusses fashion as an arena of the contestation of gender identity, with the second-wave feminists being categorised as representatives of anti-fashion due their rejection of the fashion system and their proposed dissociation of gender identities from clothing. By severing the connection between mainstream fashion and liberated femininity, the feminists attempted to also free women from the mainstream ideas about female identity. Analysis of feminist magazine Spare Rib shall demonstrate that the feminist emphasis on sartorial creativity in the form of self-made clothing can be interpreted as a metaphor of freedom from social constraints and an affirmation of individualism. Likewise the comfortable and practical garments popularised by the magazine’s articles and advertising can be interpreted not only as an attack on the physically-taxing outfits worn by fashionable women to conform to the sartorial norms, but more importantly as metaphors of the new feminine identity which would be no longer structured as a binary opposition in relation to masculinity. The trousers, the shorts and the short hair as represented and debated in the magazine shall be seen as metaphors of liberated femininity and greater gender equality. The anti-feminist cartoons referred to these masculine elements of dress in order to represent feminists as unwomanly and to ridicule the Women’s Liberation Movement. Based on an analysis of the selected cartoons, the chapter looks to prove that much like their predecessors, the suffragettes, the feminists of the second wave came under the attack of political cartoonists, who readily exploited the link between