'They opened up a whole new world' : feminine modernity and the feminine imagination in women's magazines, 1919-1939
âThey opened up a whole new worldâ, or something like it, was a phrase I heard repeatedly when I spoke to women about their memories of magazine reading in the interwar years. How the magazine operated as an imaginative window, a frame, space or mirror for encountering, shaping, negotiating, rethinking, rejecting, mocking, enjoying, the self and others became the central question driving this thesis. The expansion of domestic âserviceâ magazines in the 1920s responded to and developed a new female readership amongst the middle classes and working-class women, preparing the way for high-selling mass-market publications. The multiple models of modern womanhood envisaged in magazines, meanwhile, from the shocking âlipstick girlâ of the mid-1920s to the 1930s âhousewife heroineâ, show that what being a woman and modern in the period meant was far from settled, changed over time and differed according to a magazineâs ethos and target readership. In a period that witnessed the introduction of the franchise for women, divorce legislation, birth control, the companionate marriage, cheap mortgages, a marriage bar in the workplace, growth in the number of single women and panic over population decline,
Hackney, Fiona Anne Seaton
Gender studies ; Publishing ; History by topic
'They opened up a whole new world' : feminine modernity and the feminine imagination in women's magazines, 1919-1939. âThey opened up a whole new worldâ, or something like it, was a phrase I heard repeatedly when I spoke to women about their memories of magazine reading in the interwar years. How the magazine operated as an imaginative window, a frame, space or mirror for encountering, shaping, negotiating, rethinking, rejecting, mocking, enjoying, the self and others became the central question driving this thesis. The expansion of domestic âserviceâ magazines in the 1920s responded to and developed a new female readership amongst the middle classes and working-class women, preparing the way for high-selling mass-market publications. The multiple models of modern womanhood envisaged in magazines, meanwhile, from the shocking âlipstick girlâ of the mid-1920s to the 1930s âhousewife heroineâ, show that what being a woman and modern in the period meant was far from settled, changed over time and differed according to a magazineâs ethos and target readership. In a period that witnessed the introduction of the franchise for women, divorce legislation, birth control, the companionate marriage, cheap mortgages, a marriage bar in the workplace, growth in the number of single women and panic over population decline,
they open whole new_world feminine modernity feminine imagination woman magazine open whole new_world something_like phrase heard repeatedly speak woman memory magazine read interwar_year magazine operate imaginative window frame space mirror encountering shape negotiate rethink reject mock enjoy self_others become_central question drive thesis expansion domestic_service magazine respond develop_new female readership amongst middle_class working_class woman prepare way high selling mass market publication multiple model modern magazine meanwhile shock girl heroine show woman modern_period mean far settle change_time differ_accord magazine ethos target readership period_witness introduction franchise woman divorce legislation birth control marriage cheap mortgage marriage bar workplace growth number single woman panic population decline