4
THE BODY SIZE AND HEALTH DEBATE
June  4, 1919, Congress passed the 19th Amendment, which was ultimately
ratified on August 18, 1920. Although women were starting to speak up
and given some important responsibilities, during this time women were
believed to be incapable of performing outside of the home. It was thought
that should they be allowed to hold formal positions in business or govern-
ment they might be a threat to the stability of the economy and the country.
In fact, physicians of the day advised young women against going to col-
lege (which would, of course, make them better prepared for the business
world), as it was thought to be dangerous to a woman’s health since the
stress of studying and thinking would damage her reproductive capabili-
ties. Not only men, but many women were on board with leaving things
the way they were. Society depended on men and women remaining in
their traditional roles.
One element of society during this era was polite society—a term refer-
ring to the wealthy elite of the time and their extravagant social gather-
ings. Women were in charge of these events—the men made the money
to fund them. Women wore full-length dresses that dragged across the
ground and collars that stopped just below one’s chin. Even swimming
required the body to be fully covered in heavy material preventing actual
swimming—all they could do was float. A woman’s body was to be cov-
ered up. Anything remotely referring to sex or the sexuality of women was
strictly prohibited. In fact, in 1873, a law called the 1873 Comstock Law
was enacted, which outlawed the distribution of anything indecent or sala-
cious, including materials that included information about birth control.
In the early 1900s, magazines soared in popularity; among them was
the Ladies’ Home Journal. This and other magazines marketed to women
included stories and cartoons thought to tap into what women of that
era wanted to read and look at. These periodicals also included “fashion
plates,” which referred to the printing practice of using engravings that
had color applied to them by hand. Thus, the women depicted in these
images were referred to as fashion plates. Charles Dana Gibson was an
artist whose works were widely printed and published in women’s maga-
zines, often on the cover. His renderings of women wearing the latest fash-
ions of the period captured not only the fashion itself but also the ideal
silhouette and accompanying attitude. The Gibson Girl, the moniker given
to his depictions, portrayed women as not only fashionable but aloof and
sophisticated. This was a divergence from the nurturing and gentle image
many people had of women.
The Gibson Girl’s typical look involved long hair arranged on top of her
head in a chignon. She wore a high-collared shirtwaist, which was a shirt
gathered at the waist no doubt to enhance that part of the body, and a skirt.
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