The Victorian Age was marked by the reign of England’s present Queen, Victoria during 1830 to 1901. Being only eighteen when entering power, Queen Victoria represented only some of the stereotypical characteristics of the perfect woman, others she despised and tried to put a stop to them (Goodman, 2013). In comparison with the past eras, beauty resided in a woman’s ability to form themselves into a representation of the wealthy women in their societies. Every woman would seek to achieve the palest of complexions in order to mimic a false sense of nobility. Unlike the Elizabethan Era and Renaissance, Victorians strayed from using harmful mixtures to achieve this look. Instead they painted their faces with a white mineral powder known as zinc oxide (Beautywithbrainscom, 2010). However, during this time period the parasol became essential for women who wished to avoid the use of zinc. …show more content…
The Victorian Age consisted of women who wanted to create the illusion of a perfect body based off of societies standards. The hourglass figure was a must, making females forced into wearing corsets in hopes of cinching their waists into perfection. (Reader, 1967). A women who wore a corset was a representation of a higher class, due to the fact that it flaunted their lack of physical labor (Riordan, 2004). Women of this era also wore hoop cages in order to create an illusion of full, voluminous hips. A women who lacked this body shaped were perceived as less ideal. The women of the Victorian Age went out of their way to create an illusion of the perfect body and by doing so they put their own health in danger (Lucy’s Corsetry, Unknown). The constant stress of meeting societies standards had a negative effect on a females perception of their own value. During all of these eras, the concept of beauty was used in order to depict a woman’s value or standing in their
This source explains what life was like for families during the Elizabethan period. It says that the woman of the household were submissive to their husbands, marry to make the family wealthier, and produce children. The man of the household was in charge. The men made the decisions and made sure that their family socialized with families that had more money than they did. The children were cherished because many infants died.
Everyone always want or desire for something in this world. And to get their want they must somehow bargain for it; whether it was begging or persuading, they are still considered rhetorical techniques. In the story “Whose Body is This,” the author Katherine Haines talks about how society setted a certain standard of what a woman's body should look like, and it practically destroyed majority of woman’s self esteem. Haines further explains that pictures and advertisement on tv and magazines are teaching young girls that they need to look like the models in the picture. Girls don’t feel comfortable to be in their own skin, because they were not taught to love themselves for who they are, right in the beginning.
There was a decade of economic prosperity following the conclusion of World War Ⅰ. This time was called the “Roaring Twenties”, because of the ebullient, unrestrained culture of the decade. Before this era, the Victorian attitudes toward dress and etiquette were still prominent, and were the main influence on women’s clothing. Women’s bodies were fully covered, as floor-length dresses were the norm and waists were cinched, tight due to the corsets that were still an accompaniment to most women’s outfits. When the 1920’s hit, however, dresses got shorter, painful corsets were cast aside, and some women even began wearing sports clothes.
Karen Halttunen, author of Confidence Men and Painted Women: A Study Of Middle-Class Culture In America, 1830-1870, noted that “(a)dvice books, fashion magazines, and etiquette manuals cautioned young women against emulating the arts of the painted woman, sometimes a prostitute but more often a woman of fashion, who poisoned polite society with deception and betrayal by dressing extravagantly and practicing empty forms of false etiquette.” Likewise, the views towards red dresses and lipstick changed during this era as
Women were willing to sacrifice comfort and sometimes endure painful measures to achieve the ideal body. In every generation society sets certain standards for female beauty. During the nineteenth century, women would often wear corsets to have a tiny hourglass shape because that shape was idealized at the time. This corset was often uncomfortable and was difficult to move and breathe in it. In the beginning of the twentieth century, the standards changed to a more boyish-looking, angular, and thin woman.
In the 1910’s, women were still wearing floor-length dresses. Waists were cinched, with the arms and legs covered. Corsets were a routine and having long hair was the standard. This Victorian look was the idealized image of beauty at that time. The Victorian attitude towards dressings created a strict moral climate.
The medieval time period incorporates a long span of years when there were a lot of elaborate churches, castles, and other distinct building were built. However, this time period was tremendously hard on the lower class people, those with no property and little money. The lower class people had to work extremely hard. They work outrageously long hours to earn a terrible small wage, if they received a wage at all. For some, they worked to have a place to live and be feed instead of receiving a wage.
The corset can be seen as a comparison to the way women felt before the 1920s, because not only were women's clothing tight and suffocating, but so were their lives as a whole. Women were confined to living life at home in the kitchen or satisfying the needs of their husband and children. In addition, women had legal restrictions when it came to working and having a say in the way our country is governed. Around the same time that women began renovating and modernizing their style, they began to repair and take control over their lives and decisions. Skirts that were once worn at floor length, were soon shrunk down in size and ended at the calf, which was a big change in the 1920s.
Shakespeare depicts important aspects during the Elizabethan era such as the patriarchal power and female agency that was shown by the reigning monarch at the time queen Elizabeth aswell as the belief of fate over free will. Shakespeare portrays patriarchal power over female agency during Romeo and Juliet as a direct example from Queen Elizabeth herself. During the Elizabethan era it was expected for a woman to obey her husband or any male figure of the household. During Queen Elizabeth's reign, she decided to marry herself to the church instead of marrying to a man. This could have been due to the fact that if she did marry her power would have been passed to the male instead.
In the “Elizabethan Era” most people cared about their appearance. They would carry mirrors, combs, ear scoops, and bone manicure sets. Pale skin and dark eyebrows were a big part of the bizarre trend in the Elizabethan Era. Women would do anything to achieve pale skin. Not only was pale skin popular so was having long fair colored hair.
Annotated Bibliography "Elizabethan Era." ELIZABETHAN ERA. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Apr. 2016. Summary:
The Elizabethan Era was a time where men were in charge and women and children were expected to obey. Nowadays, men and women have equal roles in society and one gender is not better or smarter than the other. During the Elizabethan Era, men, women, and children all had specific and defining roles. Men had a dominant role in society during the Elizabethan Era. Men could do many things that women were not allowed to do.
Later on the beauty ideal gets more influenced by the political behavior in a country. In the renaissance people started to revolt against the religious government and did not pay any attention to their bodies anymore. And a lot later in the 1930s and 1940s politicians as Hitler choose a beauty ideal. In addition to that, it is a fact that economics always play a large role in finding a beauty ideal. Everyone always wants to show off their abilities and their wealth by looking like the beauty ideal.
Before the 1900s, the Rubensque women painted by Rafeal and Renoir dominated the ideal female body image. The Bathers, painted by Pierre Auguste Renoir in 1887 was also an example of what the ideal female body looked like. Women having extra weight reflected wealth and beauty then. In the early 1800s, women preferred having pale skin because it showed that they spent less time outdoors working, which reflected wealth. Also women at that time were expected to have small hands and feet as a sign of their feminism, otherwise they would be considered as masculine-looking.
During Victorian era (19th century) women were supposed to be