What is the new woman?

  • a feminist ideal that emerges in the late 19th century
  • Women officially became citizens with different expectations and norms
  • Working out of home in public making women much more visible e.g. saleswomen in department stores
  • Look different; shaved their legs, cut their hair, different clothing and body shape
  • took a large part of the new economy post-war

What were the social and political conditions that allowed the development of the New Woman?

  • They can vote; changed the political world, address politically
  • socially and culturally important; villain, victim, salvation

What were some of the paradoxical forces shaping the ideas around the New Woman?

  • They are the “villain” yet a “victim”
  • Villan:
    • caused a crisis of modernity
    • they are more visible in jobs – taking away jobs from men
    • no longer the haven in the heartless world
    • they are like the avant-garde
  • Victim:
    • struggling with the double burden
    • trying to cope with the social losses of the war
    • they are expected to act as the saviors

What does the image opposite say about attitudes towards the New Woman?

  • The woman in knickers smoking a cigarette and looking at the man doing laundry – this image emphasized the “villain” side of New Women than their “victim” side.

Monument I 

  • Höch’s work was intended to dismantle the concept of the “New Woman”
  • In the photomontage “Monument I”, Hannah Hoch has created an illusion of cohesive wholeness while making it appear eerie and incongruous to produce a satirical and nonsensical art
  • The head is from a photograph of a mask from Gabon, which is an African tribal mask
    • simple and monotone, the facade of the figure
    • fierce and angry looking eyes
  • The left leg is from an actress Lilian Harvey 
    • ridiculing and mocking the societal view of women by juxtaposing the idolized actress’ leg with an image of a bent arm which is presented as the right leg 
  • The torso and arm from a stone statue of a Theban goddess
    • Egyptian goddess who is worshipped is objectified?
  • Hybrid of various cultures and pieces of woman who are respected – ridiculing a global view on women?
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