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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