Running head: JOURNALISM AND ACTUAL LIVES OF WOMEN
Journalism and actual lives of women
Student:
Institution:
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Introduction
The media has been the most effective mirror in portraying the changes in lives of
women. This paper takes an analytical look at different social status of women between 1930
to 1960. The articles analyzed help to illustrate the ability to capture the lifestyle, feminism
agenda, involvement in trade and the position of women in family.
The cover below is an illustration of the lifestyle and women in 1930’s
The image above shows the common trend in fashion and trade of the “modern
women” in 1930’s. During this era, the theme of liberalism and feminism has gained pace
and more women were being involved in income generating activities. One common income
generating activity was dance. Above is an image of women dancers performing a dance for
entertainers. Women dancing groups like 8 girl Dance group crossed different sections of the
globe to perform earning a lot of money. Paris, New York and London were common hosts
for dance extravaganzas. One of the women that helped in encouraging women to joj the
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trade was Alice Barker. She was popular in clubs like The Apollo, Cotton Club, and
Zanzibar.
The theme of love
Cancian, & Gordon develop an analysis of how the theme of love has been developed
in Magazines since 1900 to present. The authors relate the traditional American (defined in
their context as the eras before the twentieth century) and the modern woman. The shift in the
cultural theories were built since the constituency that did not have a voice was able to come
up and articulate issues that were not present in the mainstream media.
Of special importance to the Cancian, & Gordon’s analysis is the theme of love. The
evolution of women magazine helped to express the displeasure that many women were
having in their relationships. This gave women a voice back home when they knew that they
were not alone. This would be used to challenge men some of whom shunned the topic.
Another topic in the analysis is the expression of anger. Women were tired by the male
dominated world. Their anger helped in replacement of the male chauvinism world with
feminism theories. While the book covers media between 1930 and 1979, our focus will
remain on the period between 1930 and 1960.
Women in the left bank
The title “Women of the Left bank”, was a common term for a group of women
(between 20 and 30 women) were actively involved in the publication of books, Novels,
magazines, and other artistic work. Their workshops were located along Rive Gauche in Paris
though they came from different places including Latin America and other Parts of Europe.
Some of these women included, Margaret Anderson, Sylvia Beach, Janet Flanner, Solita
Soland, and Alice B. Toklas. Their works included philosophy, lifestyle and feminism. On
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her part, Janet was iconic in her weekly contributions to two leading newspapers the New
York herald and the Chicago Tribune. Her column was referred to as Letters’s for Paris. This
title has been rebranded by other journalists internationally with slight changes like “letter’s
from America, letters from Britain and so on.
Benstock, (2010) identifies people who were determined to create a different culture
and reduce the dominion of the male in the industry. The relationship between the women of
the left bank and their male counterparts shall be analysed through the information from this
book. The common philosophy that the women in the left bank had shall also be derived from
this book.
Women involvement in trade and world war
This magazine article was a reflection of the involvement of women in trade, slave
trade, and the World War. The word Rosie did not refer to a certain woman in specific but
generally women who were actively involved in income generating activities. Rosie was a
woman who went an extra mile and dis all the chores that the man counterpart did Lewis, &
Neville, (1995). The images were used to emphasis the strength of the women in the society.
Below are some of the images of Rosie
The first image is a cartoon representing a woman in a body building exercise. The cartoon
mocked any person who did not believe in the power of women. In the second image, an
entrepreneurial woman is seen making a speech. Some of the images of Rosie were taken
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from real life scenarios while others were taken from photo session poses. However, the main
theme- as written on the cartoon above- remained that women could make it.
Lewis, & Neville, (1995)’s book is important in developing a pictorial analysis
against the records ion other sources identified in this bibliography.
Involvement of women in international relations
Jones explains the involvement of women in international relationships. The specific
incidences that the article uses are the activities of the British Women during the World War.
The discussion was the antagonism that arose as the British Government was in war with The
Nazi yet the British Women developed groups that would help the Nazi refugees that fled war
in Germany. The article explains necessity of their actions and why the government did not
forbid them from being hospitable towards people who were relatively a representation of
terror
This article is important in our study especially in examining situations where women
had a separate and independent political stand against the government of the day. Narrative in
the article develops a good ground to the role of women in the society in the time of danger.
The authors displays the women as being more merciful and tolerant than their men counter
parts. The narration form this article shall be compared with other sources that depict women
as either collaborative or rebellious from the government.
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References
Benstock, S. (2010). Women of the left bank: Paris, 1900-1940. University of Texas Press.
Cancian, F. M., & Gordon, S. L. (1988). Changing emotion norms in marriage: Love and
anger in US women's magazines since 1900. Gender & Society, 2(3), 308-342.
Jones, H. (2012). National, Community and Personal Priorities: British women's responses to
refugees from the Nazis, from the mid-1930s to early 1940s. Women's History
Review, 21(1), 121-151.
Lewis, C., & Neville, J. (1995). Images of Rosie: A content analysis of women workers in
American magazine advertising, 1940–1946. Journalism & Mass Communication
Quarterly, 72(1), 216-227.
Life Magazine, December 28, 1936 - American Ballet