Constructing Women: Reading Images
16 May 2013
Constructing Women: Reading Images
How do the TEXTS we have read so far define women as VISUAL OBJECTS (objects of the male
gaze)?
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Can you identify specific passages where the VISUAL importance of the female body is emphasized?
How can we READ images of the female body?
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How do we INTERPRET the images we find?
How is reading an IMAGE different from reading TEXT?
How is reading an image SIMILAR to reading a text?
Jane Eyre was published in 1847, as women's fashions became increasingly elaborate (through the addition of the HOOP
SKIRT). Think about the ways women are CONSTRUCTED through their CLOTHING in Jane Eyre.
• How does Jane Eyre use clothing to MARK or CATEGORIZE the different women she encounters?
• How does Jane Eyre use clothing to construct her OWN identity?
• How does Rochester try to REMAKE Jane Eyre with new clothing? What is Jane's response?
The LITERAL construction of the ideal woman: a woman's body was literally shaped by the
clothing (and devices) she wore. Her clothing indicated her place in the social hierarchy as well as
her mastery of current etiquette.
Skirt length, like all other aspects of women's fashion, was linked to PROPRIETY. Proper attire was a matter of etiquette and
instruction manuals were written annuals to teach women (and society) how to dress and how to JUDGE women by their
clothing.
CORSETS:
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Constructing Women: Reading Images
16 May 2013
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Corsets were an ESSENTIAL part of a woman's attire. Some medical experts in the nineteenth-century claimed that the corset
compensated for a woman's natural deficiencies (they claimed that a woman's spine was too weak to support her body,
especially after puberty, and a corset was necessary to give her the support she needed to stand upright).
Corsets were generally worn from the age of twelve, onwards. These restrictive devices could actually compress a woman's
ribcage, causing permanent damage. However, women who did not wear corsets were immediately labeled "loose" women.
HOOP SKIRT:
The hoop skirt came BACK into fashion in the 1850s, just after Jane Eyre was published. The hoop skirt, combined with the
corset, emphasized a woman's ARTIFICIALLY TINY waist and accentuated her bust and hips (her figure - her sexuality).
The hoop skirt, combined with the corset, forced women to (outwardly) conform to mid-nineteenth-century ideals of feminine
passivity because these two devices effectually rendered women unable to engage in (meaningful) physical activity.
• Corsets restricted breathing, effectively stopping women from engaging in strenuous (or normal) physical activities.
A tight corset forced women to take shallow breaths (creating the sexually alluring "heaving bodice" effect)/
Wearing a corset for a prolonged period of time (since age twelve) forced the ribcage to conform to an
UNNATURAL hour-glass form that could be life-threating, especially during childbirth.
Hoop skirts hampered any sort of movement, surrounding women in a (barely) mobile cage of wire, cloth, and
crinoline. Even movement within the domestic sphere was very difficult (as the cartoon below states).
Hoop skirts were more than a nuisance, they were a FIRE HAZARD. Some estimate that the second leading cause
of death among women (in the West in the nineteenth century) was FIRE (burns). Cloth was ESPECIALLY
flammable in this era and big skirts were FREQUENTLY catching fire. Even if women refrained from
working in the kitchen (genteel British women were supposed to supervise the kitchen, not work in it), they
were constantly surrounded by fire and their skirts were often ignited. Since women's clothing was
DESIGNED to be difficult to remove, women could not get free of their burning clothes and they died (often
in agony, days later).
Women's clothing was supposed to serve as a STATUS symbol. Clothing that a woman could not possibly put on herself
demonstrated that she (and her father/husband) was rich enough to have a lady's maid to dress and care for her (just as
LABELS today serve as status symbols).
Constructing Women: Reading Images
16 May 2013
This is a TRAVELING gown from the 1860s. How would YOU like to TRAVEL in this?
This is a nineteenth century cartoon demonstrates that people were COGNIZANT of the annoyance (and irrationality) of
fashions (just as we are aware of our own fashion hang-ups).
Let’s talk about the cultural artifacts YOU discovered?
 What SORT of artifact did you find?
 Does it have an IMAGE?
 What did you think was MOST significant about that image?
 How does it CONSTRUCT GENDER IDENTITY?
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