In-Class Essay: Hope in a Jar: The Making of America’s Beauty Culture
Due Date: Tuesday 10/13
Points: 50 points
Requirements:
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Blue book
Pen or pencil
Optional: Your copy of the readings, notes on 1 index card
Grading:
This essay will be graded according to the following rubric:
1) Content (Your inclusion of detailed & strong examples) = 20 points
2) Analysis (Rather than just a summary of events in the reading) = 20 points
3) Writing quality = 10 points
Essay Prompt:
We will be reading selections from Hope in a Jar: The Making of America’s Beauty Culture by
historian Kathy Peiss. Synthesize the themes and issues from the two assigned chapters and
develop an argument about race, gender, beauty, and business. Answer all 3 of the following
questions.
In chapter 3, Kathy Peiss explores the life experiences and business challenges faced by Caucasian
female business leaders (primarily Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubenstein), as well as African
American entrepreneurs (primarily Madame C.J. Walker and Annie Trumbo Malone). In chapter
5, Kathy Peiss explores the role of advertisements in the creation of new images of beauty.
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What similarities or differences existed in the business strategies that these two groups of
women used in order to achieve success in the beauty industry of the early twentieth
century?
How was race a factor in their business strategies?
How did consumers respond to the new images of “feminine” and “masculine” beauty
created by the promotion and the advertisements of these products?
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