Fashion and Women?s Movements in the Past Century Essay -- essays rese

Todays American women are following centuries old traditions of rebelling against societys outlook on women around. former in Americas history, it was unheard of for a woman to be in both the public and domestic sphere. Women were forced to spend most of their spirit in the domestic sphere, and wear ridiculous clothes everyday. For a long time, women have been degraded and pushed around, causing women to initial movements to change the way society treats women. In America, the land of the free, women have to fight for their equal rights. Reformers, such as Fanny Wright, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Amelia Bloomer and many more have done so with their actions, and speeches. Nevertheless, in recent times fashion has become an available source of expression. It is a powerful tool to be able to be seen and not heard--but subdued get the message across. Since its humble beginnings, fashion has oftentimes just existed, but in the past century, it has existed as a form of expression, art, and liberation Now, women are let off being influenced and challenged by the media and their peer, but slowly, more and more women are standing up for themselves.Before the early to mid 1800s, women were forced to squeeze into corsets made of whalebone, nerve or buckram. It gave them the figure eight profile which resulted on a number of health problems, including their organs and body to become deformed. Over the corsets, women wore heavy layers of petticoats despite the weather. (Small backing Administration 3) Dresses emphasized the bust and hips, attempting to make women look very voluptuous. With the spread of commercialism, hundreds of new beauty products were introduced. These ever-popular restricting fashions were later outdated.This fashion was not comfortable in any sort of the imagination, and a social reformer, Wright started to make a difference. She originated a modified version of dresses in the Victorian Age. This new dress was described as long-s leeved, high-necked, and loose-fitting tunic over a pair of baggy trousers (Banner 23). Anthony, Stanton, Bloomer, and along others started to wear this new comfortable fashion. Bloomer promoted this new fashion which become know as Bloomers in The Lily a newspaper for women promoting womens suffrage, temp... ...shion of the nineties, which did provide liberation. By the end of the century, homosexuality was accepted and commonplace. The future of womens fashion is doubtfulin that shock value is harder to come by with each passing year. There is a concept in fashion that nothing is new, everything has been done before. This scheme is coming closer to obvious reality, as fashion shows of recent years have visual throwbacks as late as the Victorian era. Although the direction is not yet decided, it is almost definite that women will use fashion as an important tool for expression and freedom in the future. Works Cited Banner, Lois W. Women in new-fashioned America a Brief History. New York Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974.Guerrilla Girls. Frequently Asked Questions. Guerrilla Girls. 2005. 2 May 2005 .Small Business Administration. Womens History month Amelia Jenks Bloomer. Online Womens Business Center. 16 Apr. 2002. 3 May 2005 .Thomas, Pauline Weston. 1950s Glamour Fashion History 1950s. Fashion Era. 2005. 2 May 2005 .World Book, Inc. The nobble of the Modern Womens Movement. The Modern Womens Movement. 2004 ed. 1. 2 May 2005 .