The Modern Girl: Image or Reality?A young woman enjoys a drink at the Romanesque Café in Berlin in 1924. The independence of this modern girl, wearing fashionable clothes with a revealing hemline and lacking an escort, transgressed familiar gender roles and shocked and fascinated contemporaries. Images of the modern girl appeared in movies, illustrated magazines, and advertisements, such as this German poster selling “this winter’s perfume.” (Café: Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz/Art Resource, NY; advertisement: Lordprice Collection/Alamy)> PICTURING THE PASTANALYZING THE IMAGE: How did these portrayals of the modern girl challenge conventional gender roles? Do you think the woman in the Berlin café was influenced by advertisements for consumer products such as perfume and clothing?
CONNECTIONS: What role did the emergence of a modern consumer culture play in the way contemporaries understood the modern girl? Did consumer goods marketed to women open doors for liberating behavior, or did they set new standards that limited women’s options?
CONNECTIONS: What role did the emergence of a modern consumer culture play in the way contemporaries understood the modern girl? Did consumer goods marketed to women open doors for liberating behavior, or did they set new standards that limited women’s options?