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REVIEWS
| The Spectacular Modern Woman: Feminine Visibility in the 1920s. By Liz Conor (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004. 329pp.).
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| Feminist, postmodern, and cultural studies theorists have long argued that from the beginning of modern capitalist, consumerist cultures in the late nineteenth century, women have been spectacles of objectified desire. Liz Conor explores the complexities of this thesis with regard to the 1920s, especially in the popular print media in Australia. She assumes, probably correctly, that the situations and trends she discusses in a provincial country existed in sites worldwide, as advertising everywhere found its major image of popular appeal in the young girl. That, for example, is the conclusion advanced independently by scholars involved in the interesting Modern Girl Around the World Project, centered at the University of Washington. They have found similar trends with regard to consumerism, modernity, and young women in a variety of locations. Indeed, as Conor argues, agreeing with their conclusion, the modern girl "was the first cultural figure to travel along the multidirectional, intersecting flows of transnational capital." (7) |
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Conor focuses on six cultural areas in Australia in the 1920s: the metropolis, the movies, commodity culture, beauty culture, the late colonial scene, and the heterosexual leisure scene. She also pays attention to types of the modern woman that appeared at this time, including the screen star, beauty pageant contestants, flappers, and mannequins. She has done a considerable amount of research in Australian periodicals, especially ones produced in Sydney and Melbourne, as well as a few in the United States and in England. |
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