Consumer Products & Household Goods
The artifacts were looked at were consumer and household items owned by women
during the suffragist movement. These products ranged from pamphlets to clothes to makeup to appliances that were made for women of this era. The influx in these consumer products with the relevance towards advertising affected the suffrage movement in both positive and negative ways. Some of these products were seen as putting women in a box and expecting them to act or dress a certain way. While the creation of appliances and technologies freed women from household duties and allowed them to express themselves outside of the domestic sphere. With this assignment we will be showing off artifacts that we found that exemplified products only women during this time would consume. Most people probably wouldn’t consider how consumer products and household goods could relate to the Women’s Suffrage Movement, but they do as we’ve seen from the mentioned artifacts. Suffragists helped pave the way for the women of today. There are still inequalities and difficulties women face but the future is looking bright.
These pages come from the Emanuel Haleman-Julius's Little Blue Book publication. They were pocket sized books with almost 2000 issues published covering a wide variety of topics. It was established in Girard, Kansas in 1919 going all the way to 1951. Figures 2a-c are about how women are supposed to act to get a husband. The section is called “The Don’ts for Husband Hunters” and it goes on to list 21 outrageous things that women should not do in order to get a husband.
During the suffrage movement, women did not have any rights and their husbands basically owned them. But women also did not have any value if they didn’t have a husband so women would do anything to attract a wealthy good looking man. Some of the things on the list says, “Don’t criticize his clothes, his words, nor his actions”, “Don’t ever make a scene in a public place, by hysterics, vociferous laughter, or any other extreme conduct”, “Don’t act in a superior manner about anything”, “Don’t dress in a bizarre fashion, unless you are an unusual type”, and finally “Don’t talk in a loud voice in public or in private”. All of these things are very demeaning to women and silencing the already silent woman. Although all of these do not do’s seem outrageous now, they were not that crazy back then. Women during these times had no legal rights once they were married. They could not vote, their husbands owned them and their children, and whatever money they made went to their husbands. So though this list makes people upset now, women back then would follow these instructions carefully.
In Figure 3, there is a product being advertised that helps lose weight. The women in the ad is seen with the very hour glass frame that was very popular at the time of the women’s suffrage movement. The garment is made of rubber and meant to help women lose weight and have a figure like the one in the ad. It gives the similar look to a corset; the extremely constrictive fashion device that women used to use.
Figure 4 is an advertisement about a Lemon Beauty Cream that erases beauty marks on a woman. During the suffrage movement women were to be proper ladies and they had to look and act “pure”. So these women would go to any lengths to get rid of a beauty blemish such as a freckle. This acidic lotion that they are advertising is very harmful for the skin. It states, “...to bleach the skin and to bring out the roses, the freshness and the hidden beauty?” This lemon lotion is bleaching your skin off to bring out the new layer of skin underneath, which is a cause for many skin problems in the future. The next line states, “But the lemon juice alone is acid, therefore irritating..” so you must mix it with some other form of liquid to dilute it. However, I am not sure how much they are diluting it because at the top of figure one it says, the juice of two lemons and just three ounces of Orchard White. In the Journal of the American Medical Association they point out that they use the words “Orchard White” in a way to make readers believe that it is a patented medicine but it is not. (pg.1025) The article also states that state chemists of Louisiana said, “Orchard White was reported to be nothing more mysterious than a mucilage containing bismuth citrate, boric acid, alcohol, and gum tragacanth” (JAMA, pg. 1025). None of that stuff can be healthy for a person's skin, especially mixed with lemon juice.
Figure 5 is an advertisement for the Saxon Roadster. It explains how Alice Snitzer Burke and Nell Richardson, two noted suffragists, drove 10,000 miles on behalf of the Women's Suffrage Movement. The ad emphasizes the ease and endurance of the car. While it is a positive that these suffragists are being viewed in a positive light in this ad, there is still a negative undertone. With emphasizing how easy the car is to take care of, the women are being shown in a weak light. It is like the ad is saying “Since the car is so easy to take care of it should be no problem for a woman to drive it.”
Figure 6 is an advertisement for Quaker Oats with the headline “Study His Daily Food Needs”. This is an ad directed towards women with the purpose of informing wives of how to properly feed their husbands and ensure they get the proper proteins to keep them healthy. During this time it was common for women to be the caretakers of the family and part of that role was cooking and preparing meals for the husband. It also talks about the pricing that Quaker Oats offers so they the wife can idea of the prices and can understand the cost for energy and cost of protein.
Figure 7 is an ad for a swimsuit with a pocket for makeup. This ad and swimsuit was created to allow women even while in the water to have a place to carry their makeup so they can reapply and look their best. Something like this seems so ridiculous nowadays because we think of swimming as an activity where makeup and beauty are not involved. During this era it was expected of women to keep up with appearances and always look their best despite what they were doing and this woman's bathing suit with a waterproof pouch for powder is a prime example of clothing that would be purchased by women
STUDENT CONTRIBUTORS:
Danny Kelly, Emily Nagyvathy, Autumn Peoples