Female imagery in mass culture at the beginning of the 20th century and its representation in literature, media, posters, and cinema

Abstract

The turn of the 19th – 20th centuries is considered to be the beginning of the formation of the phenomenon that will be called "mass culture". The general crisis, population migration, the collapse of the aristocracy and common attitudes and values of Orthodoxy led to a radical change in social institutions, social strata and customary classes. Industrialization led to a reduction in working hours, manual labor began to be replaced by machine labor; therefore, a clear boundary arose between the two spheres of life of the urban working mass, i.e. work and leisure. In a traditional society, free time was spent with family, professional community, or neighbors - one way or another, in a team. In the divided and variegated mass of the city, people found themselves on their own. The leisure of the atomized mass subjects demanded satisfaction of the need to rest, to escape from the stupefying, "alienated", monotonous labor. The response to this need is the entertainment industry of mass culture, whose values are in the form of a commodity. There is a huge, massive demand for products and services that meet the needs of leisure: books, magazines, records, films. The article shows that mass culture at the average level consolidates the popular stereotypes of female images in the mass consciousness in accordance with their functional purpose. Positive female images of mothers (traditional type) and sisters of mercy (high incarnation of the fatal type) dominate in social advertising appealing to universal values and spirituality. Commercial advertisements that appeal to seduction and recognition represent an idealized femme fatale. The art of cinematography addresses deeply rooted motives of fall and rise, physical desecration and moral cleansing (the dominant type of the fatal heroine). The material of the article can be useful in the preparation of courses on the history of Russian culture and history of art.