She wears a nylon underskirt and raffia opanci shoes: Women’s costume narratives in the caricatures of “Jez” newspaper

Abstract

During the 20th century, the representation of the stock female character in the caricatures of the newspaper ?Jez? underwent a significant transformation: while in the 1930s the character of the peasant woman was reduced to a simple graphic form, rough and without details, an attractive peasant woman appeared in the mid-20th century, primarily in drawings by Desa Glisic, with a short skirt, narrow waist and enlarged bust. However, in accordance to the traditional cultural norms, she was still dressed in folk costume. Broadly speaking, Desa?s female characters paraphrased the craze for novelties from shops in Belgrade which retailed imported costume items. This visualization of women through the synergy of traditional and modern, or more precisely clothing and fashion, proved to be a convenient platform for interpreting the potential objectification of women (Fredrickson & Roberts). At the same time, we are going to determine whether the mentioned depiction of a rural woman endangered the hitherto dominant patriarchal pattern of visualizing women, when their function as a symbol of traditional values through the role of mother and housewife underwent transformation.