Simulated Bodies: Cosmetics and Consumption in the Interwar Period

Abstract

In 1929, Stefan Zweig thought it possible that a “future cultural history” would devote more space to the “total re-evaluation and transformation of the European woman” than it would to “theWorldWar.”1 His conjecture was based on the assumption that modern women’s newly won “freedom of the body” and “freedom of the soul” signified a radical break with the traditional gender order. At last, women had equal rights with men in every respect. Modern womanhood no longer appeared “corseted” and “locked up in cloth gathered to the neck.” Nor was it “legless” or “tightly waisted like a bee.” Instead, it was characterized by a “clear, open midriff, whose line the light dress flows over like a wave.” These fashion changes indicated to Zweig a shift in the gender order “in favor of women.” Other contemporaries, such as Eugen Hollander, went further and described the bodily representation of modern femininity as “masculinized.”2 As resonant as these voices were, the history of cosmetics tells a story that casts doubt on the idea that this period experienced a radical break in the gender order.