1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910808867903321

Autore

McEuen Melissa A. <1961->

Titolo

Making war, making women : femininity and duty on the American home front, 1941-1945 / / Melissa A. McEuen

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Athens : , : University of Georgia Press, , c2011

ISBN

1-283-16446-9

9786613164469

0-8203-3758-7

Edizione

[First edition.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (287 pages)

Disciplina

305.40973/09044

Soggetti

Women - United States - History - 20th century

World War, 1939-1945 - United States

Femininity - United States - History - 20th century

Advertising - Cosmetics - History - 20th century

Advertising - Clothing and dress - History - 20th century

History

United States

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

All-American masks : creaming and coloring the wartime face -- Tender hands and average legs : shaping disparate extremities -- Pleasant aromas and good scents : cleansing the body politic -- Proper attire and streamlined silhouettes : clothing the home front figure -- Sacrifice and agreeability : cultivating right minds.

Sommario/riassunto

The author examines how extensively women's bodies and minds became "battlegrounds" in the U.S. fight for victory in World War II. Women were led to believe that the nation's success depended on their efforts, not just on factory floors, but at their dressing tables, bathroom sinks, and laundry rooms. They were to fill their arsenals with lipstick, nail polish, creams, and cleansers in their battles to meet the standards of ideal womanhood touted in magazines, newspapers, billboards, posters, pamphlets and in the rapidly expanding pinup genre. Scrutinized and sexualized in new ways, women understood that their faces, clothes, and comportment would indicate how seriously



they took their responsibilities as citizens. The author also shows that the wartime rhetoric of freedom, democracy, and postwar opportunity coexisted uneasily with the realities of a racially stratified society. The context of war created and reinforced whiteness, and McEuen explores how African Americans grappled with whiteness as representing the true American identity. Using perspectives of cultural studies and feminist theory, this book offers a broad look at how women on the American home front grappled with a political culture that used their bodies in service of the war effort.