Body Ideals, Literary Engagement and the Perception of Children: Evolution of Complex Concepts from 1648 to 1945
By hist215girls
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Period: to
Body Ideals, political literature and sociological analysis of the children in the modern era
The picture of the timeline title represents Anne-Louise Germaine Necker de Staël, a female French writer and philospher who lived during the Enlightment and who wrote about political engagement among writers and artists of her time. We see here the author with her daughter, Gustavine. The picture is a great testimony of children representations, european fashion trends and artistic engagement. -
Hobbes (1588-1679), the theorist
The Leviathan is the absolute sovereign who rules men in the Commonwealth they have established to avoid the state of nature, «the war of all against all». Published in 1651 during the English Civil War by the political philosopher Thomas Hobbes, it is one of the first work exploring the theory of social contract, developed also by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. It seeks to theorize Absolutism as a solution to chaos, its functioning and its benefits in a time of great social turmoil. -
"Philip IV of Spain (1656)" by Diego Velázquez and The Spanish Embodiment of Manhood (Spain)
The physicality of body ideals were of great importance as the Spanish power was declining during 17th century. Diego Velazquez was assigned to draw a portrait of Philip IV of Spain in 1656. Although this would mark one of his last royal portraits, manhood through a strong, composed and honourable image was reinforced. Even so, the badge of the Order of the Golden Fleece,around the King's torso,reflected an ideal of manly authority at a time when the spirit of Spanish nationalism was at a low. -
Pensees sur l'education, John Locke
Pour la premiere fois en Europe, John Locke, philosohe anglais, remet en question l'education de l'enfant. Dans des lettres ecrites pour un noble anglais qu'il publie ensuite, il apporte une vision nouvelle sur la question de l'enfant comme un etre capable d'education. -
"A Lady Showing a Bracelet Miniature to Her Suitor" by Jean-Francois Detroy (France 1734)
The corset is the primary focus. The fashionable dress presses the breast up and cuts the woman's lower edge up to the waistline, to spread out her hips. The exposure of the laced up corset is symbolic of surrogate intercourse as the woman's gazed face gives the impression that her body is imprison through her clothing. This appeals to the bodily ideal that women ought to be of the purest nature. Caged in and of higher morality than men, the abundant ornamentations lives up to woman's ideals. -
Voltaire (1694-1778), the philosopher
In 1763, two years after the execution of Jean Calas, a Protestant merchant unfairly accused of the murder of his son by the Catholic court of Toulouse, is published the Traité sur la tolérance by François-Marie Arouet (a.k.a. Voltaire) in Paris as a manifesto denouncing religious intolerance in France which led to unjust prosecutions and crimes. Beside works like Candide and the Philosophical Dictionary, this text engages profoundly the political dimension of religious wars for the first time. -
Le Generallandschulreglement
C'est en Prusse, le 13 Aout 1793, que Frederick le Grand signe le Generallandschulreglement. C'est un traite promouvant l'ecole obligatoire pour les enfants a partir de l'age de 5 ans. Ils peuvent desormais recevoir une education complete. Les pays de l'Europe de l'Est vont les suivre peu de temps apres. Mais il faudra attendre environ un siecle pour voir le meme phenomene en Europe de l'Ouest. -
Les "Factory Acts" du Royaume Uni
Victime de l'industrialisation, les enfants etaient obliges de travailler dans des conditions impossibles dans les usines du Royaume Uni. En 1833, le parlement va instaurer une serie de loi pour la protection des enfants afin d'ameliorer ses conditions de travail. C'est une des premieres fois que l'ont voit des lois ecrites destinees aux enfants. -
Marx (1818-1883), the political scientist
Karl Marx, a German economist, historian and the father of Communism and modern Socialism is one of the most influential figure of the 19th century in the critic of capitalism and industrial relations. The 18th of Brumaire of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte is a historical and political essay relating the coup d'état of the 2nd emperor of France in 1851, right after the European «springtimes of the people» of 1848, worker's revolutions that will fail and unfortunately lead to authoritarian regimes. -
"Anorexia Nervosa" by Sir William Gull and the Corset in the late 1800s (Victorian Britain and France)
Queen Victoria's personal physician Sir William Gull established the term anorexia nervosa in 1873 . Anorexia was interpreted as applying to female behavior insofar as it conformed to the ideals of the woman's body of being slender with a tiny waist. Women wore corsets, which were tightly laced to draw shoulders back and create an upright posture. In 1891, Maison Leoty emerged with a new rounded body ideal. The spoon busk became into use to widen the female body to take a slimmed out woman form. -
L'exposition universelle de 1873
Deuxieme moitie du XIX, Paris, Palais de l'Industrie: exposition universelle ayant pour theme "tout ce qui a rapport a l'enfant - depuis sa naissance jusqu'a l'adolescence". Les Francais sont pres a consacrer toute une exposition sur l'enfant, montrant l'avancee des esprits en europe. -
Zola (1840-1902), the journalist
The letter J'accuse...! of the French writer and journalist Émile Zola is certainly the first example of active political engagement of a man of letters, with some works of Victor Hugo that will lead him to exile, as this article did with Zola. Published in the journal L'Aurore in Paris two days after the acquittal of commander Esterhazy, the real culprit of a crime for which a Jewish captain, Alfred Dreyfus, is accused, it will engage the writer in a national prosecution against antisemitism. -
Plastic Surgery After the First World War (Britain 1916)
Body ideals did not only apply to women. After the First World War, there was a need for the war victims to successfully reintegrate in society. Harold Gillies, a plastic surgeon, was given the challenge to work under the Bristish Army to fix the grim war wouds of soliders. Considered as a way for these men to come back in society, Sidcup was a hospital, specifically built to take care of these men. In Sidcup, approximately 2000 soldiers, who fought in the Battle of the Somme, were treated. -
Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel and The Boyish Figure (1926 France)
As the 1920s roaring lifestyle emerged, life in France was marked by after-war pessimism as well as momentary lifestyle attitude. Silks, sequins and the glamour of the flapper dress represented an archetype of feminine beauty. The disninguished trait of the flapper was a thin elongated body, refered to as the boyish figure. The lack of the female characteristics enabled women to reconstruct their bodily ideals. Hence, woman's ideals shift towards a masculine shape, symbolizing social equality. -
L'embrigadement des jeunnes dans les regimes totalitaires
Comprennant l'enjeu futur des enfants, les leaders des regimes totalitaires creerent des organisations de jeunesse pour les former selon leur ideologies.
Le 11 Mars 1926 se deroule le congres de la federation des jeunesses communistes leninistes ou les Komsomols (Jeunesses Leniniennes puis plus tard Staliniennes) prennent une place importante dans la societe. -
Churchill (1874-1965), the orator and the politician
«Blood, toil, tears and sweat» are the words that will make Winston Churchill, on the very beggining of the Second World War, a symbol of active engagement, honesty and resistance. The first of 3 well-known speeches he will give before the British nation during this global disaster, it was pronounced right after his election as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom as a demand for popular support on the eve of incredibly hard choices. Written by himslef, it is still a piece of anthology today. -
Des droits universels pour une Europe en reconstruction
La création de l'ONU en 1945 permet la mise en place de l'UNICEF, une organisation mondiale qui protège les enfants. En effet, l'Europe à la fin de la guerre a besoin de fonds pour l'éducation et le bien-être de ses enfants. Par le biais de l'ONU, l'Europe réussira à atteindre cet objectif et à assurer une situation décente pour la majorité des enfants européens. -
Sartre (1905-1980), the engaged writer
The post-WWII era brought an impressive intellectual effervescence, taking roots especially during French resistance among a Saint-Germain-des-Prés community of journalists, essayists and philosophers, of which Jean-Paul Sartre was part. Through Existentialism, Sartre embodied literary engagement such as no one before. His essay What Is Literature published in 1948 in Paris was a stand in itself on what should be writer's engagement and how it should fight for Liberty and Socialism by its words. -
"Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" (1953), Hollywood Glamour and the French Woman (France)
Marilyn Monroe was the quintessentail ideal of what women ought to aspire to look lke and become. In the movie, "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes"(1953), blondes appear sexier, more adventurous with a willing persuasion for the masses to ignore behavioral restrictions. Marilyn Monroe was ultimately the ideal woman. She was white European as well as a blonde bombshell. Her performance as the volumpious pin-up girl served as a French woman's icon of sexual liberation and new bodily aspiration.
