vintage and the revival of 'domesticity'

Sorry for the long absence since my last post, I've been terribly busy. Also, I just couldn't really seem to get down to writing anything. However, I'm currently writing some lecture material about 'home' and it got me thinking about the relationship between the 'retro revival' and a return to a new kind of domesticity. I'm writing this lecture material about the development of the modern home since the industrial revolution and what this has meant for gender relations within and outside of the family home.

When it comes to WWII, as we all know, it radically changed the role of women in the public sphere of production in the UK, US. Women were doing the jobs traditionally done by men and enjoyed a new kind of freedom while the men were away at war. Adverts created during the war years were aimed at encouraging women to go to work for the war effort.

Australian war poster

US war poster

UK war poster

Familiarly, this all changed once men came back from the war and the 1950s saw a real return to the earlier 'domestic ideal' for women. Advertising in the 1950s is notorious for its sexist depiction of women as either decorative objects or domestic 'angels' looking after hearth and home by cleaning, cooking and child rearing with a happy satisfied smile.

Of course this is a bit of a simplistic picture, women did never completely acquiesce to this 'domestic ideology' which had a strong presence in popular culture since Victorian times. Women were always more complex and interesting than this and that should not be under-estimated. However, the media image of women was conceived within the very narrow confines of what was deemed appropriate expressions of 'femininity'.

In 1963 Betty Friedan wrote her famous 'The Feminine Mystique'. If you haven't heard of Betty Friedan before, she was a big name in US second-wave feminism and central to the feminist critique of 'domesticity' as the ultimate enemy of the emancipation of women from the 'private sphere'.

Betty in Junior High School (from here)

Betty wrote the famous words:

As she made the beds, shopped for groceries, matched slipcover material, ate peanut butter sandwiches with her children, chauffeured Cub Scouts and Brownies, lay beside her husband at night, she was afraid to ask even of herself the silent question – ‘Is this all?’

(Betty Friedan, the feminist mystique, 1963)

Friedan as young (from here)

Of course, second-wave feminism received much critique in the 1990s (when it transitioned into the so-called 'third wave') for its essentialised view of femininity and its supposedly unified feminist cause. It's lack of attention to difference, diversity and change has been addressed since and it's been recognised that the home isn't necessarily either a prison or a haven, it's different things to different people, in different circumstances and parts of the world. However, it's interesting that in the last few years, the revival of retro and vintage has lead to a revival of a certain image of 'cuddly' domesticity a' la the 50s.

A revival of domesticity hasn't just bee reconcieved n confined to the 'vintage brand', but can be seen elsewhere in contemporary popular culture. The contemporary 'luxury housewife' (WAG culture etc.) has little resemblance to the 50s housewife, but it's interesting to note how the image of the housewife has changed in certain circles. Not that there isn't still a lot of contempt out there as well (especially for WAG-style housewives). However, the 'vintage' style version of domesticity is very different from this type of luxury 'women what lunch' phenomenon. It's much more wholesome, cosy, cup-cakey and inspired by both a 'make-do-and-mend' thriftiness and a novelty cheese-cakey version of domestic femininity. And perhaps something else, an interest in recapturing something that's been lost; a sense of creating something a little more 'authentic' in this world of takeaways, ready-meals and throw-away consumption.

 

Dita in her kitchen (I do really like her)

There are of course different theories about what has caused this revival of past domestic ideals, such as the idea that it is a reaction to a "financially unsure, sped-up, tech-obsessed 21st century world" (Emily Matchar, check out her interesting blog here).

In the course of writing this blog post I did some googling and I found Emily Matchar's blog 'New Domesticity'. I have only just happened upon it and haven't had a chance to read very much, but it does look very interesting and right on point for what I wanted to talk about in this post. As it happens, she talks about it much more eloquently, so do check it out if you're interested in these issues. She's also written a book which is due to be published in the spring.

But what do we think of this cup-cake domesticity linked to a vintage aesthetic and morality, as people who (presumably) are enthusiastic about vintage in a broader sense? By that I mean, not just enthusiastic about rekindling a love for the home-making practices of the past but about other aspects of social and fashion history. How do you feel about the cup-cake image of vintage?

The vintage revival is of course so much more than just about cup-cake baking and cheese-cakey posing. This is just one version of 'vintage', a version that's closely tied to a new form of anti-consumption/anti-mainstream consumption. This kind of vintage is little more than a marketing coop. But the broader trend in looking towards more traditional models of femininity is interesting for other reasons.

"We might ridicule the gender constrictions which marked the ’50s and ’60s, but the success of Mad Men, among other backward-looking phenomena, suggests that they also speak to some part of ourselves that doesn’t want to construct a working model of femaleness from scratch each day. I can’t be alone in sensing a withdrawal from embattled agendas of self-definition, especially among younger women, as well as a renewed interest in traditional modes of femininity…” (Daphne Merkin in Elle, cited in this blog post)

But this new appropriation of old-fashioned femininity in the retro/vintage world can seem pretty tame in terms of making a statement about what it is to be a woman in the 21st Century:

"Twee and retro have been seeping into feminism for a couple decades now, gaining potency. It’s all about cute dresses, felten rosettes from Etsy, knitting, kittens, vintage lamps shaped like owls, Lesley Gore. And yes - a lot of cupcakes" (Meryl Trussler, here).

I have myself been guilty of most of the things mentioned in the quote above (if not so much the cup-cakes), as have probably most of us. These things are to some degree a part of the vintage 'scene', even if they are at the commercialised edges of that scene. 

This is a bit of a tangential issue, but something interesting occurred on Sunday. My husband and I went to a local pub for a Sunday roast and as it happened, the pub hosted a craft fair that day. One of the stalls sold "vintage" (in big scare quotes), or rockabilly maybe, plastic brooches in the shape of swallows and pin-up girls. On my first round I just walked past - it's not really my thing, even if I do like a bit of kitsch - but before I left I found myself stopping at the stall again and before I knew it, I'd bought a darn swallow! I think it was partly not wanting to leave empty-handed, but it made me feel so predictable and quite gullible as the salesgirl smiled at me - the typical 'retro-lover' who of course wants to buy one of her swallows. Oh heck, sometimes you just do fall for these things and we shouldn't beat ourselves up about it too much. 

Neither do I want people to feel berated if they happen to be regular cup-cake bakers. But I do think we should think about the things we take onboard as part of our construction of a self-image, and why.

To be continued...