Beauty, Fashion and Femininity

Abstract

Fashion and cosmetics have generally been used by women to emphasise their feminine features. In a society which claimed to be concerned with altering gender relations and reducing gender difference, it would be at least questionable whether fashion and cosmetics would still be appropriate. If women were to be seen as comrades and co-workers, traditional notions of female beauty would have to be amended. The New Economic Policy had led to the re-emergence of a fashionable cafe society, and even to the establishment of private businesses producing fashions and cosmetics; yet these were aimed primarily at the girlfriends and wives of the new entrepreneurs. To what extent should socialist women concern themselves with their appearance? There was considerable confusion on this subject, but by the late 1920s there are indications that an official view was beginning to emerge.