Gibson Girl
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The Gibson Girl was the personification of the feminine ideal of physical attractiveness as portrayed by the pen-and-ink illustrations of artist Charles Dana Gibson during a 20-year period that spanned the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the United States.<ref>"The Gibson Girl’s America: Drawings by Charles Dana Gibson" at the Library of Congress</ref> The artist saw his creation as representing the composite of "thousands of American girls".
Image
The Gibson Girl image that appeared in the 1890s combined elements of older American images of contemporary female beauty, such as the "fragile lady" and the "voluptuous woman". From the "fragile lady" she took the basic slender lines, and a sense of respectability. From the "voluptuous woman" she took a large bust and hips, but was not vulgar or lewd,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> as previous images of women with large busts and hips had been depicted. From this combination emerged the Gibson Girl, who was tall and slender, yet with ample bosom, hips and buttocks. She had an exaggerated S-curve torso shape achieved by wearing a swan-bill corset. Images of her epitomized the late 19th- and early 20th-century Western preoccupation with youthful features and ephemeral beauty. Her neck was thin and her hair piled high upon her head in the contemporary bouffant, pompadour, and chignon ("waterfall of curls") fashions. The statuesque, narrow-waisted ideal feminine figure was portrayed as being at ease and stylish.
She was a member of upper middle class society, always perfectly dressed in the latest fashionable attire appropriate for the place and time of day. The Gibson Girl was also one of the new, more athletic-shaped women, who could be found cycling through Central Park, often exercised and was emancipated to the extent that she could enter the workplace.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In addition to the Gibson Girl's refined beauty, in spirit, she was calm, independent and confident, and sought personal fulfillment. She could be depicted attending college and searching for a husband, but she would never have participated in the suffrage movement.
Taking part in the suffrage movement was something more associated with the New Woman, another cultural image of women that emerged around the same time as the Gibson Girl. As a more popular version of the New Woman, the Gibson Girl both undermined and sanctioned some women's desires for progressive sociopolitical change.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The New Woman was the more disconcerting of the two images at the time as she was seen as an example of change and disruption within the old patterns of social order, asking for the right to equal educational and work opportunities as well as progressive reform, sexual freedom and suffrage. Whilst the Gibson Girl took on many characteristics of the New Woman, she did so without involving herself in politics and thus did not appear to contemporaries at the time to be usurping traditionally masculine roles as the New Woman was deemed to. She therefore managed to stay within the boundaries of feminine roles without too much transgression.
Gibson depicted her as an equal and sometimes teasing companion to men.<ref>American Beauties</ref> She was also sexually dominant, for example, literally examining comical little men under a magnifying glass, or, in a breezy manner, crushing them under her feet. Next to the beauty of a Gibson Girl, men often appeared as simpletons or bumblers; and even men with handsome physiques or great wealth alone could not provide satisfaction to her. Gibson illustrated men so captivated by her looks that they would follow her anywhere, attempting to fulfill any desire, even if it was absurd. One memorable drawing shows dumbstruck men following a Gibson Girl's command to plant a young, leafless tree upside-down, roots in the air, simply because she wanted it that way. Most often, a Gibson Girl appeared single and uncommitted. However, a romance always relieved her boredom. Once married, she was shown deeply frustrated if romantic love had disappeared from her life, but satisfied if socializing with girlfriends or happy when doting on her infant child. In drawings such as these there was no hint at pushing the boundaries of women's roles; instead they often cemented the long-standing beliefs held by many from the old social orders, rarely depicting the Gibson Girl as taking part in any activity that could be seen as out of the ordinary for a woman.
The artist believed that the Gibson Girl represented the beauty of American women:
Gibson believed that America's women would become more beautiful:
Many women posed for Gibson Girl-style illustrations, including Gibson's wife, Irene Langhorne, who may have been the original model, and was a sister of Viscountess Nancy (Langhorne) Astor. Other models included Mabel Normand,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Evelyn Nesbit,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Minnie Clark,<ref>Fine Lines: American Drawings from the Brooklyn Museum. London: Giles, 2013. Template:ISBN. Catalog of an exhibition held March 8 to May 26, 2013. p. 112, "Best known as the face of the original 'Gibson Girl', Clark appeared in Charles Dana Gibson's famous and widely emulated illustrations of fashionable, young, middle-class women, images that set the standard for feminine beauty in that period"; p. 115, "It is believed that Minnie Clark (life dates unknown) ... served as the original model for the Gibson Girl."</ref> and Clara B. Fayette.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The most famous Gibson Girl was probably the American-British stage actress, Camille Clifford, whose high coiffure and long, elegant gowns that wrapped around her hourglass figure and tightly corseted wasp waist defined the style.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Among the many "Gibson Girl" illustrators were Howard Chandler Christy whose work celebrating American "beauties" was similar to Gibson's, and Harry G. Peter, who was most famous for his art on Wonder Woman comics.
In the newly developing art of cinema, although most leading actresses were at the cutting style of the day, the ones who came to embody it best were the Biograph girls, Florence Lawrence and to a more ingénue side of it, Mary Pickford. They personified and catapulted the cult of the ideal woman for the masses beyond American borders. Camille Clifford, a woman known as the "ideal Gibson Girl", posed for various photographers and produced photographs that exemplified the physical characteristics of the Gibson Girl.
Popularity
Some peopleTemplate:Who argue that the Gibson Girl was the first national beauty standard for American women. Gibson's fictional images of her published in newspapers and magazines during the Belle Époque were extremely popular.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Merchandise bearing her image included saucers, ashtrays, tablecloths, pillow covers, chair covers, souvenir spoons, screens, fans, and umbrella stands.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Unreliable source?
By the outbreak of World War I, changing fashions caused the Gibson Girl to fall out of favor as women favored practical clothing compatible with changing times over the elegant dresses, bustle gowns, shirtwaists, and terraced, floor-length skirts favored by the Gibson Girl.Template:Citation needed The image was not forgotten, however. The USAAF World War II-era SCR-578, and the similar post-war AN/CRT-3, survival radio transmitters carried by aircraft on over-water operations, were given the nickname "Gibson Girl" because of their "hourglass" shape; this allowed them to be held securely between the thighs whilst the generator handle was turned.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
See also
- Arrow Collar Man
- It girl
- Corset controversy
- Flapper
- Gibson (cocktail)
- Nell Brinkley
- Pompadour haircut
- Evelyn Nesbit