History 246 Reading Guide
Discussion: Women and the Culture of Consumption
- Kathy Peiss, Hope in a Jar: The Making of an American Beauty Culture (1998).
Questions:
- Note: do not be fooled by the subject or the cover. This is an analytical social history that addresses the experience of an inclusive group of American women, and that weaves together a number of threads that we�ve have been exploring over the course of the semester.
- What surprised you about her account and her analysis?
- What threads of the course does Peiss�s study address? How does she weave them together?
- How does �beauty culture� embody and illuminate ambiguities and ambivalence about womanhood, femininity, sexuality; class, ethnicity and race?
- What optic does the history of beauty culture give us about the tension between public and private space, women�s ability to negotiate these potentially gendered domains, and the different experiences of women according to race, ethnicity, class and location? Why does Peiss integrate the experiences of African-American women into her discussion in some instances, and separate their experiences at other times?
- What kinds of periodization � patterns of change over time � does she offer?
- What kinds of evidence does Peiss use? How does she work with the opportunities and limitations of her sources?
- Whose side is she on?
