Gibson Girl vs Flapper Girl and the Evolution of Women's Clothing

     Through the years, women's clothing has changed a lot. First, they were wearing full ballgowns, then they were wearing slim and short dresses, now they are wearing ripped jeans. None of these styles or fads are wrong in any way, they are just evidence that women's clothing has evolved a lot. And this didn't happen for no reason, women had role models that helped shaped these changes.
     One of these role models was the Gibson Girl. The Gibson Girl was nothing more than a mere fictional character, or at least she was to some extent. Although she was based off a real person, the Gibson Girl herself was not a real person. This, however, did not lessen the impact she had on women at all.
     The Gibson Girl was depicted as many things: athletic, inelegant, independent, and much more. Dana Williams wrote that the Gibson Girl was the "New Woman" of the nineteenth century in her article on loc.gov . She also provided pictures that were drawn of the Gibson Girl. Some of these pictures included her bicycling, playing golf and tennis, horseback riding, mountain climbing, and swimming to show her athletic side. Others showed her playing instruments such as the piano or violin, or drawing or painting a portrait to show her artistic side. And others showed her serving on a jury or helping out her community to show her intelligent side. All of these depictions of The Gibson Girl made people wonder if all women could do the same things that she was doing and also made them view women in an entirely different way. But after her debut, there would soon become another role model for women: the Flapper.
     The Flapper was first introduces to us in the Roaring 20's. History.com says that these "Flappers" were young women who were known for their energetic freedom and they embraced a life style that was viewed to be very "outrageous" at the time. Women were supposed to act very proper and conservative, but as soon as the 1920's and the Flappers came around, this would all change.
     Contrary to societies beliefs of women at the time, Flappers were energetic and they embraced their new freedoms that they were achieving. In August of 1920, the 19th Amendment was passed which gave women the right to vote. This also game women a sense of freedom and equality that they had been urging for a while. And History.com also states that in the early 1920's, Margaret Sanger made it a goal of hers to provide women with contraception. She made this goal and it started a domino effect of women's rights that later led to things such as birth control.
     Flappers have a classic image of which they are known by. This would be a "party girl" who smokes and drinks in public, danced in front of everybody in jazz clubs without a care, and practiced a sexual freedom that women did not have until this time. All of these things that they were known for shocked and repelled their parents who were raised under different standards in the Victorian Age. They were also known for their attire. This attire included a shorter dress that what society was used to. This dress came down to only their knees, which showed their calf and they also had lower necklines on the dress. They were not formfitting at all. In fact they were straight and slim which matched the preferred silhouette at the time.
    Both of these role models shaped the evolution of women in many ways. Julia Hider states in her article that both of these women had very defined roles in society. They were upper class and athletic and intelligent and much more and this paved a new road for women. They even eventually made a mark on women's fashion. Kelly Richman-Abdou said that fashion illustration is intended to showcase the materials, colors, and designs of the clothing. Women went from wearing ballgowns to pants and all of this had something to do with the Gibson Girl and the Flapper. Not only did they make an impact in regular clothing, they made an impact in athletic wear as well. Bbc.com states that in the early 20th century, women's athletic wear was uncomfortable and restricted their performances. But that soon changed when the Gibson Girl made her impact. Now, thanks to her, women's athletic wear is just as good as men's. All of these examples are just a few on how the Gibson Girl and the Flapper helped form women into what they are today.

Multiple Depictions of the Gibson Girl

 1920's Flapper girl 

Comparison of the Gibson Girl vs Flapper 

Thanksgiving Essay

Although the United States celebrates Thanksgiving every year, we do not know as much about it as we think we do. As research has shown, half of the ideas people are being taught about Thanksgiving are false myths such as the idea that “Thanksgiving” was the first time that the indians and the pilgrims feasted together, they had turkey on the first Thanksgiving, and that “Thanksgiving has been around forever. We need to be more educated about our country and its background so that we can stop lying to ourselves and so we can start properly learning about and celebrating traditions like these.

To settle one of these myths about Thanksgiving, in the article Everything you Learned about Thanksgiving is Wrong, Maya Salam touches on the fact that this event wasn’t even called “Thanksgiving” until the 1830’s when the New Englanders decided to call it that. In 1863, President Lincoln made Thanksgiving an official, national holiday. He did this as a “thank you for civil war Victories”, stated Salam. So contrary to the worldwide belief that Thanksgiving has been around forever, it has only officially been around since 1863.

Thanksgiving didn’t just happen out of nowhere because two different groups of people ate together, a large part of it becoming a national holiday is because people worked for it to be. In the article Abraham and the Mother of Thanksgiving, Maranzani states that Sarah Josepha Hale is “the Mother of thanksgiving”. After growing up ritually celebrating Thanksgiving, Hale published a book called Northwood: A Tale of New England. This showed how much of a committed advocate she was for women’s education. Another thing that shows this is how she consistently wrote and published editorials about the holiday, lobbying to make a “national holiday of thanks”. She did all of this with the hope that it would eventually settle all of the disagreements between the North and the South and maybe even come to unify them. So again, contrary to the belief that Thanksgiving has always been around, people like Sarah Josepha Hale had to work to get this to become a celebrated national holiday.

Along with these two myths, there is also the myth of what the pilgrims and indians ate at this giant harvest of theirs. It is believed by the majority that the indians and the pilgrims had the best feast with a giant turkey and delicious cranberry sauce, when in reality, they only had deer and harvest foods such as corn. The reason we believe this is because of all the marketing that goes into Thanksgiving. Whenever November rolls around, people suddenly get the craving for turkey and cranberry sauce and all of the “traditional Thanksgiving foods”. Why do you think this is? It is because of all of the marketing. From the start of November to Thanksgiving we see TV ads, newspaper articles, and billboards of this giant Thanksgiving feast which of course includes a giant turkey. In the article The Invisible Way that Marketers Set the Menu for Your Thanksgiving Feast, Smithsonian says that marketers not only help create many of the rituals and cultural myths associated with the Thanksgiving meal, but they also legitimized and maintained them. So not only did we get wrong when and how Thanksgiving started, but also what they actually ate at the First Thanksgiving.

https://www.irishcentral.com/opinion/others/irish-americas-halloween-ragamuffins-thanksgiving

Ragamuffin Day is still celebrated each year with a Thanksgiving parade in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

12 Years a Slave

12 Years a Slave Film Review ( Rolling Stone )  

In this review from the Rolling Stone, Peter Travers talks about how a free black man mistakenly takes a job in Washington but later finds out that he was captured into slavery. "Ancient history?" says Travers, "Only if you believe that freedom has lost its fragility in the modern world." Travers says that people have kind of lost what the real definition of freedom. Since some people have had it for all of their lives, it is taken fro granted. Like Solomon, he took his life of being a free man for granted and when he a free man, then when he became a slave he was shocked and realized that he took his free life for granted. 

Primary Source Analysis

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, by Harriet Ann Jacobs 

In this primary source, the author is Harriet Ann Jacobs. She tells her life story about how she was born into slavery, but escaped.

She starts out with a notice to the readers. She says that even though some of these events are very dramatic and incredible, they are nonetheless true. She also tells the reader to try and look at these events from her perspective and the situation that she was in.

She touches on how she thought she was born free, but she was really born a slave. She thought this for 6 years. She also talks about how there is a Slaves' New Year day. This is where they receive their new jobs and new masters.

Newspaper Article

Tri-Weekly Standard Newspaper (North Carolina) 

This Newspaper is from North Carolina, which is a state that played a great role in the Reconstruction. This article starts out by saying how it is hopeless for reconstruction in the south. Then it goes on to say how people need to be more involved in their state's reconstruction. It also says that they don't want to have Reconstruction through violence. Then he starts talking about how Reconstruction will help the community. Then he questions it. Then he ends with how people accept the good faith of Reconstruction.

Paraphrase Practice

Lincoln Movie Review ( rogerebert.com )

"Lincoln lacked social polish but he had great intelligence and knowledge of human nature. The hallmark of the man, performed so powerfully by Daniel Day-Lewis in "Lincoln," is calm self-confidence, patience and a willingness to play politics in a realistic way. The film focuses on the final months of Lincoln's life, including the passage of the 13th Amendment ending slavery, the surrender of the Confederacy and his assassination. Rarely has a film attended more carefully to the details of politics." 

My paraphrase of this passage:
Lincoln possessed a large sum of knowledge about the art of interacting with people. Though he may have been a little informal with how he handled politics, he got the job done. The retired English actor, Daniel Day-Lewis, who played Lincoln in this film, reflected many great characteristics of Lincoln such as people skills in both the political world and outside of it. This film carefully depicts the events leading up to end of Lincoln's life which include him pursuing the amendment to abolish slavery, Robert E. Lee agreeing to stop the war, and of course Lincoln being shot in a theater. This is one of a select few films that go deep into the bits and pieces of the political world.

Reconstruction

Why did Reconstruction come to an end in 1877?
-The Compromise of 1877 ( apstudynotes.org )

The Reconstruction came to an end in 1877 because of The Compromise. When Ulysses S. Grant won the election, he found out that it wasn't necessarily what he had in mind. Being in charge of the US was vastly different that being in charge of a military. This led to the country having financial problems which led to Grant having to make a Compromise to save the Us from being in debt.