Dissertation Information for Margaret Mary FinneganNAME:
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SCHOOL: ADVISORS: COMMITTEE MEMBERS: MPACT Status: Incomplete - Not_Inspected Title: "So much color and dash": Fighting for woman suffrage in the age of consumer capitalism Abstract: This dissertation explores the cultural context in which moderate American woman suffragists practiced the art of politics. Drawing from women's history, cultural history, art history, cultural studies, cultural anthropology, feminist theory, and film studies, it shows a group of activist women struggling to adapt to an increasingly urban, commercial, consumer-capitalist order. This adaptation often translated into appropriation. Particularly during the 1910s, suffragists incorporated this order's characteristic traits--including advertising, publicity, mass merchandising, and mass entertainment--into their fight for the franchise. They likewise replicated its commercial aesthetic and mimicked its language of consumer rights and desire. But suffragists also reworked this cultural milieu to fit their ideology. When consumer-capitalist industries extolled women's public presence, suffragists used this approbation to expand the boundaries of woman's space. When advertisers celebrated modern notions of personality, suffragists followed suit, creating idealized performing selves epitomizing the worthy woman voter. And when department stores, manufacturers and a changing society made consumption central to women's lives, suffragists turned their shopping roles into arguments and excuses for granting them the vote. |
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