Dire il corpo femminile: emancipazione e nuove costrizioni nella presse de mode degli anni Venti

The Roaring twenties are usually considered as a turning point for women’s emancipation. In France, the linguistic and visual depiction of the garçonne became the symbol of a new model characterised by dynamism, modernity, and independence. However, this narrative is much more complex than it seems. The verbal description of the new woman clashes, in fact, with a complex reality where the genders paradigms apparently change without an actual emancipatory outcome. In this context, through the alibi of “modernity”, new normative corporeal practices and key expressions substitute the old ones in a modelling process of female bodies and morality that, through the use of specific words and structures, reinforces traditional gender roles and relations. Through the examination of the popular literature and feminine press published in France between 1920 and 1925, this study aims to explore the women’s seemingly unproblematic image vehiculated by the mediatic and literary discourses in order to highlight its contradictions.