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Ashley: At what point in recorded history did women start wearing revealing and skimpy clothes? Hi welcome to watchmojo.com, I’m your host Ashley. And today we got the chance to speak with Cynthia Cooper about the exploring changes of ideas of modesty and eroticism in women’s clothing over the past century and a half.
Cynthia Cooper: One of the questions that immediately comes to people’s minds when we look at the sorts of changes that have happened in fashion and the fact that women reveal more of their bodies is why. Why does revealing different parts of the body seems sexy at some periods in history and not so much at others. One explanation that was very popular in the early 20th century was called the shifting erogenous zone. We go bored looking at different parts of the body so fashion changes to cover that same body part and reveal another one. We see dresses for the 1920’s that were knee-length so the legs were the erogenous zone according this theory and then in the 1930’s long skirts came back in again for evening wear and focus was really on the back. In the 1940’s and 50’s, it was on the shoulders and in the 1960’s, it was back to the legs again.
New fashion are often associated with sexual liberation and in the 1920’s and in the 1960’s, these are two key periods. Women were wearing much shorter skirts than they had previously in both periods. In the 1920’s, they are wearing the knee-length, and in the late 60’s, they were wearing mini-skirts and then hot pants. And in both these periods, we see fashion very much blamed for these changes and associated with a general moral decline in society. So, is this really the cause of fashion or is fashion just a reflection of larger trends in society?
Of course, designers and celebrities have an important role in the way fashion changes. We have chosen an image of the topless bathing suit design by Rudy Gernreich in 1964. When this image first came out, it caused shockwaves around the world. We have a bra worn by Madonna designed by Jean-Paul Gaultier. Madonna was a key celebrity in being innovative in the way she exposed her body in her undergarments. Also, the story of Janet Jackson. Whether her exposure was intentional or not, it certainly garnered a great deal of media attention. All through the 20th century and into the 21st, we know that an exposed body has a degree of erotic power that will always be used in new creative ways.
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