Abstract:
During the fin-de-siecle, a period of political stability, rapid industrialization, and economic prosperity in France, a burgeoning middle class emerged in Paris. In the lively capital, Parisians enjoyed countless leisure activities, as the cultural center of Europe attracted a diverse population of artistic, literary, and philosophical minds from around the world. Traditional definitions of gender roles, however, limited the public activity of women to the domestic duty of shopping for their families. Large, colorful lithographic advertisements produced by artists were displayed amid the city streets, popularizing new consumer goods while simultaneously helping to elevate the medium of lithography to high art status. The safety bicycle was one of the most popular, and widely advertised, consumer products of the 1890s. In this paper, I examine the representation of women in five bicycle advertisements, as men were rarely depicted in them regardless of the bicycle frame often being a men's model. I heavily explore the social and political environment of France as I discuss the context and interpret the intended message of the advertisements, concluding that such images complemented feminist identities in French women, speaking to their interests of literally moving beyond the domestic realm.
