The Morality of the Miniskirt
Keywords:
Gender, Miniskirt, Modern Irish History, Fashion History, Twentieth Century History, Second Wave FeminismAbstract
This essay will attempt to prove that the debate over miniskirts reflected the debate on the changing role of women in Irish society, and the standards Irish women were expected to aspire to. Many of the discussions around the miniskirt challenged established beliefs on female sexuality and the standards of domesticity placed on Irish wives and mothers, especially in regard to young women. Evidence for this argument is primarily sourced from the national and regional press, but it is reinforced by academic articles and media contemporary to the period.
References
Primary Sources
Charles H. Brown, Self-Portrait: The Teen-Type Magazine, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol.338, Teen-Age Culture (Nov. 1961), pp.13-21
William H. Reynolds ‘Cars and Clothing: Understanding Fashion Trends’, Journal of Marketing, Vol.32, No.3 ( Jul. 1968)
Films
http://www.rte.ie/archives/2015/0410/693179-60s-fashion-miniskirts- and-knees/
Rocky Road to Dublin
Newspapers
The Connaught Telegraph The Irish Independent The Sunday Independent The Western People Magazines
New Spotlight
Woman’s Way Weekly
UCD Alumni Newsletter: https://www.ucd.ie/t4cms/A%20Snapshot%20of%20UCD%20in%20 the%201960s%20jb.pdf
Secondary Sources
Clear, Catriona, ‘The Minimum Rights of Every Woman? Women’s chang- ing appearance in Ireland 1940-1966’, in Irish Economic and Social History, Vol.35, (2008), pp. 68-80.
Farmar, Tony, Privileged lives: A Social History of the Middle Class in Ire- land 1882-1989, (Dublin, 2010)
Holohan, Carole. ‘Challenges to Social Order and Irish Identity? Youth Cul- ture in the Sixties’, Irish Historical Studies, XXXVIII (no. 151): pp. 389-405.
Marwick, Arthur. The Sixties: Cultural Revolution in Britain, France, Italy and the United States c.1958-c.1974, (Oxford, 1999)
Power, Vincent. Send ‘Em Home Sweatin’:The Irish Showband Story. (Cork, 1990)
Ryan, Paul. Asking Angela McNamara: An Intimate History of Irish Lives (Dublin, 2012)
Weiner, Susan. ‘Two Modernities: From ‘Elle’ to ‘Mademoiselle’. Women’s Magazines in Postwar France’ in Contemporary European History, Vol. 8, No.3, (Nov.1999), pp. 395-409.
