Things that changed women's world: our book tip!
Created: 09/20/2022, 17:35
By: Katja Kraft
Clear message: "We should all be feminists".
Dior released this shirt in 2016.
It's one of the 100 things in Annabelle Hirsch's book.
©Getty Images
Journalist Annabelle Hirsch has written a fascinating book about women's history.
Based on objects.
"The things.
A history of women in 100 objects” has now been published.
Our book tip.
The bikini.
A liberation!
Oh well.
It's true: when Louis Réard first presented his invention for bathing fun in 1946, it was a fashion statement for self-confident women.
A liberation in the true sense of the word, away from constricting bodices towards a new, relaxed body awareness.
Then came body shaming, being ashamed of one's own body.
Does spring actually go by without magazine issues with "tips for the perfect bikini figure"?
The Western woman is no longer constrained by clothing – she dutifully ties her corset herself. Thoughtful, but effective: “Keep in Shape” – stay in shape!
– is the motto.
In 1946 the first bikini was presented.
In an outdoor pool in Molitor.
© KEYSTONE FRANCE
And so that little bit of material alone tells a lot about the history of women.
About developments and regressions.
Like so many things, if you look closely.
That's what Annabelle Hirsch did.
In her entertaining little book "Die Dinge" she recapitulates the history of women in 100 objects.
The German-French journalist, born in 1986, made the selection.
Of course, in her Wunderkammer der Femininity there are also things that are obvious because they are socio-politically highly relevant, such as the birth control pill that was launched in 1960 or the first mini dresses in the 1960s.
But Hirsch's main focus is on the objects that don't immediately come to mind.
Did women paint the walls in the Pech Merle caves?
Annabelle Hirsch also questions this in her book.
© ullstein picture
Like images from cave paintings.
What is clear: that the approximately 20,000 years before Christ arose.
What seemed clear: that it was mainly men who immortalized themselves with it on the walls.
A thesis that US researcher Dean Snow contradicted.
According to Hirsch, his most recent studies of the El Castillo Grotto in Spain and the French Gargas and Pech Merle caves revealed that 75 percent of the handprints seen on the walls there are of women.
Several connecting theses about the role of the woman at that time result from this.
Possibly the most beautiful: "Perhaps the first artistic geniuses in our history were women."
Tupper "party" - looked more like a Bible study group in the 1950s.
The inventor of this successful sales method, Brownie Wise, made history.
© NMSI/Science Museum
The author is also concerned with rethinking the assumptions about the role of women that we sometimes adopt too carelessly.
When Annabelle Hirsch talked about her book idea privately, a man said, laughing out loud: “Women and objects?
But women are objects!” So her acquaintance did what society likes to do: equating women with the objects with which they shared their spaces.
Not only sewing machines and typewriters, but also glass dildos (from the 16th century!) or metal corsets, later: International Women's Day badges, Women Airforce Service Pilots badges, Tupperware and menstrual cups.
Or the already mentioned bikini.
"Body shaming" is followed by "body positivity", i.e. satisfaction with one's own body.
That is the goal of the young generation of women.
The story goes on.
also read
Arcade Fire in Munich: a contradictory evening
"A systemic campaign"
Annabelle Hirsch: “The things. A history of women in 100 objects”. Kein & Aber Verlag, Zurich, 419 pages; 32 euros.