Searching for theOasis in Life: Fashion and the Question of Female Emancipation in Late Nineteenth-Century Argentina

Abstract

One day, a young romance writer who has lost his place to urban expansion in Buenos Aires overhears this intimate conversation coming from another bedroom in an all-women's residence hall. An “invisible houseguest” in Madame Bazan'spensionadofor middle-class women of all ages, Mauricio Ridel works on finishing a happy ending for his latest serialized novel. During the writing process, however, he finds himself distracted by the sounds and rhythms of the house, his focus carried away to the conversations in the house on fashion, family life and female emancipation. Careful not to indicate his presence in any way (for he has agreed to respect the privacy of the women who live there), Ridel listens in to the conversations between female residents from the comfort of his assigned room. Believing themselves removed from male listeners, the female characters of Juana Manuela Gorriti'sOasis en la vida(1888) openly discuss their concerns and desires in the security of enclosed spaces. The dialogic sequence that begins this essay demonstrates the relief that a group of unnamed women experience when removing their uncomfortable clothing. They complain about the weight and needless complexity of their fashions and even flesh out a conspiracy theory concerning a few of those crazy designers. As the women contemplate the changes that tomorrow's fashions will inevitably bring, their soft, sweet voices appear punctuated by the incongruous thud of tossed garments.

Mulheres engravatadas: moda e comportamento feminino no Brasil, 1851-1911

“…Protegendo-se por meio do anonimato e de uma retórica marcada pela modéstia, tão recorrente nas mulheres escritoras do dezenove, a colunista publicou ao longo de quatro meses colunas sobre moda que estavam sintonizadas com o programa emancipador do Jornal.Segundo a escritora, os artigos de modas não significavam uma restrição 23 , a seção seria mais do que simplesmente descrever toilletes de bom gosto para suas leitoras 24 , seria um espaço de propagação dos ideais defendidos pelo Semanário. Como aponta ReginaRoot (2004), mesmo que as colunas de moda submetessem suas leitoras a um determinado padrão de beleza, constituíram também um importante local de debate para uma variedade21 O Jornal das Senhoras. Tomo I, quinta-feira, 1 de janeiro de 1852, p.1.…”