Postcards began to be mass produced in the 1870s. They were small, portable, and cheap, and were an easy way to send quick messages to loved ones. By 1910, 123 million picture postcards were printed in France alone (Cocks 2012, 281). Among these were postcards depicting women in seductive poses or explicitly erotic scenes, while others constitute morality tales. We don’t have figures for the circulation of such postcards, but it is interesting to consider their visual content and what this might reveal about sexuality and morality of society at the time.
As you read, here are some questions to think about
- Would you send such postcards today? If not, why?
- How much an you learn by studying the content of these postcards? What other things would you need to know to understand their impact?
- What purposes might these postcards have served?
- Who might have consumed them?
- How were they produced, distributed and sold?
Postcards of 'female types'
First is a group of 6 postcards from 1907. They depict well-groomed and elegantly dressed women in a variety of poses. Some look away, while others seem to be inviting the viewer, but one thing that is striking is that the women are dubbed as follows: “A Thoroughbred”; “The motor girl”; “the winter girl”, except one of them who is named, “Ruth”. With the exception of Ruth, these are not ‘real’ women, but types. The sensuality suggests perhaps a fascination with a certain feminine beauty.
Were they intended for male viewers desiring such ideal women, or for women desiring to be like them? Who would have sent them?
Just for the Sake of Society
A second set of postcards are this series of four, ‘Just for the Sake of Society’, which present a moralistic tale about how women should conduct themselves in life. They contain both images and the lyrics of a popular song, which we cannot include here for copyright reasons, but you can find them here.
They are from about 1910 and contain both images and texts that tell the story of a mother who left her child at home one evening, possibly to socialize. On her return she finds that the house caught fire and her child has died. So there is a lesson here about how, as mother, and as a woman, you should be in the home, caring for your child, and that being in the public sphere is to disregard your motherly duties, as society prescribes. What message is being conveyed? What do you think about these postcards being sent?
And finally for some 'saucy' postcards...
Postcards also carried erotic imagery, and were part of a trade in obscene ephemera. We present you with some examples from about 1910. As an early form of pornography, how would you say the characters in them are represented?
