These expression schools appear to be nothing more than glorified manners school who educate young women on the Emily Post version of how a lady is to act. That is to say how a woman performs as a wife, mother, friend, how to carry oneself in social settings and the like. The only difference appears to be the débutante aspect; upon completion of the expression education women were given coming out parties in place of commencement ceremonies or rather these coming out parties were a new form for the commencement ceremony only with style and expression.
The art of expression in regards to women is still prevalent in our society. We see this not only with débutante festivals and parades; where I grew up we had the Rose Festival which showcased the transformation of girls to women of that specific year or more simply put débutante season. We see the art of expression currently in areas such as cheerleading, elementary education, dancers, and so on. While men dabble in the above mentioned areas they are fields still perceived as suitable for women and are considered feminine roles. The art of expression remains prevalent it has only gone through somewhat of a transformation itself.
Oh, my Lord, the Rose Queens! How I remember that! Good essay, but your definition of expression is a bit vague. Beef it up with quotes from the text. Find a way to build a bridge between Delsarte and the Rose Festival and you're golden!!
ReplyDeleteBethany wonderful essay! I really like your description of learning the art of expression and how you tied in the example that cities still have the debutante season where women demonstrate their learned art of expression. However, you could emphasize more on the connection of expression with art. For example, the manifestation of expression showed soul and spirit, which created this hierarchy of intellectual ability where women would make things look effortless, but still obtain authenticity of the individual. I also like how you included by learning the art of expression, this helps prepare women to carry this discipline throughout their multiple roles such as being a wife, mother, friend, and how to perform in social settings. You could also elaborate more on how this reveals a gender-based prejudice during this time and that there were these constant expectations of how men wanted women to entail these feminine characteristics, so women would take expression classes to fit society roles and be suitable for status quo. My question is, do you think women in today’s world who are practicing this art of expression through cheerleading, dance, etc. are applying this discipline in their daily social settings? Do you think these young women are constantly evaluating themselves to meet the feminine characteristic expectations? Way to go Bethany and good job!
ReplyDeleteBethany this is very well written. I must confess that I can't remember having read much of your work before and I was thoroughly impressed with your voice on paper. The content seemed sufficiently narrow and the acute focus made me wonder about diversity concerning the art of expression in various locations, e.g. the south. These people you describe must interact with other cultures or at least a variety of public spheres in their own culture. I would assume débutantes are civilized with others but I wonder to what extent they are taught to accept, genuinely understand, or even participate with others. What I mean is, I wonder how aware they are of the artificial nature of what is proper according to Emily Post. I would imagine they are taught humility is a virtue and so I wonder how much humility is retained while expressing their standards of proper conduct. I wonder...
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