Dreams of skin and celluloid
Representing the female body in Spanish Film Magazines during the 1930s
Abstract
During the interwar period, the main Western nations must redefine their visual culture by managing concepts such as modern human being, the body, or the technology. Mass media took then a decisive role, globalizing ideas, symbols and prototypes that were often focused on the female body. The unstoppable success of cinema -mainly, that one from Hollywood- had a key role in all that process, creating various types of women that were emulated by a large part of the society. In this essay we analyze, through the best Spanish film magazines of the 1930s, many dimensions of this process, such as the quest for a new ideal of beauty, the freedom of expression against censorship, the male look at the woman and her struggle to break the chains of the past.
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