18th Century American Women

In the early 18th century, women were seen as trophies or devoted housewives, they were seen but not heard, submissive, and conservative. A dramatic change was made in the late 18th century, women became sexual objects due to their risqué acts, courageous persona, and seductive wardrobes. Seeking for equality, women wanted to prove to men that they were more than just a pretty face, but could be witty and have intelligence. Provocative roles led to stepping stones in bigger careers and ultimately gave women larger platform in the TV industry.
Along with the entertainment industry during this time period, women’s careers became more of a progress than ever before. Laura Keene was a great influence of the entertainment evolution for women by momentarily resisting the risqué way instead, she made the effort into theater particularly for women. Although there was controversy over her shows from critical men, she
still managed to manufacture progress out of her career as a manager even with “clean shows”. Keene wasn’t compelled to show seminude women for a successful show but she had to make a bit of change when her audience became smaller. She ended up administering “visual delights” for the men by providing the actresses to wear “tight-fitted clothes, low-necked dresses, and legs in flesh-colored tights” that were outrageously inappropriate for a woman to wear during that time but it led up to a financial success. In 1860, Menken also resulted a large platform for her career due to the provocative roles she acted. She had a large male audience also, because of her seductive wardrobe turning her into the “world’s highest paid actress.” Not only did she make an impact on men, women were jealous of her independence and freedom because she financially depended on herself. The Civil War provided her career with more tasks to do as an actress because the war supported the economy and more people were seeing shows. Later she popularized herself and became a phenomenon, she accelerated the developing fascination of with celebrity. Menken career became a success because men viewed her as a sex symbol and a source for erotic entertainment. Burlesque was another entertainment source with a large male audience including seminude showgirls that danced for amusement.
This is challenging role that women had to partake in. The British Blondes set a landmarked American tour in 1868 with a “leg show” toward a simple performance of females as sexual objects, exposing as much of their body as they can get away with. But they only exposed a bit of their bodies because they also played parts of men. The British Blondes influence the culture of “leg work” according to the New York Tribune. Although the blondes were seen as sexual objects, they made a progress as dancers and entertainers by doing unique shows such as cross-dressing, parodies, providing images of female power, parades, and etc. They manipulated and used their sexual attraction to make a message to men. The advertisements revealed shapely women dressed as soldiers, but with tight-fitted leggings manipulating wealthy men with puppet strings. The Blondes were expressing how they felt about the wealthy men that used them for their
bodies. By the 1890s, Lydia Thompson noted regretfully that audiences “retired” her kind of way entertainment with full of rebellious and empowered women- in favor of the unqualified sexual performance of females. When the girls began to make too many subliminal messages towards their audience, which were mainly men, the men turned their backs on them and stopped going to the shows. Afterwards, burlesque lead to belly dancing, stripping, and in 1917 the “runaway” on which voiceless women paraded and danced provocatively in front of male audiences. Many of the women in the 1830s were emotionally and mentally mistreated because they didn’t have the right of speech, which led men to provoke them into sexual entertainment but as a result it led women to be famous entertainers. Women such as Menken, took advantage of the opportunity and became one of the “world’s highest paid actress”.