I have decided that, should I get my master’s degree in public history, I shall identify myself as a Materiel Culture Historian.
My Material Culture instructor thought that was hilarious, but I think I’m going to go with it.
(Materiel (with an ‘e’) is defined as military goods/equipment…you know….guns!)
Anyway, I have an assignment due the 18th:
“#1 Objects & Gender. (Due Sept.18)
Objects often become associated with a specific gender. This alignment can change over time. An example of this is the blue jean. In the 19th century these trousers were associated with men who did manual labor. By the 1930s some women who did manual labor, usually on the family farm, also wore them but they were still strongly associated with working men. By the 1950s teenagers of both sexes wore them for casual attire. Today, they are gender as well as class neutral.
For this project, chose an object (or class of objects) that you feel has changed its gender association at least once over time. Describe the object, its history, and how it came to be identified with a specific gender. Then explain how and why that changed. You should consider how our understanding of gender in the 21st century has influenced the dynamics of objects and gender association.”
So I’m thinking the S&W M36/60 Ladysmith would be great example and would have the bonus of being an object that switched genders twice; went from M36 to Ladysmith and then the Ladysmith reverted back to a modifed M36 when too many guys started liking the Ladysmith but didn’t want to get razzed for the name.
I’m waiting to hear back from the instructor on how deep she wants us to go into this thing. It’s supposed to be 6-8 pages long but, as the son of a lawyer, I have an unintentional tendency of submitting 20 page papers when I could have gotten by with a 10 pager.
Anyone have any LAdySmith M36/60 advertising featuring women or advertising featurning the -de-gendered version made later, I’d love to see it.
[email protected]
Best,
RM Vivas