In
a 1926 hair clippers ad the woman pictures wears a liberating bob.
By the 1920s women had thrown away their long, bulky garments and lopped
off their hair as a sign of their break with tradition. The specialized
clippers are intended to give last minute trims to the unruly necklines
of "bobbers."
The
ads title asks "Are you afraid to walk in front of him?" Brown and
Sharpe, the clipper manufacturers, sponsor the creation of an obsession
for neckline neatness that will make readers buy their products.
They tell their prospective customers that the neckline "must be neat at
the back" and that all of their escorts will be critical of an uneven
line. They encourage the women to scrutinize the necklines of the
women in front of them to discern which individuals have been lax in their
trimming. These modern Millies have simply exchanged one form of
conformity for another.
The
"everyone is doing it" tack is employed when the advertiser writes that
an investigator has found that "90% of the barbers in 17 of America's largest
cities use the Brown and Sharpe clippers. Can all of those professionals
be wrong?