“Beauties” and “cover girls”: The quest for ideal of beauty in mass imaging industry

Abstract

The origins and development of practices of female images public presentation. The habit to display well-known persons images in the windows of fashionable shops eventually transformed into the practice of attractive women imaging and later - into mass dissemination of relevant postcards, posters, “female” and “male” magazines. It is demonstrated that such practices served some important sociocultural functions: they advertized new developments in fashion and design; contributed to women self-identity formation. The main techniques of such an imaging are revealed and the most well-known of the producers are featured.