Popularising new women in Belle Epoque advertising posters

Critical studies of advertising have tended to focus primarily on the objectification and sexualisation of women, and thus on the representation of women as passive objects of the gaze.¹ While insights drawn from this approach have been central to feminist critiques in art and visual culture, they do not address an important aspect of advertising, namely, the extent to which it addresses modern women as agents in its attempt to attract them to the products they advertise. This study focuses on selected Belle Epoque advertising posters and suggests that they offer possibilities of identification for modern women of the time...