So... would those tobacco campaigns be some of the earliest examples of "purplewashing", i.e. companies co-opting feminist causes for their sake of promoting their own products?
yep, absolutely!
the interesting thing about 1920s purplewashing is that like...it's in textbooks now
I wasn't exaggerating in my tags about questioning the narrative as a kid, because it was literally in my history books. in discussing the radical changes to women's lives, smoking and new fashions were mentioned alongside the vote, almost every time. the fashion conversation is at least a case of Nuance and not as much Bad thing Masquerading As Social Progress, but the smoking always got me. it was the early 2000s! we'd all grown up with anti-smoking programs! smoking killed my grandmother- I'd visited her grave, near my big brother's and my cousin's, and Daddy always seemed really sad that she'd died so young! Smoking Bad!
and all of a sudden it was "women could smoke and that was great progress!" from these books? what?
obviously kid!Marzi knew that girls shouldn't be stopped from doing something just because we were girls, but. cognitive dissonance, big-time
and then I learned that tobacco companies nursed that idea from spark to flame and it's like. well, that makes sense- and it worked too well, so now everyone dances to their tune of Women Smoking In the 1920s Was Good and Liberating Actually
