Knowledge and Political Conscience: Social Cosmetics during the Great Depression

Abstract

In 1933, the Vossische Zeitung wrote, “Beauty care has given rise to social cosmetics, an indispensable weapon in the struggle for survival.” Cosmetics had “changed fundamentally.” It was no longer “a luxury,” no longer “the privilege and domain of the posh and spoiled lady.”¹ These lines suggested that social cosmetics was for the new middle class. Although magazine advertisements had frequently used the metaphor of gender struggle to market cosmetics to female office workers, “social cosmetics” occupied a different space. Developed in the context of modern consumer society, it did not target modern women or address the “struggle of the sexes,” but instead concerned itself with social equality and class struggle.