As Françoise Bache writes in her introduction “Relative Creatures: Victorian Women in Society and the Novel,” women were not commonly spoken of in novels. They were often presented as caricatures of idealized figures, and the real women usually conformed to society. Bache’s main thesis is that women were seen as creatures, so there was an attempt to destroy the myth of women that had prevailed. Interestingly enough, French women of the 19th century had similar experiences.
French women during the nineteenth century were far from the model woman that the patriarchal society longed for. As a result, unmarried women workers were conceived as creatures as if they had no identity. Real women were seen as if they were myths. Through the exploration of culture and writing about women, there was an encouragement for society to be able to understand what it meant to be a woman and focus on the realities, rather than to focus on the “ideal woman.”
The postcards that I have analyzed, show “mythical” women, since they display women playing a role of a male. Collected and send in 1903-1904, the postcards share the common title of Women of the Future. In the series of nine postcards, each shows a woman dressed in a costume, followed by the title of the role that they represent. Each postcard portrays each woman differently. For example, there is an image of a woman with a light smile with a notebook and pen in her hand, and according to the title she is a journalist. Another postcard shows a woman measuring the blood pressure of patient, and she is presented as a doctor. A different postcard displays a woman with a sword in a costume, and she symbolizes a superhero. Another image shows a young lady holding a paper, and sword at her side, and she is a country police woman. In addition, there is another postcard that shows a policewoman with a sword at her side. In the next postcard, another woman is dressed in a costume, which represents a superhero. The women in the next postcard resembles a jockey (like a horse rider). The next postcard shows a woman smiling with a cigarette between her lips and a book in her arms, she resembles a student. Women hoped to have education since they had limited access to education, which is why a crucial year for the history of feminism in France was 1867 which helped to improve secondary and higher education for women (Bache).The final postcard shows a woman as a deputy with a glass of wine in front of her. The message on this postcard says that it is the last postcard of the “women of the future” collection, although the person does not have the complete collection.
The postcards that display the images of the “women of the future” also includes text although it is hard to read and interpret. Postcards were used as a form of communication, so as a result women used secret ways of writing their postcards to their friends so that other people that interacted with the postcard could not understand the message written on them. Women had to be unique in order to communicate with their friends without others figuring out what they were writing about.
The postcards have females on them that represent different roles or jobs, because during the 19th century and early twentieth century in France, females were only expected to be housewives. The images show a mythification of women, because the roles that the women are playing in the postcards were considered male roles at the time. Women sent these cards to laugh at the idea that women could one day take over the job of a male. It was a foolish idea to the women, because who could ever imagine a woman fitting the role of a doctor, journalist, even superhero? At the same time, these women hoped that one day they could fulfill these jobs. They hoped to break the stereotype of a woman only being capable of being a housewife, of taking care of the children. They no longer wanted to be only identified as an “ideal woman,” they wanted to create their own identities and be recognized for the people they wanted to be, for the roles that they wanted to play in society. The women wanted to be these “Women of the future,” they wanted to show that even though the idea seemed foolish at the time, a woman could indeed be a doctor, or anything they wanted to be.
