Pushing the Bounds of Acceptability: Representations of the Modern Girl within Cuban Popular Culture, 1919–29

This paper focuses on the multiple representations of the Cuban modern girl as depicted by popular culture and the overall effects these representations had on young women coming of age in the 1920s.  Mixed messages regarding gender norms were often directly connected to international representations of the modern girl stemming from Hollywood films, European fashion trends, and U.S. consumption patterns.  Cuban popular culture accepted certain aspects of this international image, molding them into representations that became uniquely Cuban and therefore acceptable to mainstream society.  However, not all archetypes of the modern girl were representative of appropriate gendered behavior.  This paper focuses on the portrayals that classified the modern girl as sexually promiscuous.  These varied representations were at times condemning, and at others, praising of sexuality outside of marriage.  Thus, young women striving to become a modern girl were forced to decipher and negotiate through the mixed messages they encountered within Cuban popular culture.  This continual transformation empowered women as they maneuvered between modern representations of womanhood and Cuban notions of acceptable gendered behavior.