Everyone wants to be like Rose in Titanic right? The glamour, the money, the clothes… it’s a little girl’s dream. It takes a lot to live out a dream though, it takes corsets. It takes money and means and professional tailors to be Rose Dewitt. She was a product of the time, much like the Gibson girl created by Charles Gibson from the late 1800s into the early 1900s.
The Gibson girl was who every woman wanted to be and who every man wanted to be with. She was the epitomy of femininity and grace, stature and poise; and she was still the absolute domestic goddess. She was forward thinking but not revolutionary, she was a suffragette but not a feminist. She combined her “fragile” femininity with voluptuous bust and hips, but remained a high class woman.
The Gibson girl was middle to high class, wore all the latest fashions, was athletic, and she could get a job. She was just free enough to look free, but still exist within her beautifully gilded cage. This made her attractive to both sexes, and to society.
Rose Dewitt is an example of a Gibson girl, though she might be a bit too in touch with her freedom for what society deemed acceptable. She’s politically minded, she’s feminine, she’s smart, and she shares her opinion. She’s strong-willed and she stands as an equal with the men in her life, even if they don’t accept it.
Links:
19 Reasons Rose From “Titanic” Is A Feminist Hero
Rose from “Titanic” Hairstyles
Rose’s Wardrobe from “Titanic”