Cabaret

The Modern German Woman
Group of German female
athletes, 1929
In 1929, the popular magazine,
Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung
published an article about leg
posture.
“The person…who grows up in
the milieu of high metropolitan
culture keeps a tight rein on her
or his bodily gestures and controls
the expression of her or his
movements as well as her or his
facial gestures; she or he “wears a
theatrical mask.” …Only the legs
have thus far escaped this already
unconscious restraining
compulsion. The practice of
crossing the legs below the knee
indicates quarrelsomeness, but
ready appeaseability, hot
temperement and volatility. Must
be led by a strong hand…Legs
held in a rigorously parallel
position speak for particular
suitability for marriage,
adaptability, inner restraint.
In 1927, the Berlin bourgeois newspaper, the 8-Uhr-
Abendblatt, claimed,
“Today three women stand before us. The three types:
Gretchen, Girl, Garçonne. The Gretchen type is not
only the young naïve German girl with braids and a
knitting-needle horizon, it is also the heroic and
militaristic ranting fascist woman. …Sexually powerless,
personally passive, this type as a group is a historical
hindrance, is the stumbling block of every historically
urgent development. Allied with the church and
reaction, she has an optimistic attitude toward life, that is
not, however, productive. …The Girl, originating in
America as the child of pioneers and immigrants, is
aware from the beginning that you can rely only on
yourself, and that getting ahead is the sole guarantee that
you won’t rot. …A daring athlete, sexy but without sizzle
—rather cooly calculating—she succeeds whenever she
encounters the sexually bourgeois man of the old
school. …The Garçonne type cannot be grasped by
language… [Her] combination of fifty to fifty [percent]
sexual and intellectual potency often gives rise to
conflict…[T]he most significant one in this group: the
business- and life-artist. Uniting a sporting, comradely
male entrepreneurial sense with heroic, feminine
devotion, this synthesis—if successful—often makes her
so superior to the man she loves that she becomes
troublesome”
Maurice Tabard, Hand and
Woman, 1929
Maurice Tabard: French
photographer known for his ability
to create highly complex images. In
1928 he moved to Paris, intending
to work as a fashion photographer,
and met Man Ray, who taught him
the technique of solarization. He
also became a friend of Ren?
Magritte and the French Surrealist
writer Phillipe Soupault
(1897-1990).
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