a queer, sultry summer.

it was a queer, sultry summer the summer they electrocuted the rosenbergs. (plath)

i started reading the bell jar by sylvia plath. the above is the opening line of the tale. i will enjoy it, i can tell. i will enjoy it primarily because it takes place in the 1950s & i am subtly obssessed with the era, for the time being. i took a cultural studies seminar this summer entitled, i like ike, but i love lucy: women, popular culture, and the 1950s. for my final paper, i wrote a semiotic analysis of christian dior's 1947 fashion line that he called "the new look." briefly, the new look marked a return to femininity following a more masucline, dare i say, genderbending aesthetic of wartime women. there are a few journals out there that deal exclusively in fashion theory and i will make it my mission to keep up with them. one noteable editor is named valerie steele who is the chief curator at the museum at FIT. she sometimes writes for mass media publications (elle, vogue, etc.) so note well if you ever see her name in print.

so in reading plath's tale, i imagine the central character sporting bell skirts, bustiers, & pale pastels.

in class, the professor brought in the son and granddaughter of the rosenbergs to give a talk to the class--robert and jennifer meeropol. jennifer attended harvard as wrote her women's studies thesis on the rosenberg trial. i also learned that the adoptive father of robert meerpol/rosenberg wrote the billie holliday popularize song "strange fruit" about lynching.