Undressing an American icon: Addressing the representation of Calamity Jane through a critical study of her costume

This investigation studies Martha Jane Canary, known as Calamity Jane, with focus on her apparel, the buckskin outfit of a scout. This thesis looks at Calamity Jane’s costume because it was so seminal to her emergence as an American frontier icon. Unlike one-off costumes such as Dorothy’s ruby slippers or Marilyn Monroe’s JFK birthday dress, Calamity Jane’s costume re-occurred and was the determining factor in her rise to fame. What is innovative in this research is the use of critical costume theory as a methodology to revisit the history of Calamity Jane. This thesis considers Calamity Jane’s garments as a biographical construct, containing conceptual elements and acting essentially as a floating semiotic signifier representing: 1) a woman’s ability to survive in the frontier west; 2) its construction of relative freedom for women from normative social structures and; 3) cultural assumptions around what gender is and does. It is her costume that therefore elevated the figure of Calamity Jane to iconic proportions in western frontier mythology.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Level thesis:degree_level

Master's

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Interdisciplinary Studies

Grantor dc:publisher

Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina

Year dc:date.issued

2016

Author dc:creator

• McComb, Catherine Mary

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Irwin, Kathleen

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Pearce, Wes
• Belisle, Donica

Language dc:language.iso

en

DOI

https://doi.org/10.82465/4997

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:uregina.scholaris.ca:10294/7703