Despite her apparent disavowal of the overtly sexual Doreen, Esther's anxieties about sex continue to manifest through clothing, as evidenced by her attempt to cultivate a friendship with Betsy, a young virgin. woman from Kansas. If Doreen is the quintessential “bad girl,” then Betsy, nicknamed “Pollyanna Cowgirl” by Doreen, is the quintessential “good” girl, with her “bouncy blonde ponytail and Sweetheart-of-Sigma-Chi smile.” (6). As a young female model, Betsy “does” fashion properly, eventually becoming a model herself: after serving as a guest editor, Betsy became a “cover girl,” and Esther sometimes sees her “smiling in those ads.” woman of the PQ wears BH Wragge”. » (6). Betsy embodies – or at least seems to embody – a culturally sanctioned femininity through clothing, so Esther promises herself that she will be faithful to Betsy and “her innocent friends” and that she will abandon Doreen (22). While doing so, Esther attends the various fashion events and lunches held for young women working for the magazine, including the ill-fated Ladies' Day luncheon where all the young women except Doreen, who was at Coney Island with her boyfriend gorges himself on hot dogs and becomes seriously ill with food poisoning. Their symptoms become evident as Esther and Betsy sit together in a dark room, watching a Technicolor film featuring two women – one “good,” the other “sexy” (and therefore bad) – who wear “elegant suits in garish colors with orange stripes”. chrysanthemums the size of cabbage” and “dresses that look like Gone with the Wind.” As Esther realizes that “the good girl” will end up with the “nice football hero” and that the “hot girl” will stand up alone, she feels “in terrible danger of vomiting” (42). She...... middle of paper ...... nt. “Scoops of the month: the fashions of money in the bank.” Miss. January 1952: 92-95. Print.Smith, Caroline J. “‘The Food of Young Women’: Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, Mademoiselle Magazine and the Domestic Ideal.” » Collegiate Literature 37.4 (2010): 1-22. Web.Steele, Valérie. Fifty years of fashion: a new look for today. London and New Haven: Yale UP, 2000. Print. Stetz, Margaret D. ““A Language Spoken Everywhere”: Fashion Studies and English Studies. Working with English 5.1 (2009): 62-72. Web. Wagner-Martin, Linda. The Bell Jar, a novel from the 1950s. New York: Twayne, 1992. Print.Walker, Nancy A. Women's Magazine, 1940-1960: Gender Roles and the Popular Press. Bedford Series on History and Culture. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1998. Print. Wilson, Elizabeth. Adorned with dreams: fashion and modernity. 2nd ed. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 2003. Print.