Fashion, Agency, and Empowerment

Fashion has always been strongly linked with the politics of gender and equality. In this global and interdisciplinary collection, leading authors explore the relationships between the dressed body, fashion, sex, and power, with an emphasis on the role of dress in both reinforcing and challenging social norms. Covering a range of geographic and social contexts, the book explores the role of fashion in empowering both individuals and groups to create transformation and change. Taking us from the performance of black dandyism through stylized hats, to the use of challenging dance forms and male-inspired dress by female South African dancers to express independence and equality, to ways in which recent Bond Girls have challenged traditional gender binaries, the book provides a crucial entry point into discussions of fashion as an empowerment strategy. Fashion, Agency, and Empowerment encourages the reader to critically examine the cultural and social impact of sexual objectification, as well as to consider personal and shared narratives of self-objectification and repression. With chapters ranging from the iconic self-fashioning of Princess Diana to a discussion of sex, power, and cultural constructions of masculinity, Fashion, Agency, and Empowerment provides crucial insights into global fashion, political structures, and social life.

Annette Lynch is the Director of the School of Applied Human Sciences and a professor of Textiles and Apparel at the University of Northern Iowa, USA.

Katalin Medvedev is a professor at the University of Georgia, USA.

List of Illustrations Notes on Contributors Introduction Fashion, Agency and Empowerment Annette Lynch and Katalin Medvedev Fashion as Challenge and Empowerment Chapter 1 The Beauty Divide: Black Millennial Women Seek Agency with Makeup Art Cosmetics (MAC) Jaleesa Reed and Katalin Medvedev Chapter 2 Kangol Kool: Stylized Hats and the Performance of Black Dandyism Derrick Williams Chapter 3 Challenging the Gender Binary in Bond Films: Bond Girls, Female Villains, and James Laureen Gibson Chapter 4 Menswear in the Millennium: Bending the Gender Binary Parker Bennett Dialogues between Dress and Structures of Power Chapter 5 High Flying Fashions: Ghana Airways' Female Flight Attendants as Exemplars of the Nation Christopher Richards Chapter 6 First Ladies of the Raj: Status and Empowerment in British India Donald Clay Johnson Chapter 7 The Lady was a Mshoza: Female Agency and Empowerment in South African Pantsula Dance and Culture Daniela Goeller Chapter 8 Penetrating Knits: Feminists Knit 'Cunty First' and 'The Pussyhat' Rebecca E. Schuiling and Theresa Winge Chapter 9 The Choli and the Empowerment of Indian Women Vandana Bhandari Narratives of Objectification and Self-Objectification Chapter 10 The Prowess of a Virgin Goddess and a Seductress: Analyzing the Ideals of Female Sexuality of Princess Diana and Kate Middleton Caroline McCauley Chapter 11 Dress and Sex Work - Attracting Customers through Virtual Environments Tasoulla Hadiyanni and Kim K. Johnson Chapter 12 Stripping of Power: Dress and Undress of Afro-Brazilian Women in the Scientific Work of Louis and Elizabeth Agassiz Kelly Mohs Gage Chapter 13 Turning Self to Object: Costume, Identity, and Gender Roles in Alice Austen's Photographic Self-Portraits Keren Ben-Horin Bibliography Index