WGSS 17 The Politics of Fashion
Clothes are a medium for fashioning identities from commodities, and it is hardly surprising that political and social tensions are embodied in its fabrications. The politics of dress indicates inseparable links between aesthetics and politics, as demonstrated in debates about Muslim practices of veiling, the role of clothing in colonialism’s “civilizing” mission, immigrant and “third world” sweatshop labor, fashion policing and subcultural style, and the fashion and modeling industries. Clearly manifest throughout these politics is the role of gender, race, nation, and sexuality, as relations of power and as critical factors for social life and creative imagination.
Department-Specific Course Categories
Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies