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Distributed for Intellect Ltd

Fashion, Women and Power

The Politics of Dress

A critique of the politics of dress for women in power.

What is the relationship between fashion, women, and power? As never before, women in positions of political power find themselves facing the maelstroms of mass media regarding both their fashion and their right to govern. In this book, contributors offer a wide set of perspectives on women and their fashions when taking up powerful positions in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States as well as emerging women leaders in Asia. This book questions the relationship between women and dress and interrogates how this conversation informs and articulates how women are viewed when taking up public office. The book critiques the interplays between politics, power, class, race, and social expectations concerning the politics of getting dressed. 

235 pages | 24 color plates, 7 halftones | 6.69 x 9.61 | © 2021

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Reviews

"The anthology grew out of a 2018 seminar on the politics of dress held at the University of Adelaide, South Australia, and almost all of the contributors are Australian. The ‘down under’ perspective, which looks to Asia as well as to the West, is refreshing. [...] This anthology contains many compelling glimpses of the ways the media has treated female politicians and the way individual women have found to negotiate their fashion choices. [...] A valuable work. Theoretical perspectives are offered, the case studies are informative and several of the essays offer frameworks for looking at fashion in political context. While readers will have to do their own synthesis, the composite look at the impact of the media is both important and instructive. Similarly, the composite bibliography – found in the introduction and the separate essays – is extensive and will prove helpful to future scholars."
 

Beverly Gordon, Fashion, Style & Popular Culture

Table of Contents

Overview

Denise N. Rall

Section I: Theoretical Approaches to Women in Leadership and Political Fashion
Denise N. Rall with Jo Turney

Case Studies I: Gender, Politics & Identity: Lessons from Past and Present

Chapter 1. Rational Dress ‘As an Expression of the Fin-de-Siecle Aspiration Towards Equality of the Sexes’

Madeleine Seys

 

Chapter 2. Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand Premier: Fashion and performing gender

Sarah Baker

 

 Chapter 3. An Empress’s Wardrobe Unlock’d: Empress Masako and Japan’s Princess Fashions

Emerald L. King and Megan Rose

 

Case Studies II. Making Politics through Fashion

  

Chapter 4. Women Politicians, Fashion, and the Media in Australia from Enid Lyons to Julia Gillard

Amanda Laugesen

 

Chapter 5. Dressing up two Democratic First Ladies: Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama

Denise N. Rall, Jo Coghlan, Lisa J. Hackett and Annita Boyd

 

Chapter 6. Codes of Power: Transforming the Dress and Appearance of female Asian politicians
Jennifer Craik and Anne Peirson-Smith

 

Case Studies III. Women and Power: Social Media, Politics and Resistance

 Chapter 7. Leopard in Kitten Heels: The politics of Theresa May’s sartorial choices
Rachel Evans

 

Chapter 8. Felix Siauw: Storyteller, Preacher and Profiteer: Fashioning a New Brand of Islam in Indonesia

Rheinhard Sirait

 

Chapter 9. All Dressed in Black: decoding the gendered liminal appearance of protest in Hong Kong

Anne Peirson-Smith and Jennifer Craik

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