Essay Instructions: An essay (2,000 words) presented in academic format, with bibliography and references.
Answer the following question:
"Fashion provides one of the most ready means through which individuals can make expressive visual statements about their identities". Bennett, A. (2005). Culture and Everyday Life. London: Sage. p. 96.
Discuss this statement with references to individual examples.
Include: Gender: Masculinity & Femininity, Androgyny
The answers should include:
- Reference to key themes, debates and concepts
- Referenced quotations (using Harvard referencing) from at least 4 academic texts - at least 2 of which should be from the unit Reader (NOTE: I will provide a Reading and Resource List on select chapter and not the whole book and not expected to read or use all of the suggested titles), use key quotes, judiciously, some longer ones, some shorter ones, sometimes just summarize/paraphrase key arguments with a citation.
- A critical analysis of examples
Presentation style:
- Ariel or Times New Roman
- Font size: 11 or 12
- Lines double-spaced
Reference key themes, debates and concepts raised in the unit Reader:
- For masculinity, explain/ write about the big theme of the 'Great Masculine Renunciation' Flugel (1930), develop this discussion with quotes from other writers e.g. Craik, Church-Gibson & Bennett, etc.
- Use Craik, Finkelstein, Breward, Wilson and Entwistle (all from the reading list) to explain the gendered 'separation of the spheres in the 19th century.
- Explain how men became responsible for public world of work, commerce and politics. Whilst women took the caring household role focusing on consumption and the domestic sphere.
- How did women dressed themselves and how their homes became an object of scrutiny 'the male gaze'. And how women became symbols of men's wealth, their husbands social status & respectability.
- Reference another big theme 'the gaze' and explain how the GMR & separation of the spheres created a new idea of masculinity and femininity in which women became the fashionable sex and the object of the look and men the bearer of the gaze.
- Another key theme is the debate about the extent to which men renounced Fashion completely or partially. - Flugel vs. Breward, Hollander (reading list).
- Discuss the extent to which men re-engaged with fashion in the late 20th century & its significance. - Mort & Nixon vs. Edwards (reading list).
- Define and use key words like: Fashion, Identity, Gender, Masculinity, Class, The Gaze, Representation, Subcultures, New Man, New Masculinities, Homo-social gaze.
- Discuss the struggle to wear bifurcated garments/trousers as a key part of the demands and dress practice of first wave feminists like Emily Bloomer - Wilson, Wilson and Taylor, Entwistle, Rouse (reading list)
- Discuss the debate between second and third wave feminists over the meaning of the stiletto heel covered by Elizabeth Wright (1989).
- Discuss about Jeffreys (2005) argument that fashion objectifies/oppresses women or whether 'new man' or metro-sexual images still challenge or subvert old macho man stereotypes.
Just a Suggested Structure of the essay
1. Intro - restate question and what it is cover: This essay will examine how fashion 'provides one of the most ready means to express 'masculinity (Bennett 2005: 96). In order to do this, firstly, I will explain how men came to 'renounce' fashion in the 19th century. Secondly, I will outline when and how men came to re-engage with fashion in the post-war period. In particular, focus on the role of subcultures and men's magazines. Finally, will conclude with an assessment of the impact of new 'man' on masculinity.
2. Development sections - covering history, theory, definitions as appropriate.
3. Final section - Conclusion (about 2 to 4 paragraphs) - sum up key arguments, refer back to and answer the question explicitly.
ESSAY CHECK list:
- The writer's voice (25% of the essay) can come in occasionally, mainly in the intro to explain what the essay will cover and in the conclusion.
- Cite the source of all ideas and be specific give facts not assertions/ assumptions.
I will include a reading list and powerpoint slides as referencing materials for any suggestion added to the essay.