Fashion and Feminism: The Politics of Dress WGS 300: Spring 2011

Mon & Wed 12:45 2:05 Archbold 203

Instructor: Sarah Miraglia Office: 208 Bowne Hall Office Hours: Mon, Tues, Wed by appt Phone: 443-8092 skmiragl@syr.edu

Course Description The materiality of fashion is something more than the fabric and textiles that go into the clothes we wear. Fashion exists through relations that transcend the borders of the nation-state as well as borders created through race, class, gender, and sexual hierarchies. Through course readings, films, news columns and web site analyses, we will explore fashion as sartorial practice and as a relationship of privilege, power and inequality. Working through the idea that the personal is political, well analyze our own fashionable selves in relation to a global political economy of fashion. Looking at fashion as identity, fashion as social relations, fashion as structure/process and resistances to hegemonic fashion(s), we will identify and critique the micro and macro level politics of fashion and dress.

Reading Schedule All Readings Are Available Through Blackboard Week 1 Introductions Wed, Jan 19 First Day of Class: Introduction to Course Week 2 A Political Economy of Fashion Mon, Jan 24 Enloe. (1983). We Are What We Wear: The Dilemma of the Feminist Consumer in Of Common Cloth: Women in the Global Textile Industry. Chapkis & Enloe, Eds. Transnational Institute (pgs. 115-119).
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Wed, Jan 26 Braham. (2007). Fashion: Unpacking a Cultural Production in Fashion Theory: A Reader. Barnard, Ed. Routledge (pgs. 351-371). Week 3 Fashioning the Social Mon, Jan 31 Finkelstein. (1991). Fashionability in The Fashioned Self. Temple University Press (pgs. 130-152). Wed, Feb 2 Craik. (1994). The face of fashion: Technical bodies and technologies of the self in The Face of Fashion: Cultural Studies in Fashion. Routledge (pgs. 1-16). Wilson. (2007) Excerpt: Introduction: Adorned in Dreams in Fashion Theory: A Reader. Barnard, Ed. Routledge (pgs. 393-397).

Week 4 Producers, Consumers and the Relational Politics of Fashion Mon, Feb 7 Gardner. (1984). A Paradise of Fashion: A. T. Stewarts Department Store, 1862 1875 in A Needle, A Bobbin, A Strike: Women Needleworkers in America. Jensen and Davidson, Eds. (pgs. 60-80). Wed, Feb 9 McRobbie. (1999). Bridging the Gap: Feminism, Fashion and Consumption in In the Culture Society: Art, fashion and popular music. Routledge (pgs. 31-45). Week 5 Fashion and Class Relations Mon, Feb 14 Partington. (2007). Excerpt: Popular Fashion and Working-Class Affluence in Fashion Theory: A Reader. Barnard, Ed. Routledge (pgs. 220-231). Wed, Feb 16 Clemente. (2006). Striking Ensembles: The Importance of Clothing on the Picket Line. Labor Studies Journal 30(4): 1-15. Week 6 Dress and Resistance Mon, Feb 21 hooks. (1992). Is Paris Burning? in Black Looks: Race and Representation. South End Press (pgs. 145-156).

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o Film: Paris is Burning, 1990 Wed, Feb 23 Ramirez. (2002). Crimes of Fashion: The Pachuca and Chicana Style Politics. Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism 2(2): 1-35. Week 7 Fashion and Saviorism Mon, Feb 28 Ahmed. (2005). The Veil Debate Again in On Shifting Ground: Muslim Women in the Global Era. Nouraie-Simone, Ed. CUNY Press (pgs. 153-171). Mernisi. (2007). Size 6: The Western Womens Harem in Gender Relations in Global Perspective: Essential Readings. Nancy Cook, Ed. (pgs. 147-151).

Wed, March 2 Fluri. (2009). The beautiful other: a critical examination of western representations of Afghan feminine corporeal modernity. Gender, Place & Culture 16(3): 241-257. NPR: Subjects of Kabul Beauty School Face New Risks

Week 8 Global Beauty Culture(s) Mon, March 7 Glenn. (2008). Yearning for Lightness: Transnational Circuits in the Marketing and Consumption of Skin Lighteners. Gender and Society 22: 281-302. NY Times: Black Hair, Still Tangled in Politics

Wed, March 9 Alegi. (2008). Rewriting Patriarchal Scripts: Women, Labor, and Popular Culture in South African Clothing Industry Beauty Contests, 1970s-2005. Journal of Social History 42(1): 31-56. Week 9 Spring Break: No Classes

Week 10 Fashion and Appropriation Mon, March 21 Parezo. (1999). The Indian Fashion Show in Unpacking Culture: Art and Commodity in Colonial and Postcolonial Worlds. Bliss Phillips and Burghard Steiner, Eds. University of California Press (pgs. 243-264).
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Wed, March 23 Bhattacharyya. (2002). Fashion in A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies. Goldberg and Solomon, Eds. Blackwell Publishers, Ltd. (pgs. 416-422). Puwar. (2002). Multicultural fashionstirrings of another sense of aesthetics and memory. Feminist Review 71: 63-87.

Week 11 Globalizing Fashion Production Mon, March 28 Collins. (2003). The Emergence of a 21st Century Apparel Industry in Threads: Gender, Labor, and Power in the Global Apparel Industry. University of Chicago Press (pgs. 27-61). Wed, March 30 Enloe. (2000). Blue Jeans and Bankers in Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics. University of California Press (pgs. 151176). o Film: China Blue, 2007 Week 12 Transnational Power Brokers Mon, April 4 Rosen. (2002). Apparel Retailing in the United States: From Mom-and-Pop Shop to Transnational Corporation in Making Sweatshops: The Globalization of the U.S. Apparel Industry. University of California Press (pgs. 177-201). Wed, April 6 Skoggard. (1998). Transnational Commodity Flows and the Global Phenomenon of the Brand in Consuming Fashion: Adorning the Transnational Body. Berg (pgs. 57-70). Marx. (2007) The Fetishism of the Commodity in Fashion Theory: A Reader. Barnard, Ed. Routledge (pgs. 347-350).

Week 13 Fashioning a Commodity Chain Mon, April 11 Ramamurthy. (2004). Why is Buying a Madras Cotton Shirt a Political Act? A Feminist Commodity Chain Analysis? Feminist Studies 30(3): 734-769. Wed, April 13
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Leslie. (2002). Gender, Retail Employment and the Clothing Commodity Chain. Gender, Place and Culture 9(1): 61-76.

Week 14 Consumer Citizenship and the Politics of Transnational Protest Mon, April 18 Brooks. (2007). The Ideal of Transnational Organizing in Unraveling the Garment Industry: transnational organizing and womens work. University of Minnesota Press (pgs. 54-81). Wed, April 20 Brooks. (2007). Epilogue: Gender and the Work of Branding in Unraveling the Garment Industry: transnational organizing and womens work. University of Minnesota Press (pgs. 163-172). Esbenshade. (2004). Conclusion: Workers, Consumers, and Independent Monitoring in Monitoring Sweatshops: Workers, Consumers, and the Global Apparel Industry. Temple University Press (pgs 198-208).

Week 15 Fashioning Resistance Mon, April 25 Ching Yoon Louie. (2001). Just in Time: Guerilla Warriors in Sweatshop Warriors: Immigrant Women Workers Take on the Global Factory. South End Press (pgs. 215-246). o Film: Made in LA, 2007 Wed, April 27 Hale. (1996). The Deregulated Global Economy: Women Workers and Strategies of Resistance. Gender and Development 4(3): 8-15. Week 16: Final Thoughts Mon, May 2 Bonacich and AppelBaum. (2000). Afterword: The Larger Questions in Behind the Label: Inequality in the Los Angeles Apparel Industry. University of California Press (pgs. 317-320). Last Day of Class: Wrap-Up and Review

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Course Assignments
Essay 1 (6-8 pgs) 15% Due: Friday, March 11th by Midnight Essays are due at the beginning of class on the due date. Papers received after that time will incur a 5 point grade reduction. An additional 5 point deduction will be assessed for each day that the paper is late. Essay assignments will be handed out an appropriate time during the semester. Essay 2 (8-10pgs) 20% Due: Friday, May 6th by Midnight Essays are due at the beginning of class on the due date. Papers received after that time will incur a 5 point grade reduction. An additional 5 point deduction will be imposed for each day that the paper is late. Essay assignments will be handed out an appropriate time during the semester. Final Project 20% The final project for this class involves forming groups, and illustrating one of the concepts from class through a feminist fashion show. Details for the final project will be handed out at an appropriate time during the semester. You must plan to be present for the final exam time allotted for this class: Friday, May 6th, 10:15 12:15. Small Group Presentations 15% This assignment involves working in groups of 3, which you will sign up for based on your interest in a particular topic (a separate sign-up sheet will be handed out in class). As a group, you will decide on a topic from the readings assigned for the day of your presentation. Once a topic is chosen, you and your group will decide on a creative way to discuss or illustrate the topic. You should think creatively about this assignment (make use of a film clip, an advertisement, a product, etc), and plan for a 15 20 minute presentation that thoroughly and accurately analyzes the topic chosen by the group. Your presentation SHOULD NOT consist of a summary of the reading(s). Presentations will be graded with the following criteria in mind: a) a clear demonstration of collaborative effort; b) creativity and originality; c) an accurate and insightful feminist analysis; and d) the extent of your groups engagement with class readings and discussions.

Blackboard Discussion Board (5 Total) 10%

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This assignment will be comprised of your responses to a total of 5 questions posed by the instructors via a Blackboard function labeled Discussion Board. There will be one question posted by the instructors for each day of readings. You will need to log onto your Blackboard account and post an informed response on 5 different days. Your responses are due by the beginning of class for each reading question that you respond to. These responses should not be a summary of the readings; they should address the question posed by the instructors in no more than two paragraphs. Your responses may be used by one of the instructors during class discussions and you should feel welcome to raise points from your responses. Late responses will not be accepted.
Attendance & Participation 20%

Attendance is mandatory for this class. You are allowed to miss up to 2 days of class FOR ANY REASON. Any absences beyond the 2 you are allotted will result in a reduction of your attendance grade by 2 points per missed day. This means that you will lose all attendance points for missing 5 or more days beyond the 2 you are allotted. It is your responsibility to keep track of your attendance. Participation must be earned, and will be assessed in a number of ways. I will be looking for you to be attentive during class meetings: slouching in your seat, talking to your classmates, sleeping, and/or general inattentiveness will not earn participation points. You should come to class having done the readings (and with them in hand), and prepared to offer discussion points and/or questions. Participation will also be measured through the active engagement of in-class assignments and exercises. Missed in-class activities cannot be made up. Finally, the use of electronic devices (laptops, cell phones, etc) is not permitted during class, unless there is a documented need. The use of an electronic device during class will result in 2 points being reduced from your participation grade for each infraction. *The assignment policies discussed above are firm, and non-negotiable except in emergency cases, which will be decided upon at the discretion of the instructors. General Notes on Class Conduct I regard the classroom as a serious space for learning. Classroom disruptions, including talking during lectures, talking while classmates are addressing the class, using cell phones to text, and any other actions that are contrary to thoughtful participation, are not acceptable. I welcome and encourage discussion in the class and am happy to have you disrupt lectures with meaningful contributions or questions so long as they are respectable and pertinent to the class. Speaking out of turn, disrupting classmates and general rudeness wont be tolerated.
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Plagiarism Policy The Syracuse University Academic Integrity Policy holds students accountable for the integrity of the work they submit. Students should be familiar with the Policy and know that it is their responsibility to learn about instructor and general academic expectations with regard to proper citation of sources in written work. The policy also governs the integrity of work submitted in exams and assignments as well as the veracity of signatures on attendance sheets and other verifications of participation in class activities. Academic dishonesty of any sort will not be tolerated in this course; you will earn a zero and/or a failing grade. Please review the policy at http://academicintegrity.syr.edu. Disability Policy Students with any special needs should see me as soon as possible. I will make all appropriate accommodations to ensure that this is a valuable class for you. If you have special academic accommodation needs, please feel free to contact me or visit the website of Disability Services at http://disabilityservices.syr.edu/

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