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Fashion and power: The representation of gender in store window displays

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Date Issued:
2005
Summary:
Fashion and dress have a complex relationship to identity. The clothes we choose to wear can express our identities in terms of gender, race, class, and/or sexuality, among other things. This study examines how gender, race, and class are used to interpellate primarily female shoppers through store window advertising in the city of London, England. Using a feminist cultural and media studies approach, I analyze eight store window display advertisements as texts, and how their portrayals of women are presented to consumers. This study concludes that stereotypical, degrading, humiliating and violating representations of women and femininity abound in store window displays. Women are most likely to be portrayed as sex objects and signs of beauty. By representing store mannequins in sexual and fetishized poses, advertisers commodify female sexuality by associating it closely with beautiful, young bodies and the trappings of a glitzy lifestyle.
Title: Fashion and power: The representation of gender in store window displays.
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Name(s): Barrett, Kami T.
Florida Atlantic University, Degree Grantor
Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Date Issued: 2005
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 133 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: Fashion and dress have a complex relationship to identity. The clothes we choose to wear can express our identities in terms of gender, race, class, and/or sexuality, among other things. This study examines how gender, race, and class are used to interpellate primarily female shoppers through store window advertising in the city of London, England. Using a feminist cultural and media studies approach, I analyze eight store window display advertisements as texts, and how their portrayals of women are presented to consumers. This study concludes that stereotypical, degrading, humiliating and violating representations of women and femininity abound in store window displays. Women are most likely to be portrayed as sex objects and signs of beauty. By representing store mannequins in sexual and fetishized poses, advertisers commodify female sexuality by associating it closely with beautiful, young bodies and the trappings of a glitzy lifestyle.
Identifier: 9780542385698 (isbn), 13288 (digitool), FADT13288 (IID), fau:10140 (fedora)
Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
Note(s): Adviser: Christine Scodari.
Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2005.
Subject(s): Business Administration, Marketing
Women's Studies
Mass Communications
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/13288
Sublocation: Digital Library
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author, with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.