Gender models

Changing representations and intersecting roles in Dutch and Italian fashion magazines, 1982-2011

Bibliographic Data

ID3620591
AuthorsGiselinde Kuipers (0000-0002-5767-1054, University of Amsterdam, corresponding author), Elise Van Der Laan (Independent Researcher, Utrecht, Netherlands), Elisa A G Arfini (0000-0002-3296-6083, University of Milan)
Year2017
Volume26
Issue6
Pages632-648
Publication date2017-11-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Gender Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0958-9236 • E-ISSN: 1465-3869
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/09589236.2016.1155435
OpenAlexW2380162299
LanguageEN
Citations received16
References cited35

This article presents a comparative content analysis of gender representation in fashion magazines in Italy and the Netherlands. Updating Goffman’s classic study of Gender Advertisements, we study the intersections of gender, professional role, country and time in media representation. Thus, we combine and confront quantitative content analysis with insights from critical gender studies on polysemy and intersectionality. Analyzing a sample of 5840 images from mainstream, commercial and high fashion magazines published in 1982, 1996 and 2011, we find that gender representation strongly intersects with time, place, and notably: professional role. Models, who represent the specific ‘aesthetic capital’ of the fashion field, are portrayed in highly specific ways. Over time, gender differences in representation become stronger in Italy, while in the Netherlands male and female representation converges towards conventionally ‘feminine’ styles. In both countries, we find increasing prominence of (North-American) Goffmanian gender conventions and a new ‘withdrawn’ gendered style emerging in the early 2000s. This new style employs new signs and conventions to denote gender and professional status: it separates men from women, and models from non-models. Our analysis shows, first, that gender representation does not directly reflect gender inequality. Second, it demonstrates the impact of globalization on gender representation. Third, it highlights the polysemy and cultural specificity of visual signs: gender difference can be ‘ritualized’ and ‘stylized’ in various ways. These diverse gendered conventions intersect with other characteristics, and may convey diverse, and changing messages about the relation between gender and sexuality, power, aesthetics and (visual) pleasure

Art · Gender history · Human sexuality · Intersectionality · Linguistics · Mainstream · Pleasure · Political science · Politics · Polysemy · Sociology · Stylized fact · Visual arts · Fashion and Cultural Textiles · Gender Studies · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · Media, Gender, and Advertising · Psychology

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Open DOISci-HubOpen Access