Culture

A Feminist Visual Content Analysis of College-Level Textile and Apparel Textbooks 1970s-2010: Intersections of Gender, Race, and Size

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Abstract

No scholars have examined the imagery or representations within our textbooks; therefore, with a feminist lens, this study asks who is represented or not represented in our textile and apparel textbooks? How are individuals represented? Have these representations changed over time? Lastly, how are gender differences portrayed? It is our goal to unearth and expose how scholars in our field chose to represent individuals in the texts, which are integral components to textile and apparel majors’ learning experience in the classroom. We ask these questions because these are the students who will enter the fashion industry to create and recreate images of beauty within fashion, media, advertising, and/or design. Our study is informed by the “feminist perspective” as we are “critically interrogating the texts” produced for our discipline to understand and disentangle representations that may influence how gender and beauty are recreated or redefined within the industry in the future (Leavy, 2007, p. 224).

How to Cite:

Reddy-Best, K. L. & Kane, L., (2015) “A Feminist Visual Content Analysis of College-Level Textile and Apparel Textbooks 1970s-2010: Intersections of Gender, Race, and Size”, International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference Proceedings 72(1).