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GENDERQUEER FASHION MODELS AND THEIR REPRESENTATIONS OF GENDER IN VISUAL CULTURE.
Anna Germaine Hickey
BCI Visual Art, Hons.
Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy (Fashion)
School of Design
Queensland University of Technology
2019
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Genderqueer fashion models and their representations of gender in visual culture. i
Keywords
Fashion models
Cultural intermediaries
Fashion
Gender
Queer
Genderqueer fashion models
Transgender fashion models
Andreja Pejić
Casey Legler
Hari Nef
Richie Shazam Khan
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Genderqueer fashion models and their representations of gender in visual culture. ii
Abstract
The rise and success of genderqueer fashion models in the twenty-‐
first century indicates wider sociopolitical movements that promote
equality for members of genderqueer communities. Many high-‐profile
genderqueer fashion models build their careers on their gender identity
and are vocal on gender rights issues, which gives them a political
identity. However, these models also embody key tensions in
contemporary gender discourse, as their queer identities are both made
visible and commodified through fashion modelling. For example, while
their queer identities challenge persistent associations between
cisnormative femininity and beauty, these models have also been
criticised for reinforcing heteronormative beauty ideals. And while
including genderqueer fashion models is widely interpreted as heralding
a more socially inclusive industry, their presence might also be read as a
passing trend.
Drawing on Judith Butler’s ([1990] 1999) notion of ‘troubling
gender’ and Pierre Bourdieu’s (1984) notion of ‘cultural intermediation’,
this project examines the contemporary genderqueer fashion model by
analysing fashion editorials, commercial endorsements, artistic outputs
and journalistic coverage. Specifically, it focuses on the ways in which
four models—Andreja Pejić, Hari Nef, Casey Legler and Richie Shazam
Khan—construct and communicate contemporary notions of gender via
their work in the fashion-‐modelling industry. This project argues that
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Genderqueer fashion models and their representations of gender in visual culture. iii
genderqueer fashion models make contemporary ideas of gender visible,
offering a new aesthetic language of gender and validating gender
nonconformity in visual culture. In addition, the project proposes that
genderqueer fashion models make their diverse gender identities
culturally and economically valuable as they become increasingly visible
in mainstream channels of visual culture, thus contributing to the wider
discourse of gender politics. An interrogation of how ‘queer’ gender,
supposedly an inclusive, emancipatory concept against cisnormative
gender, also interplays with race and ethnicity, class/social status,
educational level, or even the subjects’ bodily capital and attention
capital in the context of the fashion modelling industry, forms part of
the theoretical contribution of this research.
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Genderqueer fashion models and their representations of gender in visual culture. iv
Contents
Keywords ............................................................................................................... i
Abstract ................................................................................................................. ii
Contents ............................................................................................................... iv
List of Figures ....................................................................................................... vii
List of Tables .......................................................................................................... x
Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations .................................................................... xi
Statement of Original Authorship ..................................................................... xviii
Acknowledgements ............................................................................................ xix
A Note on Language ............................................................................................. xx
Chapter 1: Introduction ......................................................................................... 1
Research Question ................................................................................................................... 5
Aims………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….… 9 Framing the genderqueer fashion model .................................................................... 10 Studying images of fashion .......................................................................................... 16
Gap in Literature and Significance of Research ..................................................................... 20
Limitations ............................................................................................................................. 21
Chapter 2: Methodology ...................................................................................... 25
Case Study Methodology ....................................................................................................... 26
Interpretive Analysis .............................................................................................................. 30
Data Selection ........................................................................................................................ 36
Internet-‐Mediated Research ................................................................................................. 38
Case Study Structure .............................................................................................................. 44
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 45
Chapter 3: Gender and the Fashion Model in History ........................................... 47
Gender and the Fashion Model ............................................................................................. 48
Modelling Masculinity ........................................................................................................... 62
The Fashion Model at the End of the Twentieth Century ...................................................... 66
A Conceptual Shift Away from the Gender Binary ................................................................. 72
Queer Theory ......................................................................................................................... 79
The Contemporary Fashion Model Emerges ......................................................................... 82
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 86
Chapter 4: The Contemporary and Genderqueer Fashion Model .......................... 88
The Genderqueer Fashion Model Emerges ........................................................................... 89
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Genderqueer fashion models and their representations of gender in visual culture. v
Celebrity Culture ................................................................................................................... 90
Fashion Models as Cultural Intermediaries ........................................................................... 93
The Conditions of Genderqueer Fashion Models’ Visibility ................................................ 103 Cultural whiteness ..................................................................................................... 104 The privileged liberal gaze ......................................................................................... 108 Can there really be ‘post-‐gender’ performances? .................................................... 112
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 120
Chapter 5: Andreja Pejić .................................................................................... 123
Troubling Gender ................................................................................................................ 128 Performing the norms: Femininity ............................................................................ 128 Performing the norms: Masculinity .......................................................................... 132 Performing ambiguity ............................................................................................... 135 Settling in to femininity as a womenswear model .................................................... 151
Pejić as Cultural Intermediary: Pre-‐Transition ..................................................................... 154
Pejić as Cultural Intermediary: Post-‐Transition ................................................................... 163
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 177
Chapter 6: Casey Legler ..................................................................................... 184
Troubling Gender ................................................................................................................ 187 Performing as a male model ..................................................................................... 188 Performing non-‐normative femininity ...................................................................... 197 Collective troubling ................................................................................................... 208
Legler as Cultural Intermediary ........................................................................................... 217
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 230
Chapter 7: Hari Nef ............................................................................................ 232
Troubling Gender ................................................................................................................ 234 Troubling gender through fluid aesthetics ................................................................ 235 Using the body + collective troubling ........................................................................ 238 Normative femininity as troubling ............................................................................ 240
Nef as Cultural Intermediary ............................................................................................... 247 Cultural mediation through creative works and collaborations ................................ 256
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 261
Chapter 8: Richie Shazam Khan .......................................................................... 263
Troubling Gender ................................................................................................................ 265
Khan as Cultural Intermediary ............................................................................................. 278
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 284
Chapter 9: Discussion and Conclusion ................................................................ 287
Findings ............................................................................................................................... 292 Intersectionality ........................................................................................................ 296 Transgender models and the reinforcement of binary aesthetics ............................ 300 Trend or incremental change in advanced capitalism .............................................. 302
Contribution to Knowledge ................................................................................................. 305
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Genderqueer fashion models and their representations of gender in visual culture. vi
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 307 Future research ......................................................................................................... 308
Bibliography ...................................................................................................... 311
Appendices ........................................................................................................ 324
Appendix A : “The right face at the right time” i-‐D online 2014, photographed by Daniel Jackson, stylist Alistair McKimm .......................................................................................... 324
Appendix B : “Chanel” editorial in Exit Magazine Fall/Winter 2015, photographed by Santiago and Mauricio Sierra, fashion editor and stylist Michaela Dosamantes ................. 331
Appendix C : Hari Nef and Andres Velencoso in “Honeymoon”, CANDY Magazine January 2017,photographed by Sebastian Faena, fashion editor and stylist Sofia Achaval ............. 335
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Genderqueer fashion models and their representations of gender in visual culture. vii
List of Figures
Figure 1.1: (top left) Andreja Pejić for Vogue Australia April 2018 ......................................... 8
Figure 1.2: (top right) Casey Legler for Numero Homme Spring/Summer 2018 ..................... 8
Figure 1.3: (bottom left) Hari Nef for CANDY Magazine #10 2017 ......................................... 8
Figure 1.4: (bottom right) Richie Shazam Khan for Dazed Digital February 2016 ................... 8
Figure 3.1: Edward Steichen (American, 1879‒1973), Marion Morehouse in Madeleine Cheruit (French, 1887‒1936). Vogue 1 May 1927 ............................................................... 55
Figure 3.2: Irving Penn (American, b.1917) The twelve most photographed models Vogue 1 May 1947; Meg Mundy, Marilyn Ambrose, Helen Bennett, Dana Jenney, Betty Mclauchlen, Lisa Fonssagrives, Lily Carlson, Dorian Leigh, Andrea Johnson, Elizabeth Gibbons, Kay Hernan and Muriel Maxwell .................................................................................................. 58
Figure 3.3: Twiggy in Yves Saint Laurent for Vogue April 1967, shot by Bert Stern (American, b. 1929) ................................................................................................................................. 59
Figure 3.4: Versace Spring 1994 campaign, shot by Richard Avedon, featuring Christy Turlington, Nadja Auermann, Cindy Crawford, Stephanie Seymour and Claudia Schiffer .... 67
Figure 3.5: Calvin Klein CK one fragrance advertising campaign, Steven Meisel 1994 ......... 70
Figure 3.6: Gisele Bündchen in the 2005 Victoria’s Secret show .......................................... 84
Figure 5.1: Pejić in Jean Paul Gaultier Spring 2012 Couture show, Look 41 ........................ 130
Figure 5.2: HEMA advertisement 2011 for ‘Mega Push-‐Up Bra’ ......................................... 131
Figure 5.3: Pejić in “Things are going to change” i-‐D November 2010, photographed by Thomas Lohr ........................................................................................................................ 135
Figure 5.4: “Gold digger” in Dazed & Confused April 2011 photographed by Anthony Maule, styled by Robbie Spencer .................................................................................................... 139
Figure 5.5: Cover of Dossier Magazine May 2011, photographed by Collier Shorr ............ 141
Figure 5.6: Jean Paul Gaultier Fall 2011 menswear, Look 2, 25, 44 ..................................... 144
Figure 5.7: Jean Paul Gaultier Spring 2011 Couture ............................................................ 145
Figure 5.8: Images from “Victor/Victoria” in Elle Serbia January 2013, photographed by Dusan Reljin, styled by Lauren Bensky ................................................................................ 147
Figure 5.9: Images from Nathan Paul Swimwear campaign, Summer 2012/2013 .............. 149
Figure 5.10: Andreja Pejić in Giles Deacon Fall 2015 show, Look 4/31 ............................... 152
Figure 5.11: “Andreja Pejić: All about that girl”, i-‐D 2015, photographed by Cass Bird ...... 169
Figure 5.12: Cover of GQ Portugal March 2017, photographed by Branislav Simoncik ...... 172
Figure 6.1: Casey Legler photographed by Julian Broad for Observer Magazine March 2013189
Figure 6.2: All Saints Spring 2013 “Portraits of a collection” campaign, photographed by Roger Rich ............................................................................................................................ 189
Figure 6.3: Michael Bastian Fall 2013, Look 30/34 ................................................. 190
Figure 6.4: Excerpts from “Out with the boys” featuring Candice Swanepoel, Casey Legler and Erika Linder, photographed by Cass Bird, published in Muse 2012 .............................. 192
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Genderqueer fashion models and their representations of gender in visual culture. viii
Figure 6.5: Linder, Legler and Swanepoel (left to right) in “Out with the boys”, photographed by Cass Bird, published in Muse 2012 .......................................................... 193
Figure 6.6: Casey Legler for Diesel, F/W 2013, photographed by Inez and Vinoodh ........... 196
Figure 6.7: Legler in “YSL”, Vogue Italia July 2017, photographed by Craig McDean .......... 199
Figure 6.8: Tahnee Atkinson in THE UPSIDE’S “Be you” campaign ...................................... 201
Figure 6.9: Legler in “Be you” 2015 campaign, THE UPSIDE, photographed by Jez Smith .. 201
Figure 6.10: Legler in “Be you” 2015 campaign, THE UPSIDE, photographed by Jez Smith 201
Figure 6.11: Legler in “Be you” 2015 campaign, THE UPSIDE, photographed by Jez Smith 202
Figure 6.12: Casey Legler in “Double vision” for FourTwoNine Magazine 2013, photographed by Michael Donovan .................................................................................... 204
Figure 6.13: Casey Legler and Jonjon Battles in “Double vision” for FourTwoNine magazine 2013, photographed by Michael Donovan .......................................................................... 205
Figure 6.14: Casey Legler and Jonjon Battles in “Double vision” for FourTwoNine magazine 2013, photographed by Michael Donovan .......................................................................... 206
Figure 6.15: Andreja Pejić (left) and Casey Legler (right) in “Liberdade De Escolha”, Vogue Brasil June 2013, photographed by Mario Testino .............................................................. 209
Figure 6.16: Legler in “Girls like us”, published in Modern Weekly (China) Fall/Winter 2014, photographed by Txema Yeste ............................................................................................ 212
Figure 6.17: Left to right: Irina K, Marcel Castenmiller, Casey Legler and Chiharu Okunugi, i-‐D online 2014, photographed by Daniel Jackson, stylist Alistair McKimm .......................... 215
Figure 7.1: Nef walking in Hood By Air SS15 runway, NYFW Spring 2015 ........................... 236
Figure 7.2: Nef walking in Eckhaus Latta S/S15 runway ...................................................... 236
Figure 7.3: Nef in the Gucci Men’s wear AW 2016 Ready-‐to-‐wear runway ........................ 236
Figure 7.4: Nef in H&M Studio AW 2016 Ready-‐to-‐wear runway ....................................... 236
Figure 7.5: Dakota Johnson, Hari Nef and Petra Collins in Gucci Bloom campaign image, August 2017, photographed by Glen Luchford .................................................................... 237
Figure 7.6: Hari Nef in The Travel Almanac Autumn/Winter 2017, photographed by Julia Hetta… ................................................................................................................................. 237
Figure 7.7: “Chanel” editorial in Exit Magazine Fall/Winter 2015, photographed by Santiago and Mauricio Sierra, fashion editor and stylist Michaela Dosamantes ............................... 239
Figures 7.8: “Chanel” editorial in Exit Magazine Fall/Winter 2015, photographed by Santiago and Mauricio Sierra, fashion editor and stylist Michaela Dosamantes ................. 240
Figure 7.9: Hari Nef in Adam Selman AW15 Ready-‐to-‐wear runway .................................. 241
Figure 7.10: Hari Nef in Mansur Gavriel 2016 campaign, photographed by Tanya and Zhenya Posternak ................................................................................................................ 242
Figure 7.12: Excerpts from Hari Nef and Andres Velencoso in “Honeymoon”, CANDY Magazine January 2017, photographed by Sebastian Faena, fashion editor and stylist Sofia Achaval ................................................................................................................................ 246
Figure 8.1: Richie Shazam in “Richie Shaϟam”, Bullett Magazine December 2015, photographed by Oscar Ouk ................................................................................................ 266
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Genderqueer fashion models and their representations of gender in visual culture. ix
Figure 8.2: Richie Shazam in “Richie Shaϟam”, Bullett Magazine December 2015, photographed by Oscar Ouk ............................................................................................... 267
Figure 8.3: Richie Shazam in VFiles SS16 runway wearing Moses Gauntlett Cheng ................................................................................................................................. 268
Figure 8.4: (Top left) Richie Shazam Khan in Ashish SS 2017 Ready-‐to-‐wear runway, NYFW269
Figure 8.5: (Top right) Richie Shazam Khan in Barragan SS 2017 Ready-‐to-‐wear runway, NYFW…….. ........................................................................................................................... 269
Figure 8.6: (Bottom left) Richie Shazam Khan in Rachel Comey SS 2017 Ready-‐to-‐wear runway ................................................................................................................................. 269
Figure 8.7: (Bottom right) Richie Shazam Khan in Lou Dallas FW 2017 runway, Office Magazine 2017 .................................................................................................................... 269
Figure 8.8: Richie Shazam Khan in excerpts from photo series for Dazed & Confused online February 2016, photographed by Dicko Chan ..................................................................... 272
Figure 8.9: “Richie at my studio #24”, by Terry Richardson ................................................ 274
Figure 8.10: “Richie Shazam and Candy Ken at my studio #1”, by Terry Richardson Figure 8.11: Richie Shazam at my studio #2”, by Terry Richardson ............................................... 274
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Genderqueer fashion models and their representations of gender in visual culture. x
List of Tables
Table 1: Characteristics of gender binary ............................................................................... xv
Table 2.1: Case study social media network size (as of November 2018) ............................. 30
Table 2.2: Benefits and limitations of IMR methods in order of use ..................................... 42
Table 2.3: Case study structure ............................................................................................. 45
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Genderqueer fashion models and their representations of gender in visual culture. xi
Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations
Biopsychosocial: a term used in queer biology and originating from
broader health sciences. While this term usually describes how diseases
progress via an intricate interplay between biology, psychology and
social/environmental factors, queer biology borrowed it to explain how
an individual becomes gendered. Important to note here is the concept
of neuroplasticity and how environmental factors and socialising can
literally rewire the brain. This accounts for the consistent repetition of
gendered behaviours, reflecting the binary of man/woman and
masculinity/femininity.
Cisgender: when an individual’s gender identity correlates with their sex
assigned at birth. ‘Cis’ is a Latin prefix commonly used in chemistry to
denote two atoms or molecules connected on the same side of a
chemical structure. It is the opposite of ‘trans’, which implies a
connection across categories.
Gender: the social expression of sexual difference.
Gender binary: refers to the categorisation of gender as dualistic,
opposite and binary. Escobar (1995) posits that this follows a Western
tendency for binary categorisation. The gender binary is largely
theorised as a Western system in postcolonialist theory. Many non-‐
Western cultures exhibit systems of gender outside a binary, particularly
pre-‐colonisation. For example, the Native American Navajo tribe
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Genderqueer fashion models and their representations of gender in visual culture. xii
operated with gender systems with four genders: categories similar to
the man and woman of the Western gender binary, but also the
“masculine female-‐bodied nádleeh” and the “feminine male-‐bodied
nádleeh” (Spade and Valentine 2017, 74).
Gender expression: the way an individual expresses their gender/s
aesthetically (looks, behaves, acts). This is intrinsically linked to gender
ideals, as an individual can bend/trouble these ideals to form the gender
expression they desire. This expression can change and is not necessarily
the same as gender identity, although it can be read as synonymous.
GNC: Gender nonconforming. This refers to those who do not conform to
traditional ideas of masculinity or femininity in their gender expression.
Gender ideals: social standards for how a gender should look, act and
behave according to ‘social standards’. Heteronormative gender ideals
refer to traditional notions of femininity or masculinity, which for much
of history were understood as the direct expression of femaleness and
maleness.
Gender identity: “A person's internal, deeply held sense of their gender.
For transgender people, their own internal gender identity does not
match the sex they were assigned at birth. Most people have a gender
identity of man or woman (or boy or girl). For some people, their gender
identity does not fit neatly into one of those two choices… Unlike gender
expression… gender identity is not visible to others” (Gay & Lesbian
Alliance Against Defamation [GLAAD] 2016).
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Genderqueer fashion models and their representations of gender in visual culture. xiii
Heteronormative: a term coined by Judith Butler to describe social
systems of presumed heterosexuality, where heterosexuality is
privileged and heterosexual identities and interests are foregrounded—
for example, marriage, reproduction, traditional gender roles.
Heterosexist: a term that describes discriminatory views and practices
against homosexuality and other sexualities in a society where
heterosexuality is assumed as the ‘normal’ orientation. Closely linked to
this is Rich’s (1980) notion of “compulsory heterosexuality”, where
heterosexuality is presumed and enforced within a patriarchal society.
Male/female assigned at birth, designated male at birth/designated
female at birth: sex assigned at birth or designated sex at birth refers to
the category of sex medically assigned to an infant at birth. This term is
preferred over ‘biologically’ male or female, as it accounts for the
process of medically attributing sex, which contributes to broader
systems of reproducing heteronormative, binary sex and gender.
Nonbinary: a gender identity that is neither ‘woman’ nor ‘man’.
Sometimes, nonbinary individuals will designate their gender identity as
trans nonbinary to indicate their distance from their assigned sex at
birth. Some nonbinary individuals may add the terms ‘femme’ or ‘masc’
to their gender description to indicate the nature of their gender
expression. Some nonbinary individuals prefer the use of they/them
pronouns, while others are still happy to be referred to with binary
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Genderqueer fashion models and their representations of gender in visual culture. xiv
pronouns. A vast range of specific and nuanced gender identities and
expressions exist within the nonbinary gender identity category.
Normative: an objective term for what is considered ‘normal’ in a
particular context, or a category that adheres to societal norms. Where
‘normal’ indicates a value judgement, ‘normative’ conveys the
contextual conditions that define ‘normal’, which are specific to the
social and cultural aspects of that setting. In a poststructuralist ethos,
there is no such thing as ‘normal’, because normal is a social
construction.
POC: Person of colour.
Prescriptive femininity/masculinity: expressions of femininity and
masculinity that adhere to heteronormative ‘prescriptions’ of binary
gender expression deemed acceptable within a heterosexist patriarchal
society. Mears (2011, 16) explains that “prescriptions of masculinity and
femininity” can be seen in fashion images, because the models featured
promote and disseminate “ideas about how women and men should
look” (16, original emphasis). Prescriptive masculinity and femininity
connects bodily aesthetics to binary understandings of gender. In this
binary, men and women are theorised as having opposite qualities (and
aesthetics), described in Table 1.
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Genderqueer fashion models and their representations of gender in visual culture. xv
Table 1: Characteristics of gender binary
Man/masculine/masculinity Woman/feminine/femininity
Active
Rational
Strong
Tough-‐skinned
Undecorated/plain
Hard
Useful
Practicality over vanity
Passive
Emotional
Fragile
Sensitive
Decorated/adorned
Soft
Decoration
Vanity over practicality
Queer: In a categorical sense, the term ‘queer’ is frequently used to
refer to all that is not heteronormative. While some groups identify
more or less significantly with the term ‘queer’ as an identity marker, in
the context of this research project, it is used more broadly in a
methodological sense of queering the ‘normal’ or heteronormative
(where biology equals sex equals gender equals hetero-‐desire). Similarly,
the term ‘genderqueer’ is used to refer to all gender identities that are
not cisnormative. This project acknowledges that grouping a diverse
range of gender identities—such as trans, nonbinary, GNC, queer,
agender (Facebook United Kingdom [UK] recognises 72 alternatives for
gender, including ‘other’)—under one term is problematic for those
individuals. However, in the context of this project, the term
‘genderqueer’ does not disregard this diversity, but is used as a
methodological term for nonheteronormative gender identities.
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Genderqueer fashion models and their representations of gender in visual culture. xvi
Sex: the physical anatomy of the body, described in terms of physical
makeup, reproductive capacity, hormonal and chromosomal
configuration. Sex is largely described in terms of male and female, but
research suggests that up to 1.7% of the population is categorically
‘intersex’ (Fausto-‐Sterling 1993). This figure accounts for a broad range
of intersex variations and disordered sex developments, while a lower
estimate of 0.018% restricts the definition of intersex to those for whom
chromosomal sex and physical attributes do not correlate with binary
definitions (Sax 2002).
Sexuality: the nature of sexual preference as defined by one’s own
gender and the gender of attraction. Queer theory proposes that
sexuality could be framed as preference for sexual practices and
behaviours rather than being limited to gendered attractions, as
traditional definitions of sexuality rely on and further reproduce stable,
binary categories of gender.
Transgender: “Transgender is an adjective used to refer to individuals or
practices that diverge from the conventional cultural norms regarding
sex/gender” (Teo 2014, 1996). While some transgender individuals
identify on the opposite side of the gender binary to what their body
was designated at birth, many transgender individuals identify between.
The term ‘trans’ can refer to all gender identities that are decidedly not
cisgender. It is often written as ‘transgender’ to indicate the broad use
of the prefix and to account for all the associated identities.
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Genderqueer fashion models and their representations of gender in visual culture. xvii
Transsexual: “An older term that originated in the medical and
psychological communities. Still preferred by some people who have
permanently changed—or seek to change—their bodies through medical
interventions, including but not limited to hormones and/or surgeries.
Unlike transgender, transsexual is not an umbrella term. Many
transgender people do not identify as transsexual and prefer the word
transgender” (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation [GLAAD] 2016).
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Genderqueer fashion models and their representations of gender in visual culture. xviii
Statement of Original Authorship
The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted
to meet requirements for an award at this or any other higher education
institution. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains
no material previously published or written by another person except
where due reference is made.
Signature:
Date: April 2019
QUT Verified Signature
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Genderqueer fashion models and their representations of gender in visual culture. xix
Acknowledgements
To my stylish and talented supervisors who made this possible,
thank you so much for all your hard work!
To my parents, particularly my Mum, for your continuous support
and for literally feeding me throughout this process—there is no way I
could have done this without you!
Finally, to all those individuals whose identity is politicised in its
very existence—thank you for existing. To quote Lavern Cox’s Twitter, as
she quotes bell hooks, the “cisnormative heteronormative white
supremacist capitalist patriarchy” is being slowly burnt to the ground by
each and every one of you!
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Genderqueer fashion models and their representations of gender in visual culture. xx
A Note on Language
‘Genderqueer’ is an important theoretical term used in this project
that requires definition from the outset. I define it as referring
collectively to models whose gender identity is not cisnormative. While
the subjects of the four case studies in this thesis personally identify as
different and specific gender identities, including transgender woman,
queer butch woman and nonbinary queer person, the word
‘genderqueer’ is used to identify them as a group in contrast to
gendernormative identities. The term ‘genderqueer’ can be adopted as a
specific gender identifier on its own, and this project in no way assigns
this gender identity to its case studies. The word ‘genderqueer’ was
chosen over ‘queer’ because the project specifically examines issues of
gender as opposed to broader experiences of queerness, such as
sexuality. To mitigate the potentially problematic categorising of the
case study subjects as ‘genderqueer’ collectively, this project uses
gender identities and preferred pronouns from existing interviews with
Pejić, Legler, Nef and Khan in which they specifically address their own
gender identity. This project also acknowledges that these identities and
preferred nouns may change in the future.
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Introduction 1
Chapter 1: Introduction
This project is born from overlapping interests: a longstanding
fandom of fashion model Andreja Pejić, a personal interest in queer
culture and discourse, and a persistent and nagging belief that fashion
has an immense capacity to make social and political agendas visible.
These preoccupations translate into my own fashion practice with The
Stitchery Collective. In our socially engaged practice, we use fashion as a
central design strategy to create programs that connect diverse, vibrant
communities. One of our most recent projects (May 2018) was a large-‐
scale costume and dance party in honour of radical drag artist and
Australian queer icon Leigh Bowery as part of the MELT Festival of Queer
Arts and Culture at Brisbane Powerhouse. The project propositioned the
audience to experiment with radical drag culture and challenge their
social inhibitions through critical costume practice.
As a fashion researcher who identifies as a cisgender woman, I am
acutely aware of how fashion models are seen to validate identities and
bodies. Further, I am aware that fashion is one of the most immediate
and significant communicators of gender, because our gender is read via
our fashioned bodies. Moreover, while both the history of fashion and
contemporary fashion practices provide many examples of individuals
who trouble the relationship between bodily aesthetics and gender,
fashion remains a system that routinely reinforces binary notions of
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Introduction 2
gender, despite its transformative capacity to transcend them. That is,
fashion can simultaneously reproduce and deconstruct identity norms.
Fashion models are traditionally understood as perpetuating identity
norms, but a new wave of genderqueer fashion models that have
emerged since 2010 are challenging this assumption. Throughout this
thesis, I propose that genderqueer fashion models challenge some of the
key tenets of the cultural functions of fashion models, who hold a place
in the popular imagination as ideal representations of women. This
project contends that the phenomenon of genderqueer fashion models
represents a shift in the idealisation of gendered beauty.
Historically, the model’s function has always been closely
connected to changing social attitudes towards women while serving the
progression of consumer culture. The model’s very emergence is directly
linked to the intensification of consumer culture at the end of the
nineteenth century, and to the gendered nature of consumption. This
project argues that models are products of structural heteronormativity
and commodification in both the institutions of fashion and the broader
social system of consumption. However, contemporary gender discourse,
influenced by queer theory, problematises the notion of gender as a
stable, fixed, binary category. Indeed, queer theory challenges any fixed
category of identity.
Throughout this study, I have drawn on the work of
poststructuralist Judith Butler ([1990] 1999), specifically her notion of
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Introduction 3
troubling gender, to help frame the practices and visibilities of
genderqueer models. Traditionally, the function of fashion models has
been to cement the relationship between beauty and heteronormative
gender. Genderqueer models trouble this gendered function in both
mainstream imagery and the fashion industry. Consequently, this
project’s main aim is to investigate how and what this troubling of
gender means in the context of genderqueer models.
In addition to gender, I employ the concept of ‘cultural
intermediaries’ to situate the practices of genderqueer models within
the fashion industry and broader cultural and social contexts. Scholars
such as Bourdieu (1984) and Skov (2002) define cultural intermediaries
as actors within the systems of consumption who mediate cultural value
in framing cultural goods. In The cultural intermediaries reader, Julian
Matthews and Jennifer Smith Maguire (2014, 1) define cultural
intermediaries as:
the taste makers defining what counts as good taste and cool
culture in today’s marketplace. Working at the intersection of
culture and economy, they perform critical operations in the
production and promotion of consumption, constructing
legitimacy and adding value through the qualification of goods.
The authors explain that cultural intermediaries “construct value by
mediating how goods (or services, practices, people) are perceived and
engaged with by others” (Matthews and Smith Maguire 2014, 1). In the
case of genderqueer fashion models, ‘goods’ can be interchanged with
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Introduction 4
‘people’, as the models are constructing value around people of diverse
gender identities, modelled by their own visible identities.
Fashion scholars Entwistle (2006) and Wissinger (2009) use this
concept to identify fashion models as cultural intermediaries within the
aesthetic economy of fashion. The authors explain that the main
function of fashion models is to mediate the notion of being fashionable
through their professional work and broader visibility. In the case of
normative feminine fashion models, the mediation occurs via “aesthetic
labor” (Entwistle and Wissinger 2006, 774) that presents idealistic yet
normative bodily aesthetics as both economically and culturally
valuable. However, in the case of genderqueer models, industry
validation—or the market value of their aesthetic labour—allows them
to frame gender-‐diverse identities as validated and culturally valuable.
By using the concept of cultural intermediaries to describe the
function of mediation fashion models perform, this project contends
that the cultural content models produce functions beyond the economic
value system of the fashion industry and is in fact a mediation of
emerging ideas about gender. In the case of queered gender, they
mediate these ideals from the fringes of cultural production, via a range
of media channels, to the mainstream of fashion commerce. In addition,
as the fashion system is known for determining social ideals of beauty,
this project also examines how these models mediate new ideals that
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Introduction 5
present powerful challenges between the taken-‐for-‐granted connection
between heteronormative gender and beauty.
Research Question
This project investigates the central research question, “How do
genderqueer fashion models validate nonheteronormative identities and
contribute to the wider debate on gender?”
To investigate this central research question, two further questions
are explored:
• How are genderqueer fashion models mainstreaming and
making visible trans and genderqueer identities?
• How do these models reconcile the tension between their
commercial and political identities through the existing
structures of the fashion-‐modelling industry?
This project’s hypothesis is that genderqueer fashion models make
contemporary ideas of gender visible through the commercial
embodiment of their queer gender identities, through which they
present a new visual language of gender and validate gender
nonconformity in visual culture. They achieve this by making their
diverse gender identities culturally valuable through their work as
cultural intermediaries, and by becoming increasingly visible in
mainstream channels of visual culture. Whilst representations of queer
genders can be seen historically across visual culture, not least by
fashion modelling itself, this project contends that contemporary
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Introduction 6
genderqueer fashion models offer a more socially significant function
through the commodification of their genderqueer identities. These
genderqueer fashion models more actively craft their emancipatory and
nonconforming gender identities throughout the cultural production and
mediation process. This in turn has implications for mainstream gender
ideology, as these models represent commodified and saleable non-‐
normative identities, after which consumers can model their own
identity. Representations of queer gender seen in the past, such as
androgynous looks performed more commonly by cisnormative models,
instead present a ‘look’ or an aesthetic as commodity, as opposed to a
valued social identity. These are tangibly different products, which are
entirely defined by the context within they are produced.
Representations of queer gender made in the past by cisgendered
models or public identities may too have had an emancipatory effect for
viewers, but in the context of the seismic contemporary shifts around
gender equality and diversity, contemporary genderqueer models have
the capacity to normalise and affect a structural change to how visual
culture represents gender, and therefore how technologies of gender are
disseminated.
This project presents four case studies of four genderqueer fashion
models: Andreja Pejić (Figure 1.1), Casey Legler (Figure 1.2), Hari Nef
(Figure 1.3) and Richie Shazam Khan (Figure 1.4). The case studies
analyse a collection of visual texts from each model’s professional
portfolio, reading these texts for the ways in which the models trouble
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Introduction 7
gender through their aesthetic labour. In addition, the case studies
present an analysis of selected interviews and profiles (written texts)
published about the models to highlight the ways in which each model
communicates a central message or narrative centred on their gender
identity.
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Introduction 8
Figure 1.1: (top left) Andreja Pejić for Vogue Australia April 2018
Figure 1.2: (top right) Casey Legler for Numero Homme Spring/Summer 2018
Figure 1.3: (bottom left) Hari Nef for CANDY Magazine #10 2017
Figure 1.4: (bottom right) Richie Shazam Khan for Dazed Digital February 2016
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Introduction 9
Aims
This thesis aims to build new knowledge about the genderqueer
fashion model, extend existing literature on fashion models and
contribute to the field of fashion studies, gender studies, and gender
and media studies. Specifically, it intends to:
• document the rise of the genderqueer fashion model
• examine the continuous negotiation of gender as it emerges in
the photographic work of highly visible genderqueer fashion
models
• articulate how key tensions in contemporary gender debates
are embodied by genderqueer models
• perform an intersectional interrogation of the phenomenon of
genderqueer fashion models, with reference to how their
visibility is defined by systems built upon the privileging of
specific identities.
In the following section, I outline the sociocultural contexts that
frame the rise of genderqueer models. I begin by introducing the
background in legislation and cultural representation of gender queer
identities over the last 10 years, following which I give an overview of
how understandings of gender have progressed in the cultural context
surrounding fashion.
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Introduction 10
Framing the genderqueer fashion model
The visibility afforded to genderqueer models can be understood in
a context of broader social shifts. The international movement towards
gender and sexual equality and the recognition of gender diversity has
progressed significantly over the last 10 years. Indicators of progress
include legislative, social and cultural milestones pertaining to the
gradual acceptance of diverse identities across the lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender, queer, intersex and others (LGBTQ+) spectrum.
Legislation milestones include the introduction of marriage equality
in many countries, including the United States (US), the UK, Canada,
Brazil, Malta, Portugal, Spain, South America, Uruguay and, in 2017,
Australia. Varying forms of same-‐sex civil union have also been legislated
in Chile, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Greece, Italy and Poland. Many
countries have also introduced the option of legal identification as a
third, nonbinary sex (legalised in Australia in 2011), with some, such as
Canada, offering birth certificates that do not state the sex of infants.
Progress has also been made in intersex rights, including the outlawing
of normalisation surgery for intersex infants in Malta (2015).
Transgender rights have progressed significantly, with many countries
now not requiring an individual to undergo surgery or surgeries to
legally qualify as an identified gender. Further, in June 2018, the World
Health Organization (WHO 2018) officially stopped classifying gender
incongruence as a mental health disorder in its International
Classification of Diseases, which means that being transgender,
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Introduction 11
nonbinary or gender nonconforming (GNC) can no longer be diagnosed
as a mental illness. Broader legislation to deinstitutionalise binary
language has been introduced in some progressive countries, including
the formal inclusion of a new gender-‐neutral pronoun in Swedish (in
2015) and its compulsory use in early education. Additionally, in Canada,
antidiscrimination laws have been extended to include transgender and
GNC people as a protected group by way of Bill C-‐16 in June 2017.
Gender-‐neutral bathrooms are also becoming increasingly common in
public institutions. Globally, changing attitudes towards gender are
being reinforced via a range of legislations.
Changes in attitudes towards gender have also filtered through to
digital platforms and media culture. In 2014, Facebook UK introduced 71
gender options for users, including a customisable ‘other’ option
(Williams 2014). LGBTQ+ content and individuals are also increasingly
visible in film and television. LGBTQ+ content has been incrementally
popularised since the late 1990s, particularly on television. In the US,
Ellen DeGeneres became the first lead character to publicly come out on
a television series in 1997; Will and Grace was launched in 1998; the
highly popular series Queer as Folk was released in 2000; and The L word
was broadcast in 2004.
These television shows set themselves apart from other mainstream
content, as they positioned diverse LGBTQ+ narratives at the centre of
their stories, thus mainstreaming LGBTQ+ content on television and
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Introduction 12
popular culture. The last decade has seen a significant surge in LGBTQ+
representation on television, partially due to the influence of new
platforms for content production by streaming services such as Netflix
and Hulu. Television shows that stand out for diversity include Netflix’s
Orange is the new black, which was released in 2013, and Amazon’s
Transparent, broadcast in 2014, both of which are ongoing and have
broken barriers in terms of diverse LGBTQ+ representation.
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) has tracked
LGBTQ+ characters on television since 1996, and their most recent
report shows that LGBTQ+ representation across television is at a record
high of 6.4%, the highest recorded in the report’s history. Moreover, the
2017‒2018 report is the first in which consistent nonbinary characters
could be accounted for in the data, as well as the first consistent
appearance of asexual characters. This suggests that the diversity of
LGBTQ+ representations has increased as queer narratives become more
mainstreamed.
Similarly, queer lead characters and themes are becoming
increasingly common in film. In 2016, Moonlight made history as the first
queer film to win the Oscar for Best Picture. Many films released in the
last several years have featured significant LGBTQ+ narratives: The
Danish girl (2015), Carol (2015), Call me by your name (2017) and A
fantastic woman (2017) are just a few examples. However, the most
recent Studio responsibility index report by GLAAD shows that LGBTQ+
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Introduction 13
representation in film actually decreased in 2017 from higher figures in
2016, begging the question of whether progress in the film industry has
stalled (GLAAD Media Institute 2018). Since the release of Vingarne
(1916), counted as the first ever gay film (IMDb n.d.), there has been a
consistent history of gender-‐diverse and queer films and a similar
increase of LGBTQ+ narratives has been seen in television, indicating
that their representation is now accepted by an increasingly mainstream
audience.
High-‐profile celebrities are also paving the way for gender-‐diverse
representation. The controversial Caitlyn Jenner announced her identity
as a transgender woman via a Vanity Fair cover in July 2015. Celebrities
such as Ruby Rose and Amandla Stenberg have publicly identified as
genderqueer and nonbinary. In July 2014, actor Laverne Cox was the first
transgender woman to grace the cover of Time magazine, and in 2015
was the first openly transgender person to be awarded a Daytime Emmy.
These legislative, cultural and social milestones are all evidence of a
growing understanding of gender that moves beyond a hegemonic binary
of male and female, and a rising social awareness of non-‐normative
gender and life beyond the “heteronormative matrix” (Butler [1990]
1999).
Over the last 15 years, significant changes have also occurred in the
fashion industry in regards to gender. These range from new design
practices that move towards unisex or gender-‐neutral clothing, such as
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Introduction 14
the nondemographic label 69us, experimental retail design that moves
away from the gendered division of fashion consumption, such as the
genderless retail popup Agender by department store Selfridges, and the
mixing of menswear and womenswear in runway presentations by brands
such as Gucci since 2017. Author of Androgyne: Fashion and gender
Patrick Mauriès (2017, 154) argues that emerging cultural definitions of
gender have played a key role in early twenty-‐first century fashion
design.
Similarly, the importance of gender as a contemporary issue has
been reflected across fashion media, with Vogue labelling 2016 “the year
of genderless fashion” (Bobb 2016). Further to this, trend forecasting
agency WGSN has published trend reports since 2011 identifying gender
as an important theme in marketing strategies and consumer attitudes,
including reports on “Gender play: media & marketing update” (2011),
“Zero gender’ (2015) and “Genderful” (2015) fashion, “The beauty buzz:
Genderless beauty” (2016), and “The genderless generation” (2016).
Mauriès (2017, 155) argues that this renewed focus on gender in
contemporary fashion stems from social shifts originating in the latter
half of the twentieth century:
The manifestations in contemporary fashion are the most
striking and evolved sign of the disruption of the supposedly
natural order and opposition of the sexes, as well as of the social
changes occurring in its wake. But they are also—and this point
cannot be over-‐stressed—the belated expression, post facto, of
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Introduction 15
the philosophical, psychological and sociological questioning of
the 1970s.
That is, new approaches to gender in fashion are underscored by long
histories of activism and academic efforts in the latter decades of the
twentieth century. These movements are discussed further in Chapter 2.
Mauriès’ argument might be extrapolated here to argue that recent
developments in fashion are also influenced by a long history of GNC
icons from music, film and broader culture, such as David Bowie and
Grace Jones. While these figures and many more paved the way for more
commercially sanctioned representations of gender nonconformity, it is
worth stating here that individual exemplars who stood out in a broader
system of structural heteronormativity are not the focus of this project.
In fact, this project contends that these icons becoming exemplars only
further demonstrates the hegemonic nature of the cultural fields that
bore them. This project proposes that in the early twenty-‐first century,
genderqueer fashion models emerged as a new form of institutionalised
gender nonconformity—they are commercially and culturally sanctioned,
as demonstrated by their continued success and a sustained increase in
their numbers.
The number of gender-‐diverse fashion models working in the
fashion industry has steadily risen since the early twenty-‐first century,
although models who explicitly challenge traditional ideas of gender
have existed since the 1990s. Models such as Jenny Shimizu and Kristen
McMenamy emerged in the context of the grunge fashion trend to
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Introduction 16
channel a new androgynous and ‘unusual’ beauty, often presenting a
challenging, masculinised version of feminine beauty. However, since
2010, models whose careers centre on more nuanced notions of gender
identity and gender diversity have become more prominent. New
genderqueer fashion models commercially embody their non-‐normative
gender identity and place it at the forefront of their aesthetic labour and
promotion of self within their professional practice. The following
section discusses the study of fashion imagery and unpacks how fashion
images might be used to interrogate social ideals and political agendas.
Studying images of fashion
In this project, fashion images are used as evidence in documenting
and analysing the work of the four fashion genderqueer models in the
case studies—therefore, a brief discussion of the function of fashion
imagery, and particularly of the fashion photograph, is warranted. In the
somewhat benign articulation of mid‒twentieth-‐century photographer
David Bailey, fashion photography is “a portrait of someone wearing a
dress” (c. 1965, in Victoria and Albert Museum 2014). However,
following Nancy Hall-‐Duncan (1979, 9), any definition of fashion
photography must make explicit reference to its commercial function.
Adding to this is Geczy and Karaminas’ (2015, xiv) psychoanalytical
observation that “the powerful dissemination of fashion imagery
determines what is most desirable”. The combination of Bailey’s, Hall-‐
Duncan’s, and Geczy and Karaminas’ observations leads to an
abbreviated yet persistent understanding of a fashion photograph: it is
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Introduction 17
an image of a (female-‐gendered) body wearing fashion, the primary
function of which is to drive consumption of that fashion by arousing
desire. Consequently, the body of the fashion model is ostensibly
transformed into an object serving a commercial function that
principally elicits a female spectatorship. Thus the familiar argument:
the fashion photograph and the fashion model work to normalise gender
and its connection to idealised beauty for the implied (and desiring)
female viewer via a commercial context.
Roland Barthes (1990, 5) describes fashion photography as having
its “own lexicon and syntax” separate from conventions of the “news
photograph” or “snapshot” of the time. However, Shinkle (2008, 4)
argues that Barthes’ characterisation of fashion photography reflects the
homogeneity of the field at the time (c. 1959), as it was constrained to
relatively limited technology and means of publication. In fact, fashion
photography is an ambiguous and increasingly conceptually ambitious
genre of visual communication that has attracted critical attention in the
form of museum exhibitions over the last 20 years. Shinkle (2008, 2)
therefore extends on Hall-‐Duncan to suggest that all fashion
photography is connected by its “simultaneous placement within the
artistic and commercial realms”. She argues that the balance between
“creativity versus commerce” is the “very identity of fashion imagery”,
but that “art and commerce don’t necessarily exist in a relationship of
opposition”, and that relationship is “shifting and highly permeable”
(Shinkle 2008, 2).
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Introduction 18
Certainly, contemporary fashion photography is more multiplicitous
and difficult to define, as it exists in many forms. Shinkle (2008, 4)
contends that now, “there is not a single and easily described genre of
‘fashion photography’”, and it consists of a “wide array of practices”,
including editorial, beauty, portraiture and documentary photography
(2). Stylistically, contemporary fashion photography also borrows from a
range of practices, most significantly cinematic narratives and
pornography. The rise of digital technologies also complicates
investigating the field of fashion photography, because fashion imagery
is now produced by both professional and amateur creators. Street style
photography, personal style blog photography and social media imagery
such as Instagram images co-‐exist with the categories that Shinkle
identifies. Nevertheless, contemporary fashion imagery retains key
features, as it depicts a body, features fashion or garments and
continues to sit between commercial and artistic domains.
The lens I bring to the analysis of fashion imagery in this thesis has
a political inflection, and I draw on arguments made by John Hartley and
Ellie Rennie (2004) in their defence of the value of reading fashion
photographs as evidence of social truths. Hartley and Rennie (2004, 477)
assert that fashion photography’s history is inextricable from that of
photojournalism, and while one supposedly valourises “truth” and the
other “beauty”, the methods of construction and the resulting meaning
produced are not so dissimilar:
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Introduction 19
Contemporary fashion photography constitutes both a
secularization of the sublime (beauty) and a new form of
“laymen’s books and schoolmasters” (truth). It documents
contemporary life and teaches some important truths, largely via
visualizations of the human body in often quite testing
situations. The fashion magazines disseminate all this at a price
that makes them the cheapest and most accessible source of
high aesthetic imagery available today. They address a feminized
(but not entirely female) public who know that the modernist
separation between public and private life, politics and
consumption, documentary photojournalism and fashion
photography, is so over .
Hartley’s and Rennie’s argument is that fashion photography is a
valuable text, carrying cultural and social value as a form of highly
stylised and creative document that communicates ideas about
contemporary social conditions.
Further, Hartley and Rennie (2004, 462) argue that mainstream
publications featuring fashion photography, such as Vogue, are “a
primary location for thinking through some abiding issues of public
interest that clearly belong to the same world as that covered by
political journalism”. Much contemporary fashion photography—
epitomised by the long collaboration between Steven Meisel and Vogue
Italia—shows this engagement with broader political, environmental and
social issues: the editorial “Water & oil” (April 2010) addressed the BP
oil spill in the Mexican Gulf in April 2010, and the fashion editorial on
plastic surgery featuring Linda Evangelista, “Makeover madness”
(December 2010), also led to critical discourse. This project proposes
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Introduction 20
that fashion photography featuring genderqueer fashion models may act
as a visual tool for thinking through the issue of gender diversity and
new definitions of gender. In this way, genderqueer models act as
cultural intermediaries between the personal, often hidden, experiences
of gender-‐diverse individuals and their public articulation. Thus