 WS 168
Dr. Priya J. Shah
 Thursday, 9/26/13
 Week 0
 Key Terms and Assignments:
 I will post key terms for every lecture.
 Key terms:
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Fashion
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Style
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Ed0BMSfEwuI#t=66
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For Tuesday, read:
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Pham, Minh-Ha. (2012). “Fraught Intimacies: Is Fashion Feminist? The Director’s Cut.”
Threadbared. (Website)
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Spade, Dean. (9/2002). “Dress to Kill, Fight to Win.” LTTR 1:1. (Website)
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Weekly Assignment 1 (10pts): Fashion and Feminism Response (more information in
lecture).
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Due on Facebook page: Sunday, 10/6 by 10pm
 Join WS 168B: Politics of Style Facebook Page
 Find and share (on our FB page) at least one style blog that you are going to follow throughout
the quarter.
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Some ideas:
 Queerture: Queer + Couture
 Threadbared
 Huffpost Style Blog
 Welcome to Women’s Studies 168B: The Politics of Style
 What is about fashion that turns us on? How do the seductions and practices of style shape our
social, economic, and cultural identities, behaviors, and relations? In this course, we will seek
explore the pleasures and pains of the fashion, glamour, and style industries, beginning with
theories of fashion, feminism, and identity, exploring the emergence of the fashion industry in
an age of empire, and tracking back to our current era of globalization.
 Course goals:
Conceptual Goals:
1. To place fashion and style within the context of globalization, recognizing the changing
relationships of style to subjectivity, biopower, and politics.
2. To construct a feminist transnational methodology to study style, drawing from available
theoretical work on fashion, feminism, and affect in conjunction with our collaborative work in
this course.
3. To study the historical rise of fashion in an age of empire and discern the relationship of this
history to the politics of style in an age of globalization.
Skill Sets:
1. Close critical reading and analysis of wide range of relevant genres, including: scholarly articles,
blog essays, news media, video, and images.
2. Ability to discuss controversial topics in classroom setting in a politically engaged yet respectful
way.
3. Familiarity with using online space (such as Facebook, blog hosting sites) to deliver a visually
impactive, persuasive argument to others.
4. To work collaboratively to create a dynamic multimedia in-class presentation on a specific topic.
5. Ability to write cogently, edit in accordance with academic discourse, and cite using current MLA
style format.
 Some of the Key terms for this course:
 Style
 Fashion
 Transnational feminism
 Globalization
 Colonialism
 Modernity
 Commodification
 Subjectification
 Affect
 Biopower
 What is fashion?
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-nq-StaXjM
 What is fashion, cont.
From Fashion Theory: A Reader, ed. Malcolm Bernard
 “Fashion is either one of the crowing achievements of western civilization or it is in the
incontrovertible evidence of a consumer culture’s witless obsession with the trivial and the
unreal. It is either creative to the point of being an ‘art,’ enabling individuals and cultures to
express their inner feelings and personalities, or it is exploitative to the point of criminality,
forcing people to work and spend more than is healthy for them or society” (2).
 Two more quotations to consider:
 Malcolm Bernard: “Fashion is thus defined as modern, western, meaningful, and communicative
bodily adornments, or dress. It is also explained a profoundly cultural phenomenon” (4)
 Dean Spade: "fashion and style is a site of liberatory feelings at times—moments of pleasure,
mutual recognition, belonging, escape, and rebellion. But there is also the broader context of
extreme violence and coercion in which we dress ourselves. There is the constant danger of
feeling wrong, being punished, and being stared at. These two elements are often happening
simultaneously." queerture.wordpress.com
 What is style?
 How do you define style?
 What is its relation to the body, to class, to the way you make your way through the world?
 Is it personal, cultural, idiosyncratic, or controlled?
 Who shapes our stylistic choices? Why?
 Does style matter?
 How is Style political?
 Some definitions of “political” (from Merriam Webster Dictionary):
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“the total complex of relations between people living in society”
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“competition between competing interest groups or individuals for power and
leadership (as in a government)”
 The Hoodie and the Hijab:
 Syllabus and Course Policies
 Requirements and Attendance Policy
 Email and Class Websites
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Email address: pjshah@uci.edu
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Course website: http://sites.uci.edu/pjshah/
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Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/WS-168B-Fall-2013-The-Politics-ofStyle/1385333365033081
 Can add and drop online through second week.
 Course readings:
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All readings can be downloaded or accessed from course website
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Bring readings to class!
 Course Requirements:
 Class participation, including attendance and active participation in discussion: 15%
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My responsibilities/ Your responsibilities!
 Weekly Assignments (3): 10% each (30% total)
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Using the Facebook page
 Midterm and Final Exams (2): 20% each (40% total)
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In-class exams, short-answer essays
 Group Presentation (1): 15%

Please print the Group Presentation prompt and bring it to class on Tuesday. We will be
signing up for groups then.
 Dr. Priya J. Shah

PhD English, Feminist and Asian Am emphases

Dec. 2008

19th c. British empire – India

South Asian American diaspora
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Classes taught:
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Introduction to Women’s Studies
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Gender and Feminism in Everyday Life
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Transnational Asian-American Sexualities
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Victorian Literature in the Age of Empire
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Image Problems: Stereotypes and Representations

Engendering the Colonial Body

Gender and Globalization

Practices of Embodiment
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Email address: pjshah@uci.edu
 Office hours: Thursday, 9:45-10:45am, in 3023 Humanities Gateway and by appt.

Please answer the following questions on a sheet of paper (or email it me):
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Preferred name
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Preferred gender pronoun
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Major(s) and Minor(s), Year
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Email address
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What brings you to this class?
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What do you hope to get out of this class?
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Have you taken any WS courses before? Which ones?
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Have you taken any courses on related topics (i.e. colonialism, globalization, fashion,
power and the body)
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Anything else you would like me to consider?
 In-class Writing activity:
 This is an ad from the Louis Vuitton “Core Values” campaign, featuring Angelina Jolie.
 "People are not used to seeing Angelina in this situation," Vuitton's executive vice president,
Pietro Beccari, told WWD. "I like the fact that it's a real moment. This travel message we give
through personal journeys is a fundamental one for the brand.“
 Core Values celebrates Vuitton's timeless classics in real situations on 'real' people - meaning
celebrities rather than models - and runs alongside their seasonal 'fashion' campaigns.
 Spend a few minutes thinking and writing about this image in relation to the discussion we just
had.
•
How might this image be related to the broad conceptual goals of the course?
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What does the image denote? What does it connote?
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How does the image seek to position you as a viewer?
•
Are you seduced by it? Turned off by it? Write a little about your initial emotional response to
the ad.
 Weekly Assignment 1 (1o%):
 Read Minh-Ha Pham and Dean Spade’s essays, listed on the syllabus.
 Post your thoughts on the relationship between fashion and feminism to the course Facebook
page.
 If you are one of the first 5 people to post, summarize what you believe are the main points of
both essays, and then give your own take on the (often fraught) relationship between fashion
and feminism. End with two questions for others to discuss and comment.
 If you are posting after the first 5 people have posted, the onus is on you to demonstrate that
you have read the material as well as all the other comments in the thread. Respond to the two
questions and give your own take on the relation between fashion and feminism.