Articles about Fashion and Image
Feminism: it's more than skin deep. Here we discuss fashion and body image issues.
Is going grey disgraceful?
Gayle Impey thought the days of older women routinely dying their hair were over. But a head of white hair on a woman still has the power to shock
Gayle Impey // 18 December 2012
Categories: Body and Health, Fashion and Image
No access to the women's room
Going clothes shopping as a disabled woman is a nightmare, says D H Kelly
D H Kelly // 30 January 2012
Categories: Body and Health, Fashion and Image, Sex and Relationships, Stereotypes, Work and Play
The politics of office dress
Melanie Davis usually wears grey trousers suits to work. Switching to a smart, clingy dress prompted a disconcerting change in her colleagues
Melanie Davis // 11 October 2011
Categories: Fashion and Image, Work and Play
Teenagers exposed
15-year-old C. Robinson looks at the causes and ramifications of a culture where teenage girls are encouraged to bare all
C. Robinson // 3 June 2011
Categories: Fashion and Image
Fashion and gender
Androgynous trends come and go, but high-street fashion remains for the most part strictly divided into womenswear and menswear. Lorraine Smith searches for an alternative
Lorraine Smith // 13 May 2011
Categories: Fashion and Image
Dark angels
Roxanne Bibizadeh considers the experiences of women who choose to wear the manteau
Roxanne Bibizadeh // 8 December 2010
Categories: Culture and Media, Fashion and Image, Religion
Narcissus
This story by Madhvi Ramani considers the struggle of one person to measure up to the beauty standard
Madhvi Ramani // 23 May 2010
Categories: Fashion and Image
Back to burlesque
Has the shine come off burlesque as it mainstreamed? Chloë Emmott revisits her views
Chloe Emmott // 22 May 2010
Categories: Body and Health, Culture and Media, Fashion and Image, Work and Play
In conversation with Senzeni Marasela
Last year Senzeni Marasela created an art installation called Jonga: the Museum of Women, Dolls & Memories, in a shop-front in Huntly, Scotland. Here Marasela talks to Claudia Zeiske about Barbie and the ways that beauty standards and pressures impose differently on women of colour and white women
Various Authors // 17 March 2010
Categories: Culture and Media, Fashion and Image, Interviews, Racism, Work and Play
A streamlined new me
Laura Thomas talks through her experience going from red mane to shaved head
Laura Thomas // 13 November 2009
Categories: Body and Health, Fashion and Image
Gender in the playground
Primary schools are no utopia of skipping rope and gender blind comradery. Instead, girls are already learning to worry about their looks - and boys are learning male privilege, reports teacher Kate Townshend
Kate Townshend // 25 October 2009
Categories: Culture and Media, Education, Fashion and Image
How do I look in this, on this, doing this, with this...?
Feminist artists have often used the tactic of exaggerating the objectification of women to the point of parody. But Alex Brew questions how subversive this strategy is in practice
Alex Brew // 11 August 2009
Categories: Culture and Media, Fashion and Image
Some body to love
Forget which body-shape is 'fashionable' - women are more than just their bodies, argues Lara Williams
Lara Williams // 7 June 2009
Categories: Body and Health, Culture and Media, Fashion and Image, Feminism, Work and Play
Stink bombing the beauty pagaent
Protesters from Smash Miss Contest sneaked into the Miss London University beauty contest, releasing stinkbombs and distributing letters to the audience. Sarah Levack reports
Sarah Levack // 27 April 2009
Categories: Activism, Culture and Media, Fashion and Image, Feminism
Pity in Pink
On a mission to buy a new laptop, Posie Rider found that manufacturers and sales staff believe the best way to get women to buy a laptop is to make it pink
Posie Rider // 7 February 2009
Categories: Fashion and Image, Stereotypes
Feminist progress: undermined by the media?
Anna-Kate considers how the porn and beauty industries impact the self esteem of girls and women
Anna-Kate // 25 January 2009
Categories: Culture and Media, Fashion and Image
'Hasn't anybody ever told you a handful is enough?'
Boys groped her, men shouted at her on the street, and girls and women reacted with hostility. Samara Ginsberg reports on growing up with large breasts
Samara Ginsberg // 14 December 2008
Categories: Body and Health, Culture and Media, Fashion and Image, Violence
What Not To Wear say to your co-worker
How would you feel if you found out the people around you chat about putting you forward for How to Look Good Naked? Kelly Draper knows all too well
Kelly Draper // 12 August 2008
Categories: Body and Health, Culture and Media, Fashion and Image, Work and Play
F.A.T.
Girls and women need to give themselves a break from the endless preoccupation with fat, argues Katie Muller
Katie Muller // 7 May 2008
Categories: Body and Health, Culture and Media, Fashion and Image
Of corset matters
Corsets were bad news for Victorian women, argues Laurie Penny, and modern incarnations are little better
Laurie Penny // 2 February 2008
Categories: Body and Health, Culture and Media, Fashion and Image
Glamour models made me sick
Lads' mags are responsible for my eating disorder, says Hannah Whittaker
Hannah Whittaker // 2 January 2008
Categories: Body and Health, Culture and Media, Fashion and Image, Sex and Relationships
Miss LSE or Miss-ogyny?
Antonia Strachey explains why she took part in a protest against a beauty contest for students at the London School of Economics
Antonia Strachey // 2 January 2008
Categories: Activism, Body and Health, Culture and Media, Fashion and Image
Filling the hole
The self-hating mindset, if not the medical condition, of anorexia is frighteningly common, argues Katie Muller
Katie Muller // 6 December 2007
Categories: Body and Health, Culture and Media, Fashion and Image, Feminism, Men
High heels with a pointe
A collection of extreme stilettos tells a very uncomfortable story about the high heels many women totter around in every day, says Gloria Dawson
Gloria Dawson // 9 November 2007
Categories: Culture and Media, Fashion and Image
How many lesbians does it take to sell a t-shirt?
Girl-on-girl action may be marketing gold, but has little benefit for actual lesbians, argues Joanna Whitehead
Joanna Whitehead // 4 November 2007
Categories: Culture and Media, Fashion and Image, Men, Stereotypes
The problem with pink
Pink ribbons may raise life-saving funding for breast cancer research. But, Michelle Wright says, October's month of consumer altruism glosses over the reality of the disease - and allows corporations to line their pockets
Michelle Wright // 31 October 2007
Categories: Body and Health, Culture and Media, Fashion and Image, Stereotypes
Skinny porn
The size-zero debate is just another excuse for judging women's bodies, argues Abi M
Abi M // 30 August 2007
Categories: Body and Health, Culture and Media, Fashion and Image
The F Word podcast: episode one!
Welcome to the first ever F Word podcast!
Jess McCabe // 9 July 2007
Categories: Body and Health, Culture and Media, Fashion and Image, Feminism, Podcasts, Politics and Current Affairs, Stereotypes
Where the size-zero debate goes awry
On the face of it, the size zero debate seems to address feminist bug-bears. But, argues Laurie Penny, it just creates another set of sexist stereotypes - and obfuscates the truth about eating disorders
Laurie Penny // 7 July 2007
Categories: Body and Health, Fashion and Image
'Honey! Your vagina needs a mint'
The Vagina Institute purports to provide a public service to curious women. But Samara Ginsberg detects a rather different agenda
Samara Ginsberg // 7 July 2007
Categories: Body and Health, Fashion and Image, Feminism, Sex and Relationships
Buying gunk
When the latest anti-aging cream hit the shelves, queues of women scrambled to buy it. But Gemma argues we should take a step back and think before fronting up the cash
Gemma // 7 July 2007
Categories: Body and Health, Fashion and Image
Why replication isn't subversion
Locher's t-shirts come with teasing slogans stitched in, but a closer examination reveals they are far from subversive, argues Louise Livesey
Louise Livesey // 7 July 2007
Categories: Fashion and Image
Yummy-mummy or pramface?
Baby-making has become a high-pressure pursuit, argues Abby O'Reilly. Celebrity 'yummy-mummies' only raise the stakes further and obscure the realities of child-birth and motherhood
Abby O'Reilly // 7 July 2007
Categories: Body and Health, Culture and Media, Fashion and Image, Sex and Relationships
Girls Aloud, beauty secrets and lies
A recent magazine article on Girls Aloud proclaimed to "reveal their beauty secrets". But, Michelle Wright argues, all it really did was expose the effects of subscribing to patriarchal, capitalist beauty standards on women's self-esteem
Michelle Wright // 3 June 2007
Categories: Body and Health, Culture and Media, Fashion and Image
First impressions
Feminists are caricatured as ugly and fat by society. Assuming a recruitment drive for swim-suit models is off the table, Samara Ginsberg considers what we can do to fight back
Samara Ginsberg // 2 June 2007
Categories: Body and Health, Fashion and Image, Feminism, Stereotypes
A feminist guide to ballet
From body image to ultra-femininity, ballet has a bad rap with feminists. Returning to classes for the first time in 15 years, Jess McCabe finds her inner ballerina
Jess McCabe // 2 June 2007
Categories: Body and Health, Culture and Media, Fashion and Image
A hairy dilemma
Women are signed up at puberty for a lifetime of relentless hair removal. But, asks Emma Chaplin, if the alternative is pariah status and the laughter of children, what can a feminist do?
Emma Chaplin // 2 May 2007
Categories: Culture and Media, Fashion and Image
Hair today, mad tomorrow
Even when baldness is caused by illness, it is taboo because it flouts conventions of femininity, argues Nichi Hodgson. Britney Spears is only the latest in a long line of reviled, bald women - and, worst of all, she chose to shave off her locks
Nichi Hodgson // 29 March 2007
Categories: Culture and Media, Fashion and Image
Your Face Is Your Fortune
These days women can be successful in the workplace, but they're never allowed to forget what really matters: how sexually attractive they are to men. Marianne Cupit asks: are women still being judged on their appearance when it comes to their chosen career?
Marianne Cupit // 1 February 2007
Categories: Fashion and Image
Women Are Not In Fashion
This season's must-have fashion choices include the pre-pubescent child or the porn star; both one-dimensional images of female passivity and compliance. Where is the space for real, complex women in our culture and in fashion? Lucy Wilkins comments on the new re-packaging of the tired old virgin / whore dichotomy.
Lucy Wilkins // 19 September 2006
Categories: Fashion and Image
Under the Knife
Michelle Wright looks at the increasing normalisation of extreme cosmetic surgery in British culture.
Michelle Wright // 5 November 2005
Categories: Body and Health, Fashion and Image
Who's the man?
Is masculinity simply "natural" or - like femininity - is it essentially performance? Holly Combe addresses this question and more as she reports on her first time at a Drag King workshop, and shares the results with The F-Word
Holly Combe // 1 August 2005
Categories: Fashion and Image, Men
Sick of Celebrity
Why is it assumed that all women want to emulate celebrities? Against the suffocating celebrity-worship culture, Nicky Raynor argues in favour of glorious anonymity, individuality, and a greater variety of female role models.
Nicky Raynor // 5 November 2004
Categories: Culture and Media, Fashion and Image
Not my Cup of T: slogans on women's T-shirts
Why is it suddenly fashionable for women to brand themselves "eye candy", "porn star" or "temptress "? Jo Knowles wanders the high-street for clues.
Jo Knowles // 20 July 2004
Categories: Fashion and Image
A Perfect Delusion
What effect are men's magazines having on men's views of women and heterosexual relationships? Samantha Lyster thinks men who fall for the magazines' propaganda about women are setting themselves up for a fall.
Samantha Lyster // 19 April 2004
Categories: Culture and Media, Fashion and Image, Men, Sex and Relationships
Handbags and Gladrags
Keys, tissues, Vaseline, sunglasses, batteries, tampons, gloves, paracetamol, sewing kit, rescue remedy... How come women feel naked without a handbag stuffed with items 'just in case', but men can cope with a pocket or two? Beth Anderson challenges us to travel light for a change.
Beth Anderson // 19 April 2004
Categories: Fashion and Image
Feminine Feminism
Laura Wadsworth loves lipstick, fashion, boys, and the colour pink. Does that mean she's not a feminist? No way! Girly girls can be just as feminist as anyone else, she argues.
Laura Wadsworth // 19 March 2004
Categories: Fashion and Image, Feminism
Cutting Women Down to Size
Is Michelle's victory in Pop Idol a sign that we're starting to reject the impossible beauty standards imposed on us? As much as she wants to believe, Jo Knowles isn't so sure.
Jo Knowles // 19 January 2004
Categories: Culture and Media, Fashion and Image
Body Image
Lorraine Smith explains the pressures the media puts on women to be thin and beautiful.
Lorraine Smith // 16 March 2003
Categories: Culture and Media, Fashion and Image
Pretty Vacant
Who wears the trousers? Holly Combe doesn't skirt the issue as she analyses society's negative attitudes to "feminine" clothing.
Holly Combe // 16 December 2002
Categories: Fashion and Image
Diet Grrrl - Feminism and Women's Magazines
Kate Allen looks at women's magazines today - and thinks enough is enough.
Kate Allen // 16 August 2002
Categories: Culture and Media, Fashion and Image
Confessions of a Failed Fashionista
I know what I should be. Don't we all? You only have to look around you at the magazines or watch TV. What should I be? I should know the difference between Versace and Louis Vuitton; between Prada and Paul Smith. Shopping for clothes should fill me with orgasmic delight. I should come home staggering down the street in strappy heels clutching hundreds of designer bags...
Catherine Redfern // 16 November 2001
Categories: Fashion and Image
The Signs of Ageing
Wrinkles? Come and have a go, if you think you're hard enough. Go on then, crows-feet, you don't scare me! I laugh at you! Ha ha ha! Grey? Grey? It's silver, you imbecile. Yes, you too can have this attitude to ageing. Just follow our three step plan, click here. By Catherine Redfern.
Catherine Redfern // 13 June 2001
Categories: Body and Health, Fashion and Image
Teenagers and Cosmetic Surgery
Why are more and more young women opting for breast implants? Catherine Redfern offers an explanation.
Catherine Redfern // 16 April 2001
Categories: Body and Health, Culture and Media, Fashion and Image
The Beauty Myth
Are we exploited by the cosmetics industry?
Catherine Redfern // 16 April 2001
Categories: Fashion and Image, Soundbites
