Fashion and the Phantasmagoria of Modernity: An Introduction to Decolonial Fashion Discourse

Jansen, M. Angela

doi:10.1080/1362704x.2020.1802098

Cited by 53 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…The case of Chinese Lolita dressing widens the understanding of the colonial influence of origin. In Jansen's proposal of a decolonial discourse analysis of fashion, she points out that the power of defining fashion is the hard core of Eurocentrism (Jansen, 2020). In the formation of the unjust accusations about Chinese Lolita girls, the influence of Eurocentrism is not a process of passing the ideology from the most developed countries to the least developed countries.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A decolonial analysis of Lolita dressing practice and fashion in Mainland China

Bai

2023

Global Media and China

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Based on ethnographic work performed in Chengdu, China, this article presents a decolonial analysis of Chinese Lolita dressing, criticising the unjustified accusations of catering to paedophilia and escapism. Lolita dressing is a clothing style originating from the Gothic clothing style of rebellious rock music singers in 1990s Japan. Some fashion studies and the mass media tend to place Lolita dressing in the context of a counter-public subculture narrative. However, such a framework is biased due to its Eurocentrism. Eurocentrism appears as origin-centrism in forming two unjustified accusations. The accusation of catering to paedophilia is formed based on its Euro-American etymological origin. The word ‘Lolita’ is inextricably associated with paedophilia in Western culture, which leads the general public, and mass media in particular, immediately to the discussion of Lolita dressing as being an abnormality. The accusation of escapism is based on its Japanese subcultural origin. Japanese Lolita dressing is an intentional refusal of the mainstream expectation of being an adult woman. This directs the discussion of Lolita dressing to youthful escapism from a disappointing reality. These two presumptions are problematic in Chinese Lolita dressing practices. Chinese Lolita dressing practitioners tend to integrate Lolita dresses into their ordinary life instead of using Lolita dresses as a medium to build an imagined identity. For Chinese Lolita dressing practitioners, Lolita dresses are neither abnormal nor counter-public. In short, Chinese Lolita dressing should be positioned as a fashionable clothing category among diverse clothing practices instead of as a subculture or an example of a counter-public rebellion.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A decolonial analysis of Lolita dressing practice and fashion in Mainland China

Bai

2023

Global Media and China

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“…Fashion has, over the course of last century or more, built significant wealth on the economic exploitation of people from the Global South, often through the supply chain and production lines of Black and brown communities [29,30]. Some scholars argue that by thinking of fashion as a process that we engage in, rather than a product we make, we can rethink the relationship with those producing our clothes and make the system less exploitative and more equitable [31].…”

Section: Fashionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Race- and Gender-Based Underrepresentation of Creative Contributors: Art, Fashion, Film, and Music

Topaz¹,

Higdon²,

Epps-Darling³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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We investigate the socially inferred gender and racial/ethnic identities of influential creative artists in four domains. Women make up 51% of the U.S. population but are underrepresented in contemporary art (28%), fashion (45%), box office film (27%), and popular music (17%). Marginalized racial/ethnic groups make up 39% of the U.S. population yet comprise approximately half that figure in contemporary art (22%), fashion (22%), and film (19%). Black musical artists have higher representation (48%), though higher representation does not equate with equity and inclusion. As for intersectional identity, white men are overrepresented in all four domains by factors ranging from 1.4 to 2 as compared to the U.S. population, and most other gender-racial/ethnic groups are further minoritized. Our study is the first comprehensive, comparative, empirical look at intersectional identity across creative fields. The exclusion of marginalized individuals, including those who are women, American Indian / Alaska Native, Asian, Black, Latinx, and Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander, is severe. The lack of self-expressed demographic data is a challenge, as is the erasure of certain identity groups from the American Community Survey, including agender, gender noncomforming, nonbinary, and transgender individuals. These are challenges that, if addressed, would enhance our collective understanding of diversity in creative fields. Efforts taken by executives, influencers, and other power brokers to make creative fields more diverse, equitable, and inclusive would amplify the many well-documented benefits of art to individuals and to society.

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“…His analysis also reminds us to be wary of the intricate cultural inter-referencing among Asian countries, and the idiosyncrasies in each local society. Studying Lolita dressing in China as a fashion practice also contributes to the redefinition of fashion using a decolonial approach, whereby fashion can also be generated and theorised from popular items in the Southern countries (Jansen, 2020). While Bai's research looks at how the meanings of 'Western' cultural symbols are locally transformed and reconstructed, Ma's (2023) article examines the representation of whiteness in Chinese cinema.…”

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confidence: 99%

Pluralising China as method: Between exceptionalism and universalism

Tsang,

Li,

Tse

2024

Global Media and China

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To not only celebrate the launch of this double special issue, but also to shine a spotlight on the variety of China as Method epistemological approaches shared by the special issue’s editors and authors, the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Hong Kong Institute of Asia Pacific Studies, the University of Amsterdam’s Media Studies Department, and Global Media and China, co-organised a hybrid symposium to generate intellectual exchanges on such a de-westernising mode of knowledge production. While the research articles in this double special issue extensively examine ‘distinct’ characteristics of China, in this introduction, we reflect on if we are essentialising China. We do not want to apply a universalist logic that exists in theories by and from the Global North to be ‘experimented on’ in the Global South; yet, we also seek to move away from ‘China exceptionalism’ and express the stance that China can only be understood in its positionality to other areas (and modes of knowledge production) of the world. Thus, this special issue seeks to further deconstruct China as Method, challenge the existing power imbalance, and pluralise knowledge production.

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Fashion and the Phantasmagoria of Modernity: An Introduction to Decolonial Fashion Discourse

Cited by 53 publications

References 13 publications

A decolonial analysis of Lolita dressing practice and fashion in Mainland China

A decolonial analysis of Lolita dressing practice and fashion in Mainland China

Race- and Gender-Based Underrepresentation of Creative Contributors: Art, Fashion, Film, and Music

Pluralising China as method: Between exceptionalism and universalism

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