Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Establishing personal identity
Developing my identity
Developing my identity
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Berry, Hannah. “The Fashion Industry: Free to Be an Individual.” The Norton Field Guide to Writing with Readings and Handbook. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2013. 52-57. Print. In the article, “The Fashion Industry: Free to Be an Individual” by Hanna Berry, Berry discusses how for decades women have been told to use certain products and that if they used those products they would be beautiful. Women over the years have believed this idea and would purchase items that promised to make them prettier, thinner, smarter and even more loved. However, in reality it was never what they wore on their bodies that helped them be any of those things; but what it did help with was to empower women to become fearless and bold by what they chose to wear on their bodies as a form of expression. The article focuses on Individualization and uniqueness and how it has begun to find its way into current advertisements. By allowing a woman to express her individuality it shows boldness, fearlessness, and confidence and that is refreshing in today’s world of fashion. …show more content…
Initially in the article, Liz Lemon’s character was really loved by the viewers. However, viewers are upset about the direction the show is going in, because they used to feel as if Lemon was the heroine, but now they feel as if she is just a dumb pathetic baby. Nausbaum does not agree with the viewers and feels Liz Lemon, is “something way more interesting: a strange, specific, workaholic, NPR-worshipping, white-guilt-infected, sardonic, curmudgeonly, hyper-nerdy New Yorker” (Nussbaum 58). Lemon is starting to become a self-pleaser rather than a people pleaser and begins to embrace her individuality. This article speaks on how women need to embrace their individuality, by being who they are inside, and allowing that to show in every aspect of their lives no matter what others
Meyer, Michael, ed. The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, Writing. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1999.
Meyer, Michael, ed. Thinking and Writing About Literature. Second Edition. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2001.
...Academic Writing. Ed. Gerald Graff. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2012. 179-189. Print.
Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum. Tenth edition. Edited by Laurence Behrens and Leonard J. Rosen. New York: Longman Publishers, pp. 371-377, 2008.
According to Behaviorinfluence.org, this new thought process is reflecting in the fashion trends of today, which further impact what women and men prefer to wear today. This trend is often times executed by the women of the society. This style of dressing is to show off the body to the opposite sex and sometimes the same sex. Sex appeal is a prominent theme in women’s
Allyn & Bacon Guide to Writing. John D. Ramage, John C. Bean, and June Johnson.
The aim of these collections is the attempt to de-emphasize biological differences between genders. And with the absence of gender markings, clothes are devoid of sexuality. We could take David Robert Jones, known as David Bowie, who was an English singer and actor, as an example; looking back his androgynous appearance seemed very radical but today he is still an icon of how two genders can exist in one personality. Bowie expressed his personality and identity not only through the way of living, but also through the way of dressing. Jo B. Paoletti, professor of American Studies at the University of Maryland in College Park, where she teaches courses related to everyday life, including fashion, claims “Fashion, you see, is in the mind. You have to think differently before you can dress differently. By changing their clothes, people risk changing their whole lives and they are frightened. “(2015: 68) This quote one more time proves the idea which goes through ages- there is a great importance of fashion in expressing one’s status, beliefs and sexuality. A lot of famous designers around the world create unisex or hybrid clothes in 2016, for instance such company as Burberry, with a chief creative officer, Christopher Baily, has presented spring/summer collection of androgynous clothing. The fact that one of the most influential fashion developers creates such clothes shows the popularity of gender- neutral dressing at present. Another example of gender- neutral collection that I would like to give is Zara. Zara is a Spanish clothing and accessories retailer based in Arteixo, Galicia. The company was founded in 1975 by Amancio Ortega and Rosalía Mera. Its main aim from the day of establishment has been to reach out for so-called ‘common-people’, who cannot afford designers’ clothes, but wish to dress fashionably. So, in March of 2016 the brand has introduced a range of
Hence, in the contemporary fashion industry, the sexualisation and objectification of women’s bodies remain, which means female models and their bodies are sexualized as a beautiful object offering pleasure to others. It is noted that sexualization also means the frequent erotic presentation of women’s bodies in the public spaces (Gill, 2007). Fashion media are more likely to disseminate beauty and images of women’s bodies, which provides a lot of opportunities for people to see the female body as an object. It is worth noticing that men still are dominant in the fashion industry, although this industry is mostly catering for women. For instance, most of head designers who are the main image-makers in the industry are men while women are at the bottom of this industry (Wilson, 2005). More importantly, models’ bodies are always viewed by others in this industry. Their bodies are displayed in the catwalk shows, in the fashion magazines, in the campaigns on the streets, etc. As a consequence, gazed by dominant men in this industry and many consumers all over the world, women need to be read as objects for meeting their demands. Also, female models selected by dominant men need to be meet the standard of beauty that formulated by these men. Their bodies need to be coded sexually with specific meanings by men as well. As Gill (2007)
Lock, Simon. “Rewiring Fashion Week” The Business of Fashion. N.P., 27 September 2013. Web. 21 October 2013
The continuous adoption of new fashions and trends in America, among the numerous styles of available clothing worldwide, parallels to Darwin's theory of natural selection. The motivation for a fashion revolution exemplifies the need for social or gender groups to express their unique identity and feelings through clothing. In turn, this stimulated the rise of the fashion industry all together. Fashion culture has always defined itself by change, whether it is social, political, or economical, it is a constant search for the newest trend. This gives it an explicit similarity with other systems that rely on continual innovation. America has gone through various style changes in its history. As ideas and inspiration change, style must do so too. Fashion has changed dramatically, from very modest lengthy dresses progressing toward the most risqué fashion ever seen in history, due to these social transformations. Clothing, and more generally, style, is an important non-verbal and possibly emotional representation of an individual's status and feeling towards society. Over the course of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, changes in American society have influenced many changes in American culture, especially in women’s fashion trends throughout the years.
McCormick, K., Waller, G., & Flower, L. (1987). Reading Texts: Reading, Responding, Writing. Massachussetts: D.C. Heath and Company.
Picture the positive impact in this women’s self-esteem if magazines started showing women with different types of bodies instead of negatively influencing them like it’s happening right now. Even though showing healthier models could help increasing women’s self-esteem and get rid of the expectations they are pressured to meet right now, there’s a crucial factor that keeps fashion industry from stopping this; the money factor. Marianne Thesander suggests that the fashion industry creates such unreal ideals of femininity to sell products; “ The fashion and beauty industries can always sell their products by fabricating new ideal images which also appeal to the more liberated woman, who rarely likes to admit that it is important to them to be attractive.” The idea that an unrealistic and unobtainable image of feminine beauty is necessary to sell fashion and beauty products is advocated by the marketers of such products, and discussed by Naomi Wolf in her text, The Beauty Myth: “The advertisers who make women’s mass culture possible depend on making women feel bad enough about their faces and their bodies to spend more money on worthless or pain-inducing products than they would if they felt innately beautiful.” For example, The Body Shop uses reverse psychology to foster a
Steele, Valerie. Fifty Years of Fashion: New Look to Now. New Haven: Yale UP, 1997. Print.
Here in America, the conventional definition of beauty is what is perceptible in any form of our popular culture. This includes television, movies, music videos, billboards, fashion blogs, social media (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter), as well as anything ran on print and in mainstream media. The business strategy that is often used in these forms of media is that, women’s bodies are often used as a tool for advertising products that are entirely not related to the items in play, for instance, fancy cars, liquor, as well as guns (Kitch 56). Much as utilizing women’s bodies as a tool for selling the products that are totally unrelated
Kirszner, Laurie G., and Stephen R. Mandell. Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing. Compact 8th. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2011. Print.