Degree Type
Honors Capstone Project
Date of Submission
Spring 5-1-2006
Capstone Advisor
Linda Alcoff
Honors Reader
Janet Dodd; Glenda Gross
Capstone Major
Women's and Gender Studies
Capstone College
Arts and Science
Audio/Visual Component
no
Capstone Prize Winner
no
Won Capstone Funding
no
Honors Categories
Humanities
Subject Categories
Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | Journalism Studies | Political Science | Women's Studies
Abstract
This thesis explores different disciplinary studies and discussions of dress, and more specifically, the use of dress in constructing a gendered identity and sexual identity. To conduct this research, I performed a literature review and referenced various social psychological, sociological, and/or feminist theoretical frameworks. I argue that dress cannot serve as any sort of innate or accurate indicator of sexual identity; rather, the meanings associated with dress are socially produced and vary across time and place. Evidence for this argument emerges only after a literature review, as one can recognize a common theme linking the literature, or perhaps a commonly overlooked theme in some works of the literature review. In arguing this, I hope to better peoples’ understanding of how dress is feminized, the role of identity in the production of dress, how it works to reinforce and/or resist gender (in relation to race, class, and sexuality) binaries, divisions, categories and inequality. I also hope to address how people use dress as a form of social resistance and as a means to form community.
Recommended Citation
Stevens, Jean, "I Am What I Wear: The Use of Dress in Constructing and Evaluating Sexual Identity" (2006). Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All. 612.
https://surface.syr.edu/honors_capstone/612
Creative Commons License
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