Understanding feminist backlash through a fashionable framework: A content analysis of "Vogue" Magazine

Abstract

Drawing from feminist, post-modern and performative theory this investigation sets out to determine whether fashion is empowering or constraining for women in a period of US political backlash. Incorporating anthropological, historical, philosophical and sociological approaches the application of fashion in Vogue Magazine is assessed through a macroscopic content analysis using a systematic random sample methodology. Data is assessed according to twenty-three quantitative variables. A qualitative analysis determines the presence of subculture style, menswear fashion influences, functional fashion, work-suitability, and the relation of clothing in reference to the body. These conceptual variables answer the research question through tangible forms and demonstrate, in conjunction with theory, how fashion works as language to empower women. These findings indicate that in addition to providing women with means of subverting social constructions of gender, fashion and Vogue are catalysts for cultural change and work to neutralize the constraining movement that backlash politics imposed on the visibility of women.