Lesbians as a Subculture: style representation of the self through consumption

This paper intends to create discussions on the ways personal styles are presented and perceived within the lesbian subcultural community by individual lesbians through consumption, basing on in-depth semi-structured interviews with lesbians from Sweden and Taiwan. Style in this paper is contextuali...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Chang, Yu-rong
Format: Others
Language:English
Published: Malmö högskola, Fakulteten för kultur och samhälle (KS) 2009
Subjects:
Online Access:http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-23781
Description
Summary:This paper intends to create discussions on the ways personal styles are presented and perceived within the lesbian subcultural community by individual lesbians through consumption, basing on in-depth semi-structured interviews with lesbians from Sweden and Taiwan. Style in this paper is contextualized mainly as dress modes, bodily appearance and adornments. From the interviews I found different degrees of femininity and masculinity expressed by each respondent, and their ways of interpreting and make sense of their own bodies and comments on other styles. There is an apparent lack within the current gender discourses to support cross-dressing and other acts which contradict the conventional way of doing gender. Differences in one’s self-taste of style representation and her conception of gender also lead to different degrees of acceptance to certain styles and behaviors.