Conspicuous Waist: Queer Dress in the "Long Eighteenth Century"

McNeil, PK

Conspicuous Waist: Queer Dress in the "Long Eighteenth Century"

McNeil, PK

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Publisher:: Yale University Press
Publication Type:: Chapter
Citation:: A Queer History of Fashion: From the Closet to the Catwalk, 2013, 1, pp. 71 - 107
Issue Date:: 2013-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	McNeil, PK https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2151-4196	en_US
dc.contributor.editor	Steele, V	en_US
dc.date.issued	2013-01	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	A Queer History of Fashion: From the Closet to the Catwalk, 2013, 1, pp. 71 - 107	en_US
dc.identifier.isbn	9780300196702	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/26854
dc.description.abstract	What are the main contours of the history of queer mens fashion? What are its narratives? How has the concept of queer mens fashion been put together within the history of dress and the history of sexuality? How does the body and gesture work together to create a fashionable image? Why are young gay men attacked if they appear thin and pretty? What are the precursors for this way of being in the world? Why does society blame gay male designers for attracting female shoppers? How do persecuted minorities manage their identity via clothing and fashionable looks? These are big questions indeed. They can be tested in part through an historical overview and a series of case studies reaching back in time, and in so doing, we see both how stereotypes travel across time and how they are formed at specific historical moments. This chapter will consider the tantalizing but difficult hypothesis that gay style actually sets trends. Its what straight people take fashion from. This overview begins with the development of sodomitical subcultures in early-modern western Europe, that is, the period 15001800. Much can be recovered of the fashionable taste of outsider males including their apparent liking of vibrant colors, clashing colors and patterns, and sometimes also cross-dressing, which seems to have fulfilled the roles of entertainment, ironic pleasure, or occasional sex work. In this backdrop I will unpack the archaeology of queer dressing and explore the queer trace in eighteenth-century Western Europe.	en_US
dc.publisher	Yale University Press	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	A Queer History of Fashion: From the Closet to the Catwalk	en_US
dc.title	Conspicuous Waist: Queer Dress in the "Long Eighteenth Century"	en_US
dc.type	Chapter
utslib.location	New Haven and New York	en_US
utslib.for	1203 Design Practice and Management	en_US
utslib.citation.edition	1	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building/School of Design
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Strength - CCDP - Contemporary Design Practice
utslib.copyright.status	closed_access
pubs.consider-herdc	true	en_US
pubs.edition	1	en_US
pubs.place-of-publication	New Haven and New York	en_US

Abstract:

What are the main contours of the history of queer mens fashion? What are its narratives? How has the concept of queer mens fashion been put together within the history of dress and the history of sexuality? How does the body and gesture work together to create a fashionable image? Why are young gay men attacked if they appear thin and pretty? What are the precursors for this way of being in the world? Why does society blame gay male designers for attracting female shoppers? How do persecuted minorities manage their identity via clothing and fashionable looks? These are big questions indeed. They can be tested in part through an historical overview and a series of case studies reaching back in time, and in so doing, we see both how stereotypes travel across time and how they are formed at specific historical moments. This chapter will consider the tantalizing but difficult hypothesis that gay style actually sets trends. Its what straight people take fashion from. This overview begins with the development of sodomitical subcultures in early-modern western Europe, that is, the period 15001800. Much can be recovered of the fashionable taste of outsider males including their apparent liking of vibrant colors, clashing colors and patterns, and sometimes also cross-dressing, which seems to have fulfilled the roles of entertainment, ironic pleasure, or occasional sex work. In this backdrop I will unpack the archaeology of queer dressing and explore the queer trace in eighteenth-century Western Europe.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/26854