Trans* inclusivity in fashion retail: Disrupting the gender binary with queer perspectives

This study is about gender-inclusive fashion retail, with a focus on trans* inclusivity. It is based on primary and secondary research of trans* issues in fashion. This research resulted in an inclusive pop-up shop that eliminated the reinforcement of the gender binary present in conventional fashion retail. Primary research consisted of semi-structured shop-and-talk interviews with end users and industry experts. All end-user interviews were conducted in Toronto in a minimum of two different fashion retail stores, such as one department store and one gendered store. The expert interviews were conducted in a context that matched the individual, such a designer’s home studio. Secondary research used a blended framework of queer, intersectional and post-capitalist theories to analyse trans* discrimination, unisex fashion and transness in popular culture. Key themes derived from these areas were cultural variance of gender expression, lack of accurate trans* representation and superficial queer initiatives. Fashion is based on the socially constructed gender binary, which excludes trans* people and cisgender (cis) people who are gender non-conforming in dress. The heteronormative and cis-normative beauty standards of fashion shame those who do not follow them. The current trans* representation in fashion is minimal and problematic. Real trans* people and narratives are not broadcasted by mainstream media; however, tokenized trans* celebrities and cis people acting as trans* mouthpieces are. This research questions how services and environments of fashion retail can be redesigned to be gender inclusive, by normalizing disruptive gender expression and increasing trans* visibility. This research is important because of the empowerment, validation and safety that queer and trans* people deserve when in public spaces.

Tyrone Power

One of the most popular actors of the Classical Hollywood period, Tyrone Power’s appeal was initially based around his outstanding beauty, his looks remaining key to his star persona throughout his 25-year career and almost 50 films, most of which were made at Twentieth Century-Fox, before his untimely death in 1958 at the age of 44. Although Power was one of Classical Hollywood’s major stars of the pre- and post-war years, he remains academically neglected. This book presents the first substantial academic study of Power and employs a range of approaches, including stardom and genre theory, to reappraise his career from various angles including gender, genre and image. Textual analysis coincides with discussions of Power’s multi-layered performances in a variety of genres while engaging with industry systems, specifically Twentieth Century-Fox, his home studio for almost two decades, and situates Power’s performances within the contexts of industry regulations, such as the Production Code, and industry technological advances, such as CinemaScope. A key historical figure of American cinema, Power’s significant career trajectory from pretty boy ‘pin-up’ in the 1930s to mature, virile action-adventure star at the close of his career demonstrates the natural progression of a ‘normal’ life and his ability to remain relevant across the decades. This book is part of a welcome new wave of scholarly studies on overlooked stars, such as Power, whose careers were initially based around their looks but who maintained a career as they aged.

Track and Trace, and Other Collaborative Art/Archaeology Bubbles in the Phygital Pandemic

This paper describes our creative responses to a surface assemblage (a scatter) of lithic artefacts encountered on either side of a worn track across a field early on in the pandemic. Our art/archaeology response takes place within a phygital nexus in which artefacts or assemblages can be instantiated either physically or digitally, or both. In the nexus we create, connect and explore an ontological multiplicity of – more or less – physical and digital skeuomorphs and other more standard forms of records for sharing (i.e. Latour’s immutable mobiles, such as photographs), but rendered with radically different properties and affordances, at different scales, with different apparatus. These include interactive Reflectance Transformation Images, graphical surface models, machine intelligence style transfer, and 3D prints, all of which were produced in a variety of isolated analytical “bubble” settings and transmitted to and from (both digitally and physically) a home office in an isolated Hampshire village and a home studio in a London suburb. Our approach is to describe, diffractively, the ontological shifts and itineraries associated with some of these objects and assess how this assemblage came to matter as an art/archaeology installation. Ultimately, some of these deterritorialised, (re)colourised, affective, biodegradable, and diffractively born metamorphic instars, now inscribed with new meanings, are returned to the original findspot of the lithics to be (re)discovered.

Painted Pomegranates and Needlepoint Rabbis

Exploring a contemporary Judaism rich with the textures of family, memory, and fellowship, Jodi Eichler-Levine takes readers inside a flourishing American Jewish crafting movement. As she travelled across the country to homes, craft conventions, synagogue knitting circles, and craftivist actions, she joined in the making, asked questions, and contemplated her own family stories. Jewish Americans, many of them women, are creating ritual challah covers and prayer shawls, ink, clay, or wood pieces, and other articles for family, friends, or Jewish charities. But they are doing much more: armed with perhaps only a needle and thread, they are reckoning with Jewish identity in a fragile and dangerous world. The work of these crafters embodies a vital Judaism that may lie outside traditional notions of Jewishness, but, Eichler-Levine argues, these crafters are as much engaged as any Jews in honoring and nurturing the fortitude, memory, and community of the Jewish people. Craftmaking is nothing less than an act of generative resilience that fosters survival. Whether taking place in such groups as the Pomegranate Guild of Judaic Needlework or the Jewish Hearts for Pittsburgh, or in a home studio, these everyday acts of creativity—yielding a needlepoint rabbi, say, or a handkerchief embroidered with the Hebrew words tikkun olam—are a crucial part what makes a religious life.