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- Volume 10, Issue 1, 2023
Clothing Cultures - The Uniform: Symbols of Power, Propaganda and Organization in Popular Culture, Sept 2023
The Uniform: Symbols of Power, Propaganda and Organization in Popular Culture, Sept 2023
- Editorial
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- Articles
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Disrobing peace: A naked exploration of the semiosis of UN peacekeepers’ uniforms
More LessUnited Nations (UN) peacekeepers have the responsibility of aiding nations that are affected by conflicts or disasters in their efforts to achieve peace. They are often referred to as ‘blue berets’ or ‘blue helmets’ due to the distinctly recognized light-blue coloured headwear during their deployments. While peacekeepers themselves represent international bodies of ‘peace’, ‘stability’ and ‘protection’, their uniforms, on the other hand, represent more complex symbols of culture and identity. The unique combination of this blue headwear worn by the peacekeepers in combination with clothing from their national institutions, such as military battledress, are more than mere items of clothing. Rather, the colour, material and style of the UN peacekeeper uniform represent juxtaposing economic, social and ideological symbols, that influence both micro (individual and group) and macro (organizational) behaviours, interactions and culture. Using data collected from semi-structured interviews with international human rights and gender experts from various fields and institutions, including media and journalism, legal, military and non-governmental organizations, this article examines the semiosis of UN peacekeepers’ uniforms. By focusing specifically on military personnel, the article discusses how traditional notions of the militarized solider have been appropriated and reimagined into the figure of the peacekeeper. I discuss that while uniforms continue to be used as symbols of ‘peace’ by the UN to sustain its institutional power and legitimacy in world politics, the ‘blue beret’ is often seen as a token of ‘fear’ or ‘distrust’ among host-peacekeeping nationals, thereby revealing the contradictory, and oft-times problematic, nature of UN peacekeeping.
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Swimsuits as uniforms: Bodily transformation, control and transgression
Authors: Lisa J. Hackett and Jo CoghlanThis article considers how national swimsuits are more than team garments worn at international events such as the Olympics. In their development and construction as well as the public contexts within which they are worn, swimsuits have a long history of transforming and controlling swimmers’ bodies and when the swimsuit fails to control or transform, the swimmer rather than the swimsuit is blamed for any transgressions. This article follows the development of the competitive swimsuit from the Victorian era, which required swimmers to fully cover their body, through to the mid-twentieth century when swimsuits revealed more and more of the body, before returning to full body racing swimsuits in the late twentieth century. For women, swimsuits have had a history of regulating their public bodies. For female competitive swimmers, national swimsuits have been particularly problematic because the design radically changed how their bodies looked when competing. Similarly, swimsuits for transgendered competitive swimmers overly focus on body image. In transforming and controlling the competitive swimmers’ bodies, and in punishing transgressions, it is argued that this impacts on the wearer’s identity and well-being.
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School uniforms and the menstrual stain dilemma
More LessBased on news reports of girls being period-shamed because of menstrual stains on school uniforms, and how female students are forced to remain at home during their menstruating days, the article details the traumatic impact of such incidents. The manner in which these incidents reflect and reinforce menstrual etiquette is analysed against the backdrop of the dominant menstrual culture. Menstrual narratives of women from different cultural contexts have been recounted to comprehend the day-to-day menstrual experiences of women. The article does not place an exclusive emphasis on any single cultural setting and takes up menstrual stories and studies from diverse countries such as India, Kenya, Tanzania and the United Kingdom, highlighting the global nature of the issue discussed. The study, therefore, goes beyond focus on specific cultural locations and attempts to locate the similarities of menstrual experiences across cultural boundaries, and the uniformity that underlie heterogeneous individual menstrual experiences, and sheds light on everyday menstruality. Real-life stories of women becoming victims of and how they contest the dominant social perception of menstrual bloodstains are followed by a discussion on the stain shame and menstrual dignity. Debates surrounding menstrual stains and school uniforms as well as instructional materials for adolescent girls which deal with this issue and the impact it has on their self-esteem and period positivity are also explored.
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Superhero uniforms: Challenging and redefining heroic identity
More LessIt is through superhero costumes that heroic identity is established. Superhero clothing, such as masks, capes and bright colours, not only establishes the superhero narrative but also plays a vital role in the superhero’s identity as distinct from other superheroes, but also from the general public. It is through costume that superheroes are distinguished with many immediately recognized across and on multi-platforms. However, in recent years, western societies have been described as transitioning into a post-heroic era. This article will analyse how superhero costumes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) have adapted and mutated in recent years to discuss our changing understanding of heroism. This article will explore how the shift from ‘costume’ to ‘uniform’ reflects superheroes becoming part of a formalized and organized governmental unit, considering the role of heroic agency and the superhero’s moral responsibility for their actions. By focusing on costumes and uniforms, this article will discuss how heroic identity is becoming more fluid, and good and evil are no longer presented as binaries or absolutes. The nuanced and flawed superhero characters facilitate to create distinction, and this is reflected in their dress. The article will consider the ways in which such ‘human’ flaws facilitate an identity through dress that gives the character agency.
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Adopting, rejecting and moderating the academic uniform: How Finland arrived at its current approach to academic dress
More LessIn 1640, Finland’s first university was inaugurated, and while it issued bachelor degrees, the degrees of master (1643 >) and doctor (1781) were conferred as people were ‘promoted’ to the academy. The Finnish War saw Finland ceded to Imperial Russia in 1809, and class-centric uniformed approaches were taken to the academic dress of students, the academy-at-large and professors with civil appointments. In 1840, Finland formalized an approach to academic uniform that is still followed today but differs remarkably from the common ‘cap and gown’ graduation cultures seen elsewhere. With a general absence of graduation ceremonies, Finland preserves an ongoing tradition of tailcoats, laurel wreaths, master’s rings, doctoral top hats and doctoral swords. Yet Finland’s schools have no uniform, bachelor’s and master’s degree holders have no academic dress, and there are strict regulations that restrict the wearing of doctoral dress to university opening and conferral events, and doctoral examinations. Finland’s academic ‘uniform’ tells a tale of not only how the approach to academic uniform evolved but also how one of the ‘big hitters’ in education is strongly influenced by issues of social class and equality, despite having one of the more distinctive uniforms on the academic stage.
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Dazzled by brass and scarlet: The role of the redcoat in nineteenth-century British literature
More LessSexual promiscuity was common in men of all classes and occupations throughout the nineteenth century. In spite of this, however, only middle-to-upper-class men or members of the military are associated with pre-marital sex within the mid-Victorian novel. The gentleman figure is used as a moral lesson about ‘proper’ conduct and remaining within the rigid confines of class boundaries, with the fallen woman embodying the worst case scenario of overstepping social norms. As the common soldier could provide neither social advancement nor a more financially beneficial arrangement, their positioning as the nineteenth century’s ‘other’ literary seducer seems initially perplexing. The key to their allure lay in their bright-red uniforms, items of clothing so known to induce ‘scarlet fever’ in women that the British Army used this as a recruitment tactic. This article will examine the dangerous sex appeal associated with the nineteenth-century soldier and the myriad reasons why this negative portrayal endured throughout the era. From the scandalous tales of Napoleonic camp wives to the geographical and social mobility offered by adopting the uniform, contemporary anxieties surrounding martial sexuality and its interplay with colonial power led to a range of negative portrayals of redcoats in British literature of the period.
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- Corrigendum
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