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the (316), and (140), that (66), this (40), for (39), fashion (38), burqa (35), with (31), about (30), are (27), women (25), muslim (24), not (24), beauty (21), from (20), but (20), they (20), politics (19), all (19), 2009 (18), ban (17), their (17), what (16), #threadbared (14), 2010 (14), france (14), french (14), you (14), which (14), have (13), sartorial (13), these (13), 2011 (12), new (12), why (12), under (12), has (12), wear (12), obama (12), august (11), sarkozy (11), its (11), also (11), how (11), other (10), july (10), style (10), war (10), mimi (10), there (10), givenchy (10), would (10), rights (10), bill (10), like (9), comment (9), september (9), couture (9), can (9), against (9), nguyen (9), more (9), might (9), political (9), when (9), who (9), such (9), get (8), hijab (8), racism (8), racial (8), thi (8), tagged (8), filed (8), some (8), was (8), through (8), course (8), june (7), 2012 (7), 2013 (7), fashioning (7), human (7), state (7), designers (7), two (7), than 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ar a pair of perfectly boring shorts and significantly bare her legs which made the news rounds as a potentially shocking deviation from propriety msnbc com insists first lady s fashions pushing the envelope propriety is of course a disciplinary discourse that necessarily indexes a slew of racial fantasies and sexual anxieties about representative i e quintessentially american bodies we ve witnessed this anxious convergence before in the controversy about michelle obama s bared arms although copious photographic evidence of the blue blooded jacqueline kennedy in sleeveless sheathes demonstrates that bared arms are nothing new for a first lady not all sartorial sniffing at michelle obama s wardrobe is necessarily racist of course but such small controversies as bared arms or legs do transpire in a nation long troubled by racial regimes that in closely scrutinizing feminine black bodies ascribed to them at worst an uncontrollable carnality and at best an under civilized corporeality thankfully michelle obama s bared arms a k a thunder and lightening a k a the first guns have their own blog in which together they ponder the media obsession with themselves and over at the kitchen table black feminist academics melissa harris lacewell and yolanda pierce also ques tion the not so hidden undercurrent of racial fantasy and sexual anxiety that drove the initial discussion about the first lady s fitness _____________________ meanwhile robin givhan considers the sartorial sensibilities of the townhall shouters as they wage war against health care and the civic obligation to care for the poor or the ailing surely a socialist trojan horse and against barack obama the black muslim foreign communist nazi infiltrator they fear will bring an resolute end to the white america they know and love so well that these two goals are brought together as one and the same is made explicit in many of the posters and protests for givhan this sartorial spectacle is about authority the challenge to it by those in the costume of the average guy or gal a lot of them look as though they could be attending a sporting event and the reiteration of it by those politicians at the receiving end of their vitriol be suitted in full washington regalia or as givhan argues the underlying focus of this grudge match is of course about power as concentrated in congress the presidency the special interests the wealthy the rage emerges from a feeling of helplessness that some version of reform is going to occur whether these citizens like it or not while surely this sartorial dynamic of a grassroots movement called forth to challenge unfair government matches the portrait the protesters hope to convey i m not convinced that this spectacle as such can be understood apart from its volatile racial dynamics on the one hand it seems the average guy or gal as a proxy civic body necessarily implicates what george lipsitz might call a possessive investment in whiteness especially in his or her sartorial choices that conjure as they do for givhan the real america on the other hand the somber suited politician as another sort of proxy civic body is undermined in his whiteness by proximity to the black muslim foreign communist nazi infiltrator in this racial logic the suit bespeaks the politician s demoted status as middle management an obama lackey as such the politician is duly stripped of his authority to represent the interests of real america which in the racist imaginary most certainly would not include the black and brown disadvantaged as tavia nyong o observes the spectre of death panels is in a way as old as post civil war hysteria about freed slaves gaining political supremacy and riding roughshod over the master race thus when givhan ends her piece we should be clear about just who the hated boss is and why washington s power brokers have suited up to underscore their authority and the seriousness of the subject matter and bully for them but their attire also says i am the boss of you all those howling citizens in their t shirts and ball caps and baggy shorts are saying no you re not thanks to fashion for writers s meggy wang for bringing this article to my attention _____________________ in a couple of much briefer notes shabana mir tackles the latest in sartorial islamophobia the burqini ban controversy a swimming pool in the paris suburb of emerainville has refused entry to a young muslim woman wearing a burqini and as mir points out this most recent ban is about a higher order of hygiene but the burqini is dangerous it is a germ it might spread it is a visual sign of the disease islam that right wingers wish to eliminate from the body politic it is not an accepted form of minority religion that keeps its head down and tries to look nonchalant it is a little too loud mouthed in its visual message how then may it be tolerated in public spaces also fatshionista and queer fat femme take on peta s latest wrongheaded campaign in a long history of idiot advocacy turning rage into productivity queer fat femme posted a reader s photoshop transformation of the original billboard which originally read save the whales lose the blubber go vegetarian 1 comment filed under fashioning race linkage tagged as blackness burqa fat obama politics by mimi thi nguyen august 11 2009 5 49 pm on burqa tourism just a quick note the daily mail s liz jones dons a burqa for a week to register her expert opinion on what it s like to wear a burqa which both muslimah media watch s krista and jezebel s sadie promptly tear to bits of course identity tourism and the resulting revelations constitute a familiar documentary genre from john howard griffin s black like me to tyra bank s fat suit on her reality show in which a marginalized population s structured silence having been denied access or capacity for voice in its multiple permutations including the often racial or civilizational ascription of partial and therefore disabled selfhood becomes the occasion for another s speech from mmw all i can say to this is no no you don t know how they feel or at the very least you can t say for certain that you do you don t know why they re wearing what they re wearing or what meaning it has for them yes some muslim women feel marginalized and objectified and sometimes this even relates to their clothing other women might wear exactly the same clothing and feel entirely different or might even feel more marginalized and objectified by non muslims than by their male relatives spending a week in a burqa especially when this experience is entered into already with fear and disgust towards the burqa does not make someone an expert on how women who wear these things feel or on how they should react to racism and abuse leave a comment filed under hijab politics tagged as burqa by mimi thi nguyen july 30 2009 7 33 pm linkage burqas gay taxes fatshion and more in a guest column at muslimah media watch alison mccarthy examines former vanity fair editor tina brown s recent claims that obama sequesters secretary of state hilary clinton under an imaginary burqa also from muslimah media watch reuters found just 367 women in france in full veil farah at nuseiba examines the mini explosion of australian op eds on the burqa using roland barthes mythologies and global voices rounds up more opinions from the interwebs about the notion of a ban 8asians lets us know about a short documentary video called beautiful sisters written and directed by connie chung for an undergraduate filmmaking course on the infamous eyelid surgeries that some consider whitewashing or self hatred when asian women or men undergo these procedures on this issue i enjoy teach katherine zane s nuanced discussion from the wonderful collection talking visions multicultural feminism in a transnational age edited by ella shohat marc jacobs jumps into the same sex marriage fray with two limited edition political t shirts both proclaiming i pay my taxes i want my rights between the floating dollar sign and american flag in one design and stylish lesbian couple with equally stylish child in the other there is too much civic duty taxes access to rights to untangle here citing the work of lila abu lughod a critique of sarkozy s proposed burqa ban dubs it what not to wear imperialism having recently discovered fashion projects both a print journal and a blog i was particularly impressed by this essay about george amponsah and cosima spender s documentary the importance of being elegant which examines the congolese subculture centered around the worship of clothes kitende known as la société des ambianceurs et personnes élégantes the society of revelers and elegant people or in short la sape the documentary can be see on vimeo the los angeles times visits the paris musée de la contrefaçon museum of counterfeiting a fascinating five room short course in the history of knock offs counterfeits and blatant infringements lesley at fatshionista responds to the responses to beth ditto s designer collaboration with british plus size department store evans finally reading through the abstracts for the recent academic conference fashions business practices in historical perspective turns out to be quite fascinating there are lots of intriguing paper titles albert churella the clothes make the women skirts pants and railway labor during world war ii j malia mcandrew feminized diplomacy japanese fashion magazines and u s censorship in occupied japan shakila yocob branding beauty indigenous knowledge to the forefront but especially timely is efrat tseeon s in search of the ethics of ethical fashion which points out some significant blindspots in the rhetoric and practice leave a comment filed under hijab politics linkage tagged as burqa ethical fashion fat by mimi thi nguyen july 23 2009 1 53 pm couture coincidence we re still mulling the implications of the givenchy couture runway show at the recent paris fashion week with its perhaps lucky maybe deliberate coincidence with french president nicolas sarkozy s condemnation of the burqa a specific garment that in this instance seems to stand in for any face obscuring garment with a muslim y connotation as a walking prison the blogosphere certainly recognizes the coincidence if not quite sure what to do with it going for the morbid commentary fashionologie calls them couture corpse brides at the lux style file they note that givenchy s creative director riccardo tisci definitely struck design genius and political controversy by showing two burqas in the famed houses sic line givenchy s modern arabian nights theme paired well with the landscape of current political events in france meanwhile the lone comment ups the ante by assigning value to the artistic efforts of the couture house including presumably this latest couture collection while denying it to the sartorial practices of muslim others the house of givenchy is excellent i agree with french president nicholas sarkozay to ban the burquas sic there is also confusion about the direction and meaning of influence style guru finds that givenchy s runway suggests the middle east is catching up with western fashion an odd statement considering that influence would seem to flow in the reverse could the colonial divide between the modern west and the premodern rest be organizing this appraisal what johannes fabian calls a persistent and systematic tendency to place the referents of anthropology in a time other than the present of the producer of anthropological discourse meanwhile new york magazine s fashion blog the cut argues that just because it looks like a burka doesn t mean it was inspired by a burka citing the luxist s middle eastern inspired fashion pushes buttons were designers stating they were for or against the ban do they endorse freedom of religious expression or were they speaking out against the oppression of women besotted with so many images of the controversial garment in the news recently perhaps they were simply inspired to put a piece or two on the catwalks or were they out to get press when i ask designers questions like these they always look confused says david wolfe creative director of the doneger group whose job is to predict trends for fashion professionals they operate so much from their gut whatever the media focuses on the sensitive designers pick up the vibe whether consciously or subconsciously fashion is an endless drug and designers look for the new high anything that hasn t been seen or worked to death cutting through the obfuscating hand waving why should we interpret any particular designer s confusion as borne of a lofty mind rather than shallow waters why insist that the garments on the givenchy runway are not inspired by the burqa besides the fact that it is the abaya and not the burqa obviously referenced by these garments just because a designer might be inarticulate or uninformed or otherwise denies the influence whatever the controversial garment or pattern in question harem pants kimonos indonesian batik it circulates throughout political social and cultural discourses that precedes the designer that the designer does not author and is not their point of origin we would do well to recall here art critic rosalind krauss s critique of the originality of the avant garde as a modernist myth and with this critique in mind what does it mean to argue that the abaya or the burqa hasn t been seen or worked to death before by whom and in any case hussein chalayan already did it others are sure there must be a purposeful connection even a deliberate intervention at work glam damn it new york applauds givenchy in an ode to the unifying power of beauty leave it up to the fashion world to take something that is so politically controversial and turn it into something chic enough to inspire people of all faiths to wear it this seems to be a trend in paris fashion as designers such as john galliano and carolina herrera have designed abayas similar to burqas minus the face covering and plan to sell them in saudi arabia meanwhile starworks calls it a brilliant move by riccardo tisci givenchy s greative director and referencing the french debate opines personally i feel you shouldn t dictate what people wear but when riccardo makes them look this good monsieur sarkozy will you re consider some commentators have taken note of histories of orientalism with regard to these collection streamline moderne raises an eyebrow at some of the runway s aesthetic details this new collection was shown in paris but the girls all had their hair dyed black everything was reminiscent of morocco and the odalisques in harems which were so popular during the colonial period the musical accompaniment consisted of musicians playing karkabou meanwhile quizilbash ponders givenchy s collection in light of sarkozy s statements to spin out their potential for disciplining more difference to be fair a lot of people throughout the world muslims included don t particularly fancy t...