ABSTRACT
One of the more powerful and prevalent objections to fashion theorists and fashion theories is that they either totally ignore the body or fail to give enough attention to the place of the body in fashion. Theoretical preoccupation and emphasis on the ‘textual and the discursive’, they say, disembodies fashion and neglects ‘the place and significance of the body’ in fashion. On a different level, there is also the matter of trying to find the natural or unadorned body. One’s pose, gesture, bodily attitude and so on, are all the products of the local culture that one finds oneself in. Every little girl learns ‘nice’, ‘ladylike’ ways of sitting; every little boy is teased by his pals for throwing ‘like a girl’. A quick and unscientific survey of popular websites and newspaper articles brings the news that many people think that ‘fashion’ is to blame for the epidemic of eating disorders and unhappy young women.
