ABSTRACT
This chapter broadly places the contemporary view of feminine styles in the context of the history of feminist approaches, where femininity has been coded as oppression. First, this chapter begins with considering how and why – in comparison to the study of femininity from feminist perspectives – masculinity studies has emerged as a field where different kinds of questions and assumptions operate around gender. Consideration then turns to engagements with femininity during second wave feminism beginning in the 1960s, with specific attention to the role the 1968 Miss America pageant protest now plays in the dominant memory of feminism past. The conception of femininity as a “masquerade” and the implications of this are also considered. Discussion moves through the 1980s and 1990s, to consider third wave feminist engagement with feminine styles, and the criticism of this that followed. This historical track brings the reader to contemporary discussions of feminine styles, and in particular the focus on postfeminism and raunch culture that occurred in the mid- to late 2000s and that persists in various forms today.
