Branded: Corporate Image, Sexual Stereotyping, and the New Face of Capitalism

In the context of unionized workforces covered by collective bargaining agreements, companies have-at most-been required to demonstrate a reasonable relationship between the grooming code and the business\u27s effort to project a corporate image that it believes will result in a larger market share.5 In a small number of cases, sexualized branding that exposes workers to sexual harassment or is predicated upon sexual stereotypes not essential to performance of the job has been curtailed by the antidiscrimination mandate of Title VII.6 However, challenges under Title VII have been effective only where corporate branding is at odds with community norms; where the branding is consistent with community norms that encode sexual stereotypes, customer preferences and community norms become the business justification for branding

Becoming-Bertha: virtual difference and repetition in postcolonial 'writing back', a Deleuzian reading of Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea

Critical responses to Wide Sargasso Sea have seized upon Rhys’s novel as an exemplary model of writing back. Looking beyond the actual repetitions which recall Brontë’s text, I explore Rhys’s novel as an expression of virtual difference and becomings that exemplify Deleuze’s three syntheses of time. Elaborating the processes of becoming that Deleuze’s third synthesis depicts, Antoinette’s fate emerges not as a violence against an original identity. Rather, what the reader witnesses is a series of becomings or masks, some of which are validated, some of which are not, and it is in the rejection of certain masks, forcing Antoinette to become-Bertha, that the greatest violence lies

‘Ten Years Ahead of His Time’: The East End Elegance of Martin Peters

Martin Peters was a successful footballer whose public persona matched the way he played the game, without fuss or fanfare. A key English player of the 1960s, he does not usually feature in discussions about the connection between fashion and football in that decade. The focus is usually placed on players with celebrity status, especially George Best. This paper, working at the intersection of sport and fashion history and cultural studies, broadens the discussion by giving consideration to the non-celebrity-type player. This is done via an examination of the off-field dress and style of Martin Peters. The case is made, from studying the sartorial presentation of Peters, that we can recognize a connection between the player and other young men who favoured a low-key identification with the Mod culture of the time. This position supports a shift within the cultural historical study of British youth and masculine identity from the spectacular to the unspectacular

The Peahen’s Tale, or Dressing Our Parts at Work

However, there may ultimately be no logical way to reconcile decisions that prohibit employers from requiring women to wear revealing outfits and others that permit employers to require them to wear makeup,20 or decisions that prohibit penalizing a woman for being insufficiently feminine and others that permit penalizing a man for being insufficiently masculine.21 In addition, the increasing judicial acceptance of the sex stereotyping theory of sex discrimination under Title VII is in substantial tension with recent cases that insist that sex-differentiated dress and grooming requirements that merely 22 conform to existing social gender norms do not amount to impermissible sex discrimination. Because dress is so crucial a characteristic in sexually dimorphic species, and because it is so closely tied to sexual attractiveness, choice, and power dynamics, employers should be prohibited from requiring women to dress in gender normative ways that reflect those traits even if they believe that such dress codes do not amount to intentional sex stereotyping.223 Where, as here, so many threads come together to demonstrate that sex differences in dress are likely to affect the way that individuals are treated by others, employers should not be permitted to mandate differences that implicate notions of attractiveness or power

The relationship between the first impression that dress creates and college students’ reactions toward it

Dress preserves history, embraces traditions, and links different generations together. With the ability to communicate non-verbally, dress conveys a picture or sends a message about its wearer to those who observe the individual. Therefore, dress can create first impressions for the beholders. Previous research reveals that professional dress creates more positive first impressions. The goal of this study was to identify whether college students would react differently to different types of dress and whether specific types of dress would have influences on college students’ first impressions of a male or female peer. Results of the study indicated that college students did not form positive first impressions upon looking at professional business dress. They preferred casual and business casual attire, which was supported by their indications that they were more willing to have a conversation with those who were dressed in these styles. Both male and female college students expressed their preferences for casual and business casual clothes. The study reinforced findings of previous studies that dress and first impressions are related