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GENDERQUEER FASHION MODELS AND THEIR REPRESENTATIONS OF GENDER IN VISUAL CULTURE.

Anna Germaine Hickey

BCI Visual Art, Hons.

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy (Fashion)

School of Design

Queensland University of Technology

2019

Genderqueer fashion models and their representations of gender in visual culture. i

Keywords

Fashion models

Cultural intermediaries

Fashion

Gender

Queer

Genderqueer fashion models

Transgender fashion models

Andreja Pejić

Casey Legler

Hari Nef

Richie Shazam Khan

Genderqueer fashion models and their representations of gender in visual culture. ii

Abstract

The rise and success of genderqueer fashion models in the twenty-‐

first century indicates wider sociopolitical movements that promote

equality for members of genderqueer communities. Many high-‐profile

genderqueer fashion models build their careers on their gender identity

and are vocal on gender rights issues, which gives them a political

identity. However, these models also embody key tensions in

contemporary gender discourse, as their queer identities are both made

visible and commodified through fashion modelling. For example, while

their queer identities challenge persistent associations between

cisnormative femininity and beauty, these models have also been

criticised for reinforcing heteronormative beauty ideals. And while

including genderqueer fashion models is widely interpreted as heralding

a more socially inclusive industry, their presence might also be read as a

passing trend.

Drawing on Judith Butler’s ([1990] 1999) notion of ‘troubling

gender’ and Pierre Bourdieu’s (1984) notion of ‘cultural intermediation’,

this project examines the contemporary genderqueer fashion model by

analysing fashion editorials, commercial endorsements, artistic outputs

and journalistic coverage. Specifically, it focuses on the ways in which

four models—Andreja Pejić, Hari Nef, Casey Legler and Richie Shazam

Khan—construct and communicate contemporary notions of gender via

their work in the fashion-‐modelling industry. This project argues that

Genderqueer fashion models and their representations of gender in visual culture. iii

genderqueer fashion models make contemporary ideas of gender visible,

offering a new aesthetic language of gender and validating gender

nonconformity in visual culture. In addition, the project proposes that

genderqueer fashion models make their diverse gender identities

culturally and economically valuable as they become increasingly visible

in mainstream channels of visual culture, thus contributing to the wider

discourse of gender politics. An interrogation of how ‘queer’ gender,

supposedly an inclusive, emancipatory concept against cisnormative

gender, also interplays with race and ethnicity, class/social status,

educational level, or even the subjects’ bodily capital and attention

capital in the context of the fashion modelling industry, forms part of

the theoretical contribution of this research.

Genderqueer fashion models and their representations of gender in visual culture. iv

Contents

Keywords ............................................................................................................... i

Abstract ................................................................................................................. ii

Contents ............................................................................................................... iv

List of Figures ....................................................................................................... vii

List of Tables .......................................................................................................... x

Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations .................................................................... xi

Statement of Original Authorship ..................................................................... xviii

Acknowledgements ............................................................................................ xix

A Note on Language ............................................................................................. xx

Chapter 1: Introduction ......................................................................................... 1

Research Question ................................................................................................................... 5

Aims………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….… 9 Framing the genderqueer fashion model .................................................................... 10 Studying images of fashion .......................................................................................... 16

Gap in Literature and Significance of Research ..................................................................... 20

Limitations ............................................................................................................................. 21

Chapter 2: Methodology ...................................................................................... 25

Case Study Methodology ....................................................................................................... 26

Interpretive Analysis .............................................................................................................. 30

Data Selection ........................................................................................................................ 36

Internet-‐Mediated Research ................................................................................................. 38

Case Study Structure .............................................................................................................. 44

Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 45

Chapter 3: Gender and the Fashion Model in History ........................................... 47

Gender and the Fashion Model ............................................................................................. 48

Modelling Masculinity ........................................................................................................... 62

The Fashion Model at the End of the Twentieth Century ...................................................... 66

A Conceptual Shift Away from the Gender Binary ................................................................. 72

Queer Theory ......................................................................................................................... 79

The Contemporary Fashion Model Emerges ......................................................................... 82

Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 86

Chapter 4: The Contemporary and Genderqueer Fashion Model .......................... 88

The Genderqueer Fashion Model Emerges ........................................................................... 89

Genderqueer fashion models and their representations of gender in visual culture. v

Celebrity Culture ................................................................................................................... 90

Fashion Models as Cultural Intermediaries ........................................................................... 93

The Conditions of Genderqueer Fashion Models’ Visibility ................................................ 103 Cultural whiteness ..................................................................................................... 104 The privileged liberal gaze ......................................................................................... 108 Can there really be ‘post-‐gender’ performances? .................................................... 112

Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 120

Chapter 5: Andreja Pejić .................................................................................... 123

Troubling Gender ................................................................................................................ 128 Performing the norms: Femininity ............................................................................ 128 Performing the norms: Masculinity .......................................................................... 132 Performing ambiguity ............................................................................................... 135 Settling in to femininity as a womenswear model .................................................... 151

Pejić as Cultural Intermediary: Pre-‐Transition ..................................................................... 154

Pejić as Cultural Intermediary: Post-‐Transition ................................................................... 163

Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 177

Chapter 6: Casey Legler ..................................................................................... 184

Troubling Gender ................................................................................................................ 187 Performing as a male model ..................................................................................... 188 Performing non-‐normative femininity ...................................................................... 197 Collective troubling ................................................................................................... 208

Legler as Cultural Intermediary ........................................................................................... 217

Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 230

Chapter 7: Hari Nef ............................................................................................ 232

Troubling Gender ................................................................................................................ 234 Troubling gender through fluid aesthetics ................................................................ 235 Using the body + collective troubling ........................................................................ 238 Normative femininity as troubling ............................................................................ 240

Nef as Cultural Intermediary ............................................................................................... 247 Cultural mediation through creative works and collaborations ................................ 256

Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 261

Chapter 8: Richie Shazam Khan .......................................................................... 263

Troubling Gender ................................................................................................................ 265

Khan as Cultural Intermediary ............................................................................................. 278

Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 284

Chapter 9: Discussion and Conclusion ................................................................ 287

Findings ............................................................................................................................... 292 Intersectionality ........................................................................................................ 296 Transgender models and the reinforcement of binary aesthetics ............................ 300 Trend or incremental change in advanced capitalism .............................................. 302

Contribution to Knowledge ................................................................................................. 305

Genderqueer fashion models and their representations of gender in visual culture. vi

Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 307 Future research ......................................................................................................... 308

Bibliography ...................................................................................................... 311

Appendices ........................................................................................................ 324

Appendix A : “The right face at the right time” i-‐D online 2014, photographed by Daniel Jackson, stylist Alistair McKimm .......................................................................................... 324

Appendix B : “Chanel” editorial in Exit Magazine Fall/Winter 2015, photographed by Santiago and Mauricio Sierra, fashion editor and stylist Michaela Dosamantes ................. 331

Appendix C : Hari Nef and Andres Velencoso in “Honeymoon”, CANDY Magazine January 2017,photographed by Sebastian Faena, fashion editor and stylist Sofia Achaval ............. 335

Genderqueer fashion models and their representations of gender in visual culture. vii

List of Figures

Figure 1.1: (top left) Andreja Pejić for Vogue Australia April 2018 ......................................... 8

Figure 1.2: (top right) Casey Legler for Numero Homme Spring/Summer 2018 ..................... 8

Figure 1.3: (bottom left) Hari Nef for CANDY Magazine #10 2017 ......................................... 8

Figure 1.4: (bottom right) Richie Shazam Khan for Dazed Digital February 2016 ................... 8

Figure 3.1: Edward Steichen (American, 1879‒1973), Marion Morehouse in Madeleine Cheruit (French, 1887‒1936). Vogue 1 May 1927 ............................................................... 55

Figure 3.2: Irving Penn (American, b.1917) The twelve most photographed models Vogue 1 May 1947; Meg Mundy, Marilyn Ambrose, Helen Bennett, Dana Jenney, Betty Mclauchlen, Lisa Fonssagrives, Lily Carlson, Dorian Leigh, Andrea Johnson, Elizabeth Gibbons, Kay Hernan and Muriel Maxwell .................................................................................................. 58

Figure 3.3: Twiggy in Yves Saint Laurent for Vogue April 1967, shot by Bert Stern (American, b. 1929) ................................................................................................................................. 59

Figure 3.4: Versace Spring 1994 campaign, shot by Richard Avedon, featuring Christy Turlington, Nadja Auermann, Cindy Crawford, Stephanie Seymour and Claudia Schiffer .... 67

Figure 3.5: Calvin Klein CK one fragrance advertising campaign, Steven Meisel 1994 ......... 70

Figure 3.6: Gisele Bündchen in the 2005 Victoria’s Secret show .......................................... 84

Figure 5.1: Pejić in Jean Paul Gaultier Spring 2012 Couture show, Look 41 ........................ 130

Figure 5.2: HEMA advertisement 2011 for ‘Mega Push-‐Up Bra’ ......................................... 131

Figure 5.3: Pejić in “Things are going to change” i-‐D November 2010, photographed by Thomas Lohr ........................................................................................................................ 135

Figure 5.4: “Gold digger” in Dazed & Confused April 2011 photographed by Anthony Maule, styled by Robbie Spencer .................................................................................................... 139

Figure 5.5: Cover of Dossier Magazine May 2011, photographed by Collier Shorr ............ 141

Figure 5.6: Jean Paul Gaultier Fall 2011 menswear, Look 2, 25, 44 ..................................... 144

Figure 5.7: Jean Paul Gaultier Spring 2011 Couture ............................................................ 145

Figure 5.8: Images from “Victor/Victoria” in Elle Serbia January 2013, photographed by Dusan Reljin, styled by Lauren Bensky ................................................................................ 147

Figure 5.9: Images from Nathan Paul Swimwear campaign, Summer 2012/2013 .............. 149

Figure 5.10: Andreja Pejić in Giles Deacon Fall 2015 show, Look 4/31 ............................... 152

Figure 5.11: “Andreja Pejić: All about that girl”, i-‐D 2015, photographed by Cass Bird ...... 169

Figure 5.12: Cover of GQ Portugal March 2017, photographed by Branislav Simoncik ...... 172

Figure 6.1: Casey Legler photographed by Julian Broad for Observer Magazine March 2013189

Figure 6.2: All Saints Spring 2013 “Portraits of a collection” campaign, photographed by Roger Rich ............................................................................................................................ 189

Figure 6.3: Michael Bastian Fall 2013, Look 30/34 ................................................. 190

Figure 6.4: Excerpts from “Out with the boys” featuring Candice Swanepoel, Casey Legler and Erika Linder, photographed by Cass Bird, published in Muse 2012 .............................. 192

Genderqueer fashion models and their representations of gender in visual culture. viii

Figure 6.5: Linder, Legler and Swanepoel (left to right) in “Out with the boys”, photographed by Cass Bird, published in Muse 2012 .......................................................... 193

Figure 6.6: Casey Legler for Diesel, F/W 2013, photographed by Inez and Vinoodh ........... 196

Figure 6.7: Legler in “YSL”, Vogue Italia July 2017, photographed by Craig McDean .......... 199

Figure 6.8: Tahnee Atkinson in THE UPSIDE’S “Be you” campaign ...................................... 201

Figure 6.9: Legler in “Be you” 2015 campaign, THE UPSIDE, photographed by Jez Smith .. 201

Figure 6.10: Legler in “Be you” 2015 campaign, THE UPSIDE, photographed by Jez Smith 201

Figure 6.11: Legler in “Be you” 2015 campaign, THE UPSIDE, photographed by Jez Smith 202

Figure 6.12: Casey Legler in “Double vision” for FourTwoNine Magazine 2013, photographed by Michael Donovan .................................................................................... 204

Figure 6.13: Casey Legler and Jonjon Battles in “Double vision” for FourTwoNine magazine 2013, photographed by Michael Donovan .......................................................................... 205

Figure 6.14: Casey Legler and Jonjon Battles in “Double vision” for FourTwoNine magazine 2013, photographed by Michael Donovan .......................................................................... 206

Figure 6.15: Andreja Pejić (left) and Casey Legler (right) in “Liberdade De Escolha”, Vogue Brasil June 2013, photographed by Mario Testino .............................................................. 209

Figure 6.16: Legler in “Girls like us”, published in Modern Weekly (China) Fall/Winter 2014, photographed by Txema Yeste ............................................................................................ 212

Figure 6.17: Left to right: Irina K, Marcel Castenmiller, Casey Legler and Chiharu Okunugi, i-‐D online 2014, photographed by Daniel Jackson, stylist Alistair McKimm .......................... 215

Figure 7.1: Nef walking in Hood By Air SS15 runway, NYFW Spring 2015 ........................... 236

Figure 7.2: Nef walking in Eckhaus Latta S/S15 runway ...................................................... 236

Figure 7.3: Nef in the Gucci Men’s wear AW 2016 Ready-‐to-‐wear runway ........................ 236

Figure 7.4: Nef in H&M Studio AW 2016 Ready-‐to-‐wear runway ....................................... 236

Figure 7.5: Dakota Johnson, Hari Nef and Petra Collins in Gucci Bloom campaign image, August 2017, photographed by Glen Luchford .................................................................... 237

Figure 7.6: Hari Nef in The Travel Almanac Autumn/Winter 2017, photographed by Julia Hetta… ................................................................................................................................. 237

Figure 7.7: “Chanel” editorial in Exit Magazine Fall/Winter 2015, photographed by Santiago and Mauricio Sierra, fashion editor and stylist Michaela Dosamantes ............................... 239

Figures 7.8: “Chanel” editorial in Exit Magazine Fall/Winter 2015, photographed by Santiago and Mauricio Sierra, fashion editor and stylist Michaela Dosamantes ................. 240

Figure 7.9: Hari Nef in Adam Selman AW15 Ready-‐to-‐wear runway .................................. 241

Figure 7.10: Hari Nef in Mansur Gavriel 2016 campaign, photographed by Tanya and Zhenya Posternak ................................................................................................................ 242

Figure 7.12: Excerpts from Hari Nef and Andres Velencoso in “Honeymoon”, CANDY Magazine January 2017, photographed by Sebastian Faena, fashion editor and stylist Sofia Achaval ................................................................................................................................ 246

Figure 8.1: Richie Shazam in “Richie Shaϟam”, Bullett Magazine December 2015, photographed by Oscar Ouk ................................................................................................ 266

Genderqueer fashion models and their representations of gender in visual culture. ix

Figure 8.2: Richie Shazam in “Richie Shaϟam”, Bullett Magazine December 2015, photographed by Oscar Ouk ............................................................................................... 267

Figure 8.3: Richie Shazam in VFiles SS16 runway wearing Moses Gauntlett Cheng ................................................................................................................................. 268

Figure 8.4: (Top left) Richie Shazam Khan in Ashish SS 2017 Ready-‐to-‐wear runway, NYFW269

Figure 8.5: (Top right) Richie Shazam Khan in Barragan SS 2017 Ready-‐to-‐wear runway, NYFW…….. ........................................................................................................................... 269

Figure 8.6: (Bottom left) Richie Shazam Khan in Rachel Comey SS 2017 Ready-‐to-‐wear runway ................................................................................................................................. 269

Figure 8.7: (Bottom right) Richie Shazam Khan in Lou Dallas FW 2017 runway, Office Magazine 2017 .................................................................................................................... 269

Figure 8.8: Richie Shazam Khan in excerpts from photo series for Dazed & Confused online February 2016, photographed by Dicko Chan ..................................................................... 272

Figure 8.9: “Richie at my studio #24”, by Terry Richardson ................................................ 274

Figure 8.10: “Richie Shazam and Candy Ken at my studio #1”, by Terry Richardson Figure 8.11: Richie Shazam at my studio #2”, by Terry Richardson ............................................... 274

Genderqueer fashion models and their representations of gender in visual culture. x

List of Tables

Table 1: Characteristics of gender binary ............................................................................... xv

Table 2.1: Case study social media network size (as of November 2018) ............................. 30

Table 2.2: Benefits and limitations of IMR methods in order of use ..................................... 42

Table 2.3: Case study structure ............................................................................................. 45

Genderqueer fashion models and their representations of gender in visual culture. xi

Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations

Biopsychosocial: a term used in queer biology and originating from

broader health sciences. While this term usually describes how diseases

progress via an intricate interplay between biology, psychology and

social/environmental factors, queer biology borrowed it to explain how

an individual becomes gendered. Important to note here is the concept

of neuroplasticity and how environmental factors and socialising can

literally rewire the brain. This accounts for the consistent repetition of

gendered behaviours, reflecting the binary of man/woman and

masculinity/femininity.

Cisgender: when an individual’s gender identity correlates with their sex

assigned at birth. ‘Cis’ is a Latin prefix commonly used in chemistry to

denote two atoms or molecules connected on the same side of a

chemical structure. It is the opposite of ‘trans’, which implies a

connection across categories.

Gender: the social expression of sexual difference.

Gender binary: refers to the categorisation of gender as dualistic,

opposite and binary. Escobar (1995) posits that this follows a Western

tendency for binary categorisation. The gender binary is largely

theorised as a Western system in postcolonialist theory. Many non-‐

Western cultures exhibit systems of gender outside a binary, particularly

pre-‐colonisation. For example, the Native American Navajo tribe

Genderqueer fashion models and their representations of gender in visual culture. xii

operated with gender systems with four genders: categories similar to

the man and woman of the Western gender binary, but also the

“masculine female-‐bodied nádleeh” and the “feminine male-‐bodied

nádleeh” (Spade and Valentine 2017, 74).

Gender expression: the way an individual expresses their gender/s

aesthetically (looks, behaves, acts). This is intrinsically linked to gender

ideals, as an individual can bend/trouble these ideals to form the gender

expression they desire. This expression can change and is not necessarily

the same as gender identity, although it can be read as synonymous.

GNC: Gender nonconforming. This refers to those who do not conform to

traditional ideas of masculinity or femininity in their gender expression.

Gender ideals: social standards for how a gender should look, act and

behave according to ‘social standards’. Heteronormative gender ideals

refer to traditional notions of femininity or masculinity, which for much

of history were understood as the direct expression of femaleness and

maleness.

Gender identity: “A person's internal, deeply held sense of their gender.

For transgender people, their own internal gender identity does not

match the sex they were assigned at birth. Most people have a gender

identity of man or woman (or boy or girl). For some people, their gender

identity does not fit neatly into one of those two choices… Unlike gender

expression… gender identity is not visible to others” (Gay & Lesbian

Alliance Against Defamation [GLAAD] 2016).

Genderqueer fashion models and their representations of gender in visual culture. xiii

Heteronormative: a term coined by Judith Butler to describe social

systems of presumed heterosexuality, where heterosexuality is

privileged and heterosexual identities and interests are foregrounded—

for example, marriage, reproduction, traditional gender roles.

Heterosexist: a term that describes discriminatory views and practices

against homosexuality and other sexualities in a society where

heterosexuality is assumed as the ‘normal’ orientation. Closely linked to

this is Rich’s (1980) notion of “compulsory heterosexuality”, where

heterosexuality is presumed and enforced within a patriarchal society.

Male/female assigned at birth, designated male at birth/designated

female at birth: sex assigned at birth or designated sex at birth refers to

the category of sex medically assigned to an infant at birth. This term is

preferred over ‘biologically’ male or female, as it accounts for the

process of medically attributing sex, which contributes to broader

systems of reproducing heteronormative, binary sex and gender.

Nonbinary: a gender identity that is neither ‘woman’ nor ‘man’.

Sometimes, nonbinary individuals will designate their gender identity as

trans nonbinary to indicate their distance from their assigned sex at

birth. Some nonbinary individuals may add the terms ‘femme’ or ‘masc’

to their gender description to indicate the nature of their gender

expression. Some nonbinary individuals prefer the use of they/them

pronouns, while others are still happy to be referred to with binary

Genderqueer fashion models and their representations of gender in visual culture. xiv

pronouns. A vast range of specific and nuanced gender identities and

expressions exist within the nonbinary gender identity category.

Normative: an objective term for what is considered ‘normal’ in a

particular context, or a category that adheres to societal norms. Where

‘normal’ indicates a value judgement, ‘normative’ conveys the

contextual conditions that define ‘normal’, which are specific to the

social and cultural aspects of that setting. In a poststructuralist ethos,

there is no such thing as ‘normal’, because normal is a social

construction.

POC: Person of colour.

Prescriptive femininity/masculinity: expressions of femininity and

masculinity that adhere to heteronormative ‘prescriptions’ of binary

gender expression deemed acceptable within a heterosexist patriarchal

society. Mears (2011, 16) explains that “prescriptions of masculinity and

femininity” can be seen in fashion images, because the models featured

promote and disseminate “ideas about how women and men should

look” (16, original emphasis). Prescriptive masculinity and femininity

connects bodily aesthetics to binary understandings of gender. In this

binary, men and women are theorised as having opposite qualities (and

aesthetics), described in Table 1.

Genderqueer fashion models and their representations of gender in visual culture. xv

Table 1: Characteristics of gender binary

Man/masculine/masculinity Woman/feminine/femininity

Active

Rational

Strong

Tough-‐skinned

Undecorated/plain

Hard

Useful

Practicality over vanity

Passive

Emotional

Fragile

Sensitive

Decorated/adorned

Soft

Decoration

Vanity over practicality

Queer: In a categorical sense, the term ‘queer’ is frequently used to

refer to all that is not heteronormative. While some groups identify

more or less significantly with the term ‘queer’ as an identity marker, in

the context of this research project, it is used more broadly in a

methodological sense of queering the ‘normal’ or heteronormative

(where biology equals sex equals gender equals hetero-‐desire). Similarly,

the term ‘genderqueer’ is used to refer to all gender identities that are

not cisnormative. This project acknowledges that grouping a diverse

range of gender identities—such as trans, nonbinary, GNC, queer,

agender (Facebook United Kingdom [UK] recognises 72 alternatives for

gender, including ‘other’)—under one term is problematic for those

individuals. However, in the context of this project, the term

‘genderqueer’ does not disregard this diversity, but is used as a

methodological term for nonheteronormative gender identities.

Genderqueer fashion models and their representations of gender in visual culture. xvi

Sex: the physical anatomy of the body, described in terms of physical

makeup, reproductive capacity, hormonal and chromosomal

configuration. Sex is largely described in terms of male and female, but

research suggests that up to 1.7% of the population is categorically

‘intersex’ (Fausto-‐Sterling 1993). This figure accounts for a broad range

of intersex variations and disordered sex developments, while a lower

estimate of 0.018% restricts the definition of intersex to those for whom

chromosomal sex and physical attributes do not correlate with binary

definitions (Sax 2002).

Sexuality: the nature of sexual preference as defined by one’s own

gender and the gender of attraction. Queer theory proposes that

sexuality could be framed as preference for sexual practices and

behaviours rather than being limited to gendered attractions, as

traditional definitions of sexuality rely on and further reproduce stable,

binary categories of gender.

Transgender: “Transgender is an adjective used to refer to individuals or

practices that diverge from the conventional cultural norms regarding

sex/gender” (Teo 2014, 1996). While some transgender individuals

identify on the opposite side of the gender binary to what their body

was designated at birth, many transgender individuals identify between.

The term ‘trans’ can refer to all gender identities that are decidedly not

cisgender. It is often written as ‘transgender’ to indicate the broad use

of the prefix and to account for all the associated identities.

Genderqueer fashion models and their representations of gender in visual culture. xvii

Transsexual: “An older term that originated in the medical and

psychological communities. Still preferred by some people who have

permanently changed—or seek to change—their bodies through medical

interventions, including but not limited to hormones and/or surgeries.

Unlike transgender, transsexual is not an umbrella term. Many

transgender people do not identify as transsexual and prefer the word

transgender” (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation [GLAAD] 2016).

Genderqueer fashion models and their representations of gender in visual culture. xviii

Statement of Original Authorship

The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted

to meet requirements for an award at this or any other higher education

institution. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains

no material previously published or written by another person except

where due reference is made.

Signature:

Date: April 2019

QUT Verified Signature

Genderqueer fashion models and their representations of gender in visual culture. xix

Acknowledgements

To my stylish and talented supervisors who made this possible,

thank you so much for all your hard work!

To my parents, particularly my Mum, for your continuous support

and for literally feeding me throughout this process—there is no way I

could have done this without you!

Finally, to all those individuals whose identity is politicised in its

very existence—thank you for existing. To quote Lavern Cox’s Twitter, as

she quotes bell hooks, the “cisnormative heteronormative white

supremacist capitalist patriarchy” is being slowly burnt to the ground by

each and every one of you!

Genderqueer fashion models and their representations of gender in visual culture. xx

A Note on Language

‘Genderqueer’ is an important theoretical term used in this project

that requires definition from the outset. I define it as referring

collectively to models whose gender identity is not cisnormative. While

the subjects of the four case studies in this thesis personally identify as

different and specific gender identities, including transgender woman,

queer butch woman and nonbinary queer person, the word

‘genderqueer’ is used to identify them as a group in contrast to

gendernormative identities. The term ‘genderqueer’ can be adopted as a

specific gender identifier on its own, and this project in no way assigns

this gender identity to its case studies. The word ‘genderqueer’ was

chosen over ‘queer’ because the project specifically examines issues of

gender as opposed to broader experiences of queerness, such as

sexuality. To mitigate the potentially problematic categorising of the

case study subjects as ‘genderqueer’ collectively, this project uses

gender identities and preferred pronouns from existing interviews with

Pejić, Legler, Nef and Khan in which they specifically address their own

gender identity. This project also acknowledges that these identities and

preferred nouns may change in the future.

Introduction 1

Chapter 1: Introduction

This project is born from overlapping interests: a longstanding

fandom of fashion model Andreja Pejić, a personal interest in queer

culture and discourse, and a persistent and nagging belief that fashion

has an immense capacity to make social and political agendas visible.

These preoccupations translate into my own fashion practice with The

Stitchery Collective. In our socially engaged practice, we use fashion as a

central design strategy to create programs that connect diverse, vibrant

communities. One of our most recent projects (May 2018) was a large-‐

scale costume and dance party in honour of radical drag artist and

Australian queer icon Leigh Bowery as part of the MELT Festival of Queer

Arts and Culture at Brisbane Powerhouse. The project propositioned the

audience to experiment with radical drag culture and challenge their

social inhibitions through critical costume practice.

As a fashion researcher who identifies as a cisgender woman, I am

acutely aware of how fashion models are seen to validate identities and

bodies. Further, I am aware that fashion is one of the most immediate

and significant communicators of gender, because our gender is read via

our fashioned bodies. Moreover, while both the history of fashion and

contemporary fashion practices provide many examples of individuals

who trouble the relationship between bodily aesthetics and gender,

fashion remains a system that routinely reinforces binary notions of

Introduction 2

gender, despite its transformative capacity to transcend them. That is,

fashion can simultaneously reproduce and deconstruct identity norms.

Fashion models are traditionally understood as perpetuating identity

norms, but a new wave of genderqueer fashion models that have

emerged since 2010 are challenging this assumption. Throughout this

thesis, I propose that genderqueer fashion models challenge some of the

key tenets of the cultural functions of fashion models, who hold a place

in the popular imagination as ideal representations of women. This

project contends that the phenomenon of genderqueer fashion models

represents a shift in the idealisation of gendered beauty.

Historically, the model’s function has always been closely

connected to changing social attitudes towards women while serving the

progression of consumer culture. The model’s very emergence is directly

linked to the intensification of consumer culture at the end of the

nineteenth century, and to the gendered nature of consumption. This

project argues that models are products of structural heteronormativity

and commodification in both the institutions of fashion and the broader

social system of consumption. However, contemporary gender discourse,

influenced by queer theory, problematises the notion of gender as a

stable, fixed, binary category. Indeed, queer theory challenges any fixed

category of identity.

Throughout this study, I have drawn on the work of

poststructuralist Judith Butler ([1990] 1999), specifically her notion of

Introduction 3

troubling gender, to help frame the practices and visibilities of

genderqueer models. Traditionally, the function of fashion models has

been to cement the relationship between beauty and heteronormative

gender. Genderqueer models trouble this gendered function in both

mainstream imagery and the fashion industry. Consequently, this

project’s main aim is to investigate how and what this troubling of

gender means in the context of genderqueer models.

In addition to gender, I employ the concept of ‘cultural

intermediaries’ to situate the practices of genderqueer models within

the fashion industry and broader cultural and social contexts. Scholars

such as Bourdieu (1984) and Skov (2002) define cultural intermediaries

as actors within the systems of consumption who mediate cultural value

in framing cultural goods. In The cultural intermediaries reader, Julian

Matthews and Jennifer Smith Maguire (2014, 1) define cultural

intermediaries as:

the taste makers defining what counts as good taste and cool

culture in today’s marketplace. Working at the intersection of

culture and economy, they perform critical operations in the

production and promotion of consumption, constructing

legitimacy and adding value through the qualification of goods.

The authors explain that cultural intermediaries “construct value by

mediating how goods (or services, practices, people) are perceived and

engaged with by others” (Matthews and Smith Maguire 2014, 1). In the

case of genderqueer fashion models, ‘goods’ can be interchanged with

Introduction 4

‘people’, as the models are constructing value around people of diverse

gender identities, modelled by their own visible identities.

Fashion scholars Entwistle (2006) and Wissinger (2009) use this

concept to identify fashion models as cultural intermediaries within the

aesthetic economy of fashion. The authors explain that the main

function of fashion models is to mediate the notion of being fashionable

through their professional work and broader visibility. In the case of

normative feminine fashion models, the mediation occurs via “aesthetic

labor” (Entwistle and Wissinger 2006, 774) that presents idealistic yet

normative bodily aesthetics as both economically and culturally

valuable. However, in the case of genderqueer models, industry

validation—or the market value of their aesthetic labour—allows them

to frame gender-‐diverse identities as validated and culturally valuable.

By using the concept of cultural intermediaries to describe the

function of mediation fashion models perform, this project contends

that the cultural content models produce functions beyond the economic

value system of the fashion industry and is in fact a mediation of

emerging ideas about gender. In the case of queered gender, they

mediate these ideals from the fringes of cultural production, via a range

of media channels, to the mainstream of fashion commerce. In addition,

as the fashion system is known for determining social ideals of beauty,

this project also examines how these models mediate new ideals that

Introduction 5

present powerful challenges between the taken-‐for-‐granted connection

between heteronormative gender and beauty.

Research Question

This project investigates the central research question, “How do

genderqueer fashion models validate nonheteronormative identities and

contribute to the wider debate on gender?”

To investigate this central research question, two further questions

are explored:

• How are genderqueer fashion models mainstreaming and

making visible trans and genderqueer identities?

• How do these models reconcile the tension between their

commercial and political identities through the existing

structures of the fashion-‐modelling industry?

This project’s hypothesis is that genderqueer fashion models make

contemporary ideas of gender visible through the commercial

embodiment of their queer gender identities, through which they

present a new visual language of gender and validate gender

nonconformity in visual culture. They achieve this by making their

diverse gender identities culturally valuable through their work as

cultural intermediaries, and by becoming increasingly visible in

mainstream channels of visual culture. Whilst representations of queer

genders can be seen historically across visual culture, not least by

fashion modelling itself, this project contends that contemporary

Introduction 6

genderqueer fashion models offer a more socially significant function

through the commodification of their genderqueer identities. These

genderqueer fashion models more actively craft their emancipatory and

nonconforming gender identities throughout the cultural production and

mediation process. This in turn has implications for mainstream gender

ideology, as these models represent commodified and saleable non-‐

normative identities, after which consumers can model their own

identity. Representations of queer gender seen in the past, such as

androgynous looks performed more commonly by cisnormative models,

instead present a ‘look’ or an aesthetic as commodity, as opposed to a

valued social identity. These are tangibly different products, which are

entirely defined by the context within they are produced.

Representations of queer gender made in the past by cisgendered

models or public identities may too have had an emancipatory effect for

viewers, but in the context of the seismic contemporary shifts around

gender equality and diversity, contemporary genderqueer models have

the capacity to normalise and affect a structural change to how visual

culture represents gender, and therefore how technologies of gender are

disseminated.

This project presents four case studies of four genderqueer fashion

models: Andreja Pejić (Figure 1.1), Casey Legler (Figure 1.2), Hari Nef

(Figure 1.3) and Richie Shazam Khan (Figure 1.4). The case studies

analyse a collection of visual texts from each model’s professional

portfolio, reading these texts for the ways in which the models trouble

Introduction 7

gender through their aesthetic labour. In addition, the case studies

present an analysis of selected interviews and profiles (written texts)

published about the models to highlight the ways in which each model

communicates a central message or narrative centred on their gender

identity.

Introduction 8

Figure 1.1: (top left) Andreja Pejić for Vogue Australia April 2018

Figure 1.2: (top right) Casey Legler for Numero Homme Spring/Summer 2018

Figure 1.3: (bottom left) Hari Nef for CANDY Magazine #10 2017

Figure 1.4: (bottom right) Richie Shazam Khan for Dazed Digital February 2016

Introduction 9

Aims

This thesis aims to build new knowledge about the genderqueer

fashion model, extend existing literature on fashion models and

contribute to the field of fashion studies, gender studies, and gender

and media studies. Specifically, it intends to:

• document the rise of the genderqueer fashion model

• examine the continuous negotiation of gender as it emerges in

the photographic work of highly visible genderqueer fashion

models

• articulate how key tensions in contemporary gender debates

are embodied by genderqueer models

• perform an intersectional interrogation of the phenomenon of

genderqueer fashion models, with reference to how their

visibility is defined by systems built upon the privileging of

specific identities.

In the following section, I outline the sociocultural contexts that

frame the rise of genderqueer models. I begin by introducing the

background in legislation and cultural representation of gender queer

identities over the last 10 years, following which I give an overview of

how understandings of gender have progressed in the cultural context

surrounding fashion.

Introduction 10

Framing the genderqueer fashion model

The visibility afforded to genderqueer models can be understood in

a context of broader social shifts. The international movement towards

gender and sexual equality and the recognition of gender diversity has

progressed significantly over the last 10 years. Indicators of progress

include legislative, social and cultural milestones pertaining to the

gradual acceptance of diverse identities across the lesbian, gay, bisexual,

transgender, queer, intersex and others (LGBTQ+) spectrum.

Legislation milestones include the introduction of marriage equality

in many countries, including the United States (US), the UK, Canada,

Brazil, Malta, Portugal, Spain, South America, Uruguay and, in 2017,

Australia. Varying forms of same-‐sex civil union have also been legislated

in Chile, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Greece, Italy and Poland. Many

countries have also introduced the option of legal identification as a

third, nonbinary sex (legalised in Australia in 2011), with some, such as

Canada, offering birth certificates that do not state the sex of infants.

Progress has also been made in intersex rights, including the outlawing

of normalisation surgery for intersex infants in Malta (2015).

Transgender rights have progressed significantly, with many countries

now not requiring an individual to undergo surgery or surgeries to

legally qualify as an identified gender. Further, in June 2018, the World

Health Organization (WHO 2018) officially stopped classifying gender

incongruence as a mental health disorder in its International

Classification of Diseases, which means that being transgender,

Introduction 11

nonbinary or gender nonconforming (GNC) can no longer be diagnosed

as a mental illness. Broader legislation to deinstitutionalise binary

language has been introduced in some progressive countries, including

the formal inclusion of a new gender-‐neutral pronoun in Swedish (in

2015) and its compulsory use in early education. Additionally, in Canada,

antidiscrimination laws have been extended to include transgender and

GNC people as a protected group by way of Bill C-‐16 in June 2017.

Gender-‐neutral bathrooms are also becoming increasingly common in

public institutions. Globally, changing attitudes towards gender are

being reinforced via a range of legislations.

Changes in attitudes towards gender have also filtered through to

digital platforms and media culture. In 2014, Facebook UK introduced 71

gender options for users, including a customisable ‘other’ option

(Williams 2014). LGBTQ+ content and individuals are also increasingly

visible in film and television. LGBTQ+ content has been incrementally

popularised since the late 1990s, particularly on television. In the US,

Ellen DeGeneres became the first lead character to publicly come out on

a television series in 1997; Will and Grace was launched in 1998; the

highly popular series Queer as Folk was released in 2000; and The L word

was broadcast in 2004.

These television shows set themselves apart from other mainstream

content, as they positioned diverse LGBTQ+ narratives at the centre of

their stories, thus mainstreaming LGBTQ+ content on television and

Introduction 12

popular culture. The last decade has seen a significant surge in LGBTQ+

representation on television, partially due to the influence of new

platforms for content production by streaming services such as Netflix

and Hulu. Television shows that stand out for diversity include Netflix’s

Orange is the new black, which was released in 2013, and Amazon’s

Transparent, broadcast in 2014, both of which are ongoing and have

broken barriers in terms of diverse LGBTQ+ representation.

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) has tracked

LGBTQ+ characters on television since 1996, and their most recent

report shows that LGBTQ+ representation across television is at a record

high of 6.4%, the highest recorded in the report’s history. Moreover, the

2017‒2018 report is the first in which consistent nonbinary characters

could be accounted for in the data, as well as the first consistent

appearance of asexual characters. This suggests that the diversity of

LGBTQ+ representations has increased as queer narratives become more

mainstreamed.

Similarly, queer lead characters and themes are becoming

increasingly common in film. In 2016, Moonlight made history as the first

queer film to win the Oscar for Best Picture. Many films released in the

last several years have featured significant LGBTQ+ narratives: The

Danish girl (2015), Carol (2015), Call me by your name (2017) and A

fantastic woman (2017) are just a few examples. However, the most

recent Studio responsibility index report by GLAAD shows that LGBTQ+

Introduction 13

representation in film actually decreased in 2017 from higher figures in

2016, begging the question of whether progress in the film industry has

stalled (GLAAD Media Institute 2018). Since the release of Vingarne

(1916), counted as the first ever gay film (IMDb n.d.), there has been a

consistent history of gender-‐diverse and queer films and a similar

increase of LGBTQ+ narratives has been seen in television, indicating

that their representation is now accepted by an increasingly mainstream

audience.

High-‐profile celebrities are also paving the way for gender-‐diverse

representation. The controversial Caitlyn Jenner announced her identity

as a transgender woman via a Vanity Fair cover in July 2015. Celebrities

such as Ruby Rose and Amandla Stenberg have publicly identified as

genderqueer and nonbinary. In July 2014, actor Laverne Cox was the first

transgender woman to grace the cover of Time magazine, and in 2015

was the first openly transgender person to be awarded a Daytime Emmy.

These legislative, cultural and social milestones are all evidence of a

growing understanding of gender that moves beyond a hegemonic binary

of male and female, and a rising social awareness of non-‐normative

gender and life beyond the “heteronormative matrix” (Butler [1990]

1999).

Over the last 15 years, significant changes have also occurred in the

fashion industry in regards to gender. These range from new design

practices that move towards unisex or gender-‐neutral clothing, such as

Introduction 14

the nondemographic label 69us, experimental retail design that moves

away from the gendered division of fashion consumption, such as the

genderless retail popup Agender by department store Selfridges, and the

mixing of menswear and womenswear in runway presentations by brands

such as Gucci since 2017. Author of Androgyne: Fashion and gender

Patrick Mauriès (2017, 154) argues that emerging cultural definitions of

gender have played a key role in early twenty-‐first century fashion

design.

Similarly, the importance of gender as a contemporary issue has

been reflected across fashion media, with Vogue labelling 2016 “the year

of genderless fashion” (Bobb 2016). Further to this, trend forecasting

agency WGSN has published trend reports since 2011 identifying gender

as an important theme in marketing strategies and consumer attitudes,

including reports on “Gender play: media & marketing update” (2011),

“Zero gender’ (2015) and “Genderful” (2015) fashion, “The beauty buzz:

Genderless beauty” (2016), and “The genderless generation” (2016).

Mauriès (2017, 155) argues that this renewed focus on gender in

contemporary fashion stems from social shifts originating in the latter

half of the twentieth century:

The manifestations in contemporary fashion are the most

striking and evolved sign of the disruption of the supposedly

natural order and opposition of the sexes, as well as of the social

changes occurring in its wake. But they are also—and this point

cannot be over-‐stressed—the belated expression, post facto, of

Introduction 15

the philosophical, psychological and sociological questioning of

the 1970s.

That is, new approaches to gender in fashion are underscored by long

histories of activism and academic efforts in the latter decades of the

twentieth century. These movements are discussed further in Chapter 2.

Mauriès’ argument might be extrapolated here to argue that recent

developments in fashion are also influenced by a long history of GNC

icons from music, film and broader culture, such as David Bowie and

Grace Jones. While these figures and many more paved the way for more

commercially sanctioned representations of gender nonconformity, it is

worth stating here that individual exemplars who stood out in a broader

system of structural heteronormativity are not the focus of this project.

In fact, this project contends that these icons becoming exemplars only

further demonstrates the hegemonic nature of the cultural fields that

bore them. This project proposes that in the early twenty-‐first century,

genderqueer fashion models emerged as a new form of institutionalised

gender nonconformity—they are commercially and culturally sanctioned,

as demonstrated by their continued success and a sustained increase in

their numbers.

The number of gender-‐diverse fashion models working in the

fashion industry has steadily risen since the early twenty-‐first century,

although models who explicitly challenge traditional ideas of gender

have existed since the 1990s. Models such as Jenny Shimizu and Kristen

McMenamy emerged in the context of the grunge fashion trend to

Introduction 16

channel a new androgynous and ‘unusual’ beauty, often presenting a

challenging, masculinised version of feminine beauty. However, since

2010, models whose careers centre on more nuanced notions of gender

identity and gender diversity have become more prominent. New

genderqueer fashion models commercially embody their non-‐normative

gender identity and place it at the forefront of their aesthetic labour and

promotion of self within their professional practice. The following

section discusses the study of fashion imagery and unpacks how fashion

images might be used to interrogate social ideals and political agendas.

Studying images of fashion

In this project, fashion images are used as evidence in documenting

and analysing the work of the four fashion genderqueer models in the

case studies—therefore, a brief discussion of the function of fashion

imagery, and particularly of the fashion photograph, is warranted. In the

somewhat benign articulation of mid‒twentieth-‐century photographer

David Bailey, fashion photography is “a portrait of someone wearing a

dress” (c. 1965, in Victoria and Albert Museum 2014). However,

following Nancy Hall-‐Duncan (1979, 9), any definition of fashion

photography must make explicit reference to its commercial function.

Adding to this is Geczy and Karaminas’ (2015, xiv) psychoanalytical

observation that “the powerful dissemination of fashion imagery

determines what is most desirable”. The combination of Bailey’s, Hall-‐

Duncan’s, and Geczy and Karaminas’ observations leads to an

abbreviated yet persistent understanding of a fashion photograph: it is

Introduction 17

an image of a (female-‐gendered) body wearing fashion, the primary

function of which is to drive consumption of that fashion by arousing

desire. Consequently, the body of the fashion model is ostensibly

transformed into an object serving a commercial function that

principally elicits a female spectatorship. Thus the familiar argument:

the fashion photograph and the fashion model work to normalise gender

and its connection to idealised beauty for the implied (and desiring)

female viewer via a commercial context.

Roland Barthes (1990, 5) describes fashion photography as having

its “own lexicon and syntax” separate from conventions of the “news

photograph” or “snapshot” of the time. However, Shinkle (2008, 4)

argues that Barthes’ characterisation of fashion photography reflects the

homogeneity of the field at the time (c. 1959), as it was constrained to

relatively limited technology and means of publication. In fact, fashion

photography is an ambiguous and increasingly conceptually ambitious

genre of visual communication that has attracted critical attention in the

form of museum exhibitions over the last 20 years. Shinkle (2008, 2)

therefore extends on Hall-‐Duncan to suggest that all fashion

photography is connected by its “simultaneous placement within the

artistic and commercial realms”. She argues that the balance between

“creativity versus commerce” is the “very identity of fashion imagery”,

but that “art and commerce don’t necessarily exist in a relationship of

opposition”, and that relationship is “shifting and highly permeable”

(Shinkle 2008, 2).

Introduction 18

Certainly, contemporary fashion photography is more multiplicitous

and difficult to define, as it exists in many forms. Shinkle (2008, 4)

contends that now, “there is not a single and easily described genre of

‘fashion photography’”, and it consists of a “wide array of practices”,

including editorial, beauty, portraiture and documentary photography

(2). Stylistically, contemporary fashion photography also borrows from a

range of practices, most significantly cinematic narratives and

pornography. The rise of digital technologies also complicates

investigating the field of fashion photography, because fashion imagery

is now produced by both professional and amateur creators. Street style

photography, personal style blog photography and social media imagery

such as Instagram images co-‐exist with the categories that Shinkle

identifies. Nevertheless, contemporary fashion imagery retains key

features, as it depicts a body, features fashion or garments and

continues to sit between commercial and artistic domains.

The lens I bring to the analysis of fashion imagery in this thesis has

a political inflection, and I draw on arguments made by John Hartley and

Ellie Rennie (2004) in their defence of the value of reading fashion

photographs as evidence of social truths. Hartley and Rennie (2004, 477)

assert that fashion photography’s history is inextricable from that of

photojournalism, and while one supposedly valourises “truth” and the

other “beauty”, the methods of construction and the resulting meaning

produced are not so dissimilar:

Introduction 19

Contemporary fashion photography constitutes both a

secularization of the sublime (beauty) and a new form of

“laymen’s books and schoolmasters” (truth). It documents

contemporary life and teaches some important truths, largely via

visualizations of the human body in often quite testing

situations. The fashion magazines disseminate all this at a price

that makes them the cheapest and most accessible source of

high aesthetic imagery available today. They address a feminized

(but not entirely female) public who know that the modernist

separation between public and private life, politics and

consumption, documentary photojournalism and fashion

photography, is so over .

Hartley’s and Rennie’s argument is that fashion photography is a

valuable text, carrying cultural and social value as a form of highly

stylised and creative document that communicates ideas about

contemporary social conditions.

Further, Hartley and Rennie (2004, 462) argue that mainstream

publications featuring fashion photography, such as Vogue, are “a

primary location for thinking through some abiding issues of public

interest that clearly belong to the same world as that covered by

political journalism”. Much contemporary fashion photography—

epitomised by the long collaboration between Steven Meisel and Vogue

Italia—shows this engagement with broader political, environmental and

social issues: the editorial “Water & oil” (April 2010) addressed the BP

oil spill in the Mexican Gulf in April 2010, and the fashion editorial on

plastic surgery featuring Linda Evangelista, “Makeover madness”

(December 2010), also led to critical discourse. This project proposes

Introduction 20

that fashion photography featuring genderqueer fashion models may act

as a visual tool for thinking through the issue of gender diversity and

new definitions of gender. In this way, genderqueer models act as

cultural intermediaries between the personal, often hidden, experiences

of gender-‐diverse individuals and their public articulation. Thus

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