Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Negotiating Femininities in the Neoliberal Night-Time Economy pp 169–205Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

‘What Else About Her Is Fake?’: ‘Emphasised’ Femininity, Authenticity and Appearance

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

  • 1142 Accesses

Part of the book series: Genders and Sexualities in the Social Sciences ((GSSS))

Abstract

This chapter charts the ways in which young women’s negotiations of dress in the NTE are shaped by notions of visibility and authenticity and also by class. I explore the ways in which an exaggerated or emphasised mode of femininity is normalised to an extent within the NTE and highlight some of the pleasures and values young women found in their negotiations of femininity through dress, whether wholeheartedly embracing or ‘flashing’ femininity. Tensions and ambivalences are exposed as the participants both adopted and resisted elements of ‘girly’ and ‘tomboy’ identities. I then explore the ways in which forms of classed othering function to construct the feminine self in contrast to those who are perceived to lack the taste and resources to ‘do’ femininity appropriately and instead embody a somehow inauthentic and overdone performance of femininity. I briefly consider the intersections between hyper-feminine and ‘slutty’ dress, and finally explore how attempts by working-class young women to resignify a more excessive look as ‘glamorous’ may be mocked and judged beyond the local context.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   69.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   89.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   89.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Of course, Kimberley’s use of the word ‘tarty’ here may have little or nothing to do with the wearer’s perceived or actual sexual behaviour; simply wearing the ‘wrong’ clothing can earn that particular label (as Holland argues, ‘promiscuity is rarely the real issue when using these words’ (2004: 126)).

  2. 2.

    At the time of the research, Missy and Revolution were clothing and shoe shops in Newcastle city centre (names have been changed).

References

  • Allan, A. J. (2009). The importance of being a ‘lady’: Hyper-femininity and heterosexuality in the private, single-sex primary school. Gender and Education, 21(2), pp. 145–158.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Archer, L., Hollingworth, S and Mendick, H. (2010). Urban youth and schooling: The experiences and identities of educationally ‘at risk’ young people. Maidenhead, UK: Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bailey, L., Griffin, C. and Shankar, A. (2015). “Not a good look”: Impossible dilemmas for young women negotiating the culture of intoxication in the United Kingdom. Substance Use & Misuse, 50, pp. 747–758.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bancroft, A., Zimpfer, M. J., Murray, O. and Karels, M. (2014). Working at pleasure in young women’s alcohol consumption: A participatory visual ethnography. Sociological Research Online, 19(3), pp. 1–14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bartky, S. L. (2003). Foucault, Femininity, and the Modernization of Patriarchal Power. In R. Weitz (Ed.) The politics of women’s bodies: Sexuality, appearance and behaviour (pp. 25–45). 2nd edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baumgardner, J. and Richards, A. (2004). Feminism and femininity: Or how we learned to stop worrying and love the thong. In A. Harris (Ed.) All about the girl: Culture, power, and identity (pp. 59–67). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Black, P. (2002). ‘Ordinary people come through here’: Locating the beauty salon in women’s lives. Feminist Review, 71(1), pp. 2–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, R. (2014). A Girls’ Night Out: Gender, Subjectivity and Pleasure. PhD thesis. University of Sydney.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buckley, C. and Fawcett, H. (2002). Fashioning the feminine: Representation and women’s fashion from the fin de siecle to the present. London: I. B. Tauris.

    Google Scholar 

  • Connell, R. W. (1995). Masculinities. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Corteen, K. (2002). Lesbian safety talk: Problematizing definitions and experiences of violence, sexuality and space. Sexualities, 5(3), pp. 259–280.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dilley, R., Hockey, J., Robinson, V. and Sherlock, A. (2014). Occasions and non-occasions: Identity, femininity and high-heeled shoes. European Journal of Women’s Studies, 22(2), pp. 143–158.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duits, L. and van Zoonen, L. (2011). Coming to terms with sexualization. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 14(5), pp. 491–506.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Emslie, C., Hunt, K. and Lyons, A. (2015). Transformation and time-out: The role of alcohol in identity construction among Scottish women in early midlife. International Journal of Drug Policy, 26(5), pp. 437–445.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Evans, A., Riley, S. and Shankar, A. (2010). Technologies of sexiness: Theorizing women’s engagement in the sexualization of culture. Feminism & Psychology, 20(1), pp. 114–131.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Evans, C. and Thornton, M. (1991). Fashion, representation, femininity. Feminist Review, 38, pp. 48–66.

    Google Scholar 

  • Francombe, J. (2014). Learning to leisure: femininity and practices of the body. Leisure Studies, 33(6), pp. 580–597.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gaines, J. (1990). Introduction: Fabricating the female body. In J. Gaines and C. Herzog (Eds.) Fabrications. Costume and the female body (pp. 1–27). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Genz, S. (2015). My job is me: postfeminist celebrity culture and the gendering of authenticity. Feminist Media Studies, 15(4), pp. 545–561.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gill, R. (2007). Critical respect: The difficulties and dilemmas of agency and ‘choice’ for feminism. European Journal of Women’s Studies, 14(1), pp. 69–80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gill, R. (2016). Post-postfeminism? New feminist visibilities in postfeminist times. Feminist Media Studies, 16(4), pp. 610–630.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Graefer, A. (2014). ‘Charlotte makes me lafe [sic] sooo much’: Online laughter, affect, and femininity in Geordie Shore. Journal of European Popular Culture, 5(2), pp. 105–120.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Griffin, C., Szmigin, I., Bengry-Howell, A., Hackley, C. and Mistral, W. (2013). Inhabiting the Contradictions: Hypersexual Femininity and the Culture of Intoxication among Young Women in the UK. Feminism & Psychology, 23(2), pp. 184–206.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guy, A. and Banim, M. (2000). Personal collections: Women’s clothing use and identity. Journal of Gender Studies, 9(3), pp. 313–327.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hari, J. (2007). ‘It costs me a lot of money to look this cheap’ [online]. The Evening Standard. Available at https://www.standard.co.uk/showbiz/starinterviews/it-costs-me-a-lot-of-money-to-look-this-cheap-6696737.html.

  • Haydock, W. (2009). Gender, Class and ‘Binge’ Drinking: An Ethnography of Drinkers in Bournemouth’s Night-Time Economy. PhD thesis. Bournemouth University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hayfield, N., Clarke, V., Halliwell, E. and Malson, H. (2013). Visible lesbians and invisible bisexuals: Appearance and visual identities among bisexual women. Women’s Studies International Forum, 40, pp. 172–182.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hayward, K. and Yar, M. (2006). The ‘chav’ phenomenon: Consumption, media and the construction of a new underclass. Crime, Media, Culture, 2(1), pp. 9–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hockey, J., Dilley, R., Robinson, V. and Sherlock, A. (2013). Worn shoes: Identity, memory and footwear. Sociological Research Online, 18(1), pp. 1–14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holland, S. (2004). Alternative femininities: Body, age and identity. Oxford: Berg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holland, S. and Harpin, J. (2015). Who is the ‘girly’ girl? Tomboys, hyper-femininity and gender. Journal of Gender Studies, 24(3), pp 293–309.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hollands, R. and Chatterton, P. (2002). Changing times for an old industrial city: Hard times, hedonism and corporate power in Newcastle’s nightlife. City, 6(3), pp. 291–315.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holliday, R. (1999). The comfort of identity. Sexualities, 2(4), pp. 475–491.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hurd, L. C. (2000). Older women’s body image and embodied experience: An exploration. Journal of Women & Aging, 12(3–4), pp. 77–97.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hutton, F. (2006). Risky pleasures? Club cultures and feminine identities. Aldershot: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huxley, C., Clarke, V. and Halliwell, E. (2014). Resisting and conforming to the ‘lesbian look’: The importance of appearance norms for lesbian and bisexual women. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 24(3), pp. 205–219.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jantzen, C., Østergaard, P. and Vieira, C. M. S. (2006). Becoming a ‘woman to the backbone’. Journal of Consumer Culture, 6(2), pp. 177–202.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kovac, L. D. and Trussell, D. E. (2015). ‘Classy and never trashy’: Young women’s experiences of nightclubs and the construction of gender and sexuality. Leisure Sciences, 37, pp. 195–209.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lawler, S. (2005a). Disgusted Subjects: The Making of Middle-Class Identities. The Sociological Review, 53(3), pp. 429–446.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lawler, S. (2005b). Introduction: Class, culture and identity. Sociology. 39(5), pp. 797–806.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lazar, M. M. (2009). Entitled to consume: postfeminist femininity and a culture of post-critique. Discourse & Communication, 3(4), pp. 371–400.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leve, M., Rubin, L. and Pusic, A. (2011). Cosmetic surgery and neoliberalisms: Managing risk and responsibility. Feminism & Psychology, 22(1), pp. 122–141.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levy, A. (2005). Female chauvinist pigs: Women and the rise of raunch culture. London: Pocket Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mackiewicz, A. (2012). ‘New’ Femininities in the Culture of Intoxication: Exploring Young Women’s Participation in the Night-Time Economy, in the Context of Sexualised Culture, Neo-Liberalism and Postfeminism. PhD thesis. University of Bath.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mason, G. (2001). Body maps: Envisaging homophobia, violence and safety. Social & Legal Studies, 10(1), pp. 23–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McRobbie, A. (2015). Notes on the perfect. Australian Feminist Studies, 30(83), pp. 3–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mendick, H., Allen, K., Harvey, L. and Ahmad, A. (2018). Celebrity, aspiration and contemporary youth: Education and inequality in an era of austerity. London: Bloomsbury.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nayak, A. (2003). Last of the ‘real Geordies’? White masculinities and the subcultural response to deindustrialisation. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 21(1), pp. 7–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nayak, A. (2006). Displaced masculinities: Chavs, youth and class in the post-industrial city. Sociology, 40(5), pp. 813–831.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nayak, A. and Kehily, M. J. (2006). Gender undone: Subversion, regulation and embodiment in the work of Judith Butler. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 27(4), pp. 459–472.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Northcote, J. (2006). Nightclubbing and the search for identity: Making the transition from childhood to adulthood in an urban milieu. Journal of Youth Studies, 9(1), pp. 1–16.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peck, J. and Tickell, A. (2002). Neoliberalizing space. Antipode, 34(3), pp. 380–404.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pitman, G. E. (1999). Body image, compulsory heterosexuality, and internalized homophobia. Journal of Lesbian Studies, 3(4), pp. 129–139.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reischer, E. and Koo, K. S. (2004). The body beautiful: Symbolism and agency in the social world. Annual Review of Anthropology, 33, pp. 297–317.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Riley, S. C. E. and Cahill, S. (2005). Managing meaning and belonging: Young women’s negotiation of authenticity in body art. Journal of Youth Studies, 8(3), pp. 261–279.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ringrose, J. and Walkerdine, V. (2008). Regulating the abject: the TV make-over as site of neo-liberal reinvention toward bourgeois femininity. Feminist Media Studies, 8(3), pp. 227–246.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robinson, V. (2015). Reconceptualising the mundane and the extraordinary: A lens through which to explore transformation within women’s everyday footwear practices. Sociology, 49(5), pp. 903–918.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Skeggs, B. (1997). Formations of class and gender: Becoming respectable. London: SAGE.

    Google Scholar 

  • Skeggs, B. (2001). The toilet paper: Femininity, class and mis-recognition. Women’s Studies International Forum, 24(3–4), pp. 295–307.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Skeggs, B. and Loveday, V. (2012). Struggles for value: value practices, injustice, judgment, affect and the idea of class. The British Journal of Sociology, 63(3), pp. 472–490.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Skerski, J. (2011). Tomboy chic: Re-fashioning gender rebellion. Journal of Lesbian Studies, 15(4), pp. 466–479.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smelik, A. (2011). The performance of authenticity. Address. Journal for Fashion Writing and Criticism. 1(1), pp. 76–82.

    Google Scholar 

  • Steele, V. (1997). Editorial. Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body and Culture, 1(1), pp. 1–2.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thornton, S. (1995). Club cultures. Cambridge: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tseëlon, E. (1995). The masque of femininity. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tyler, I. (2008). “Chav mum chav scum”; Class disgust in contemporary Britain. Feminist Media Studies, 8(1), pp. 17–34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tyler, I. and Bennett, B. (2010). ‘Celebrity chav’: Fame, femininity and social class. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 13(3), pp. 375–393.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ussher, J. M. (1997). Fantasies of femininity: Reframing the boundaries of sex. London: Penguin Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Valentine, G., and Harris, C. (2014). Strivers vs skivers: Class prejudice and the demonisation of dependency in everyday life. Geoforum, 53, pp. 84–92.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weitz, R. (2003). Women and their hair: Seeking power through resistance and accommodation. In R. Weitz (Ed.) The politics of women’s bodies: Sexuality, appearance and behaviour (pp. 135–151). 2nd edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • West, C. and Zimmerman, D. H. (1987). Doing gender. Gender & Society, 1, pp. 125–151.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Winlow, S. and Hall, S. (2009). Living for the weekend: Youth identities in Northeast England. Ethnography, 10(1), pp. 91–113.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wolf, N. (1991). The beauty myth. London: Vintage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Woods, F. (2014). Classed femininity, performativity, and camp in British structured reality programming. Television & New Media, 15(3), pp. 197–214.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, Hampshire, UK

    Emily Nicholls

Authors
  1. Emily Nicholls
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Nicholls, E. (2019). ‘What Else About Her Is Fake?’: ‘Emphasised’ Femininity, Authenticity and Appearance. In: Negotiating Femininities in the Neoliberal Night-Time Economy. Genders and Sexualities in the Social Sciences. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93308-5_5

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93308-5_5

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-93307-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-93308-5

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation