Revealing and Concealing: a Qualitative Study of Young Women's Views of Dress Choices a THESIS SUBMITTED to the FACULTY of TH
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Revealing and Concealing: A Qualitative Study of Young Women’s Views of Dress Choices A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Caitlin S. Cohn IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OFARTS Dr. Marilyn R. DeLong January, 2012 © Caitlin S. Cohn 2012 i Acknowledgements I would like to thank my adviser Dr. Marilyn DeLong, for support and perspective and for suggesting the term “revealing and concealing” in the first place. I also would like to thank my committee, Dr. Joanne Eicher, committee chair, Lin Nelson-Mayson and Dr. Paul Rosenblatt. I also would like to thank Marlys McGuire for her help with search terms relating to my topic Finally, I would like to thank my participants, whose time and insights made the completion of this thesis possible. ii Dedication This thesis is dedicated to my parents, who have been unfailingly supportive of my academic endeavors. iii Abstract Few studies have addressed why contemporary women use dress to reveal and/or conceal their own bodies. The scant literature on revealing and concealing focuses largely on historical dress, dress of Muslim women, and on women's views about women in general, rather than their views about themselves. The purpose of this study was to investigate (1) whether or not young undergraduate women consider revealing and concealing their own bodies as relevant to their clothing choices and (2) what young women say influences their choices regarding revealing and concealing their bodies. Eight young Caucasian women at a large Midwestern university were interviewed separately. Data were analyzed qualitatively. The themes that emerged suggest that many factors interact to form an individual's perspective on revealing and concealing her own body. The three main themes are: 1) socialization and appropriateness, 2) fitting in and standing out, and (3) self-focused dressing motives. Socialization considers how the participant learned values concerning revealing and concealing her body. Appropriateness is concerned with how participants evaluated revealing and concealing as fitting themselves and/or situations. Fitting in and standing out relates to the use of dress within the women's social group or a particular social scene. Self-focused dressing motives are concerned with choices that an individual makes with herself as the focus. The main factor in self-focused dressing motives was comfort; a secondary factor was self-expression. Implications are drawn for the marketing of clothing to this demographic. Specifically, marketers should describe how clothing items fit particular body types and work for particular situations. iv Table of Contents LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................... vi CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ..............................................................................1 Justification ......................................................................................................................1 Research Questions ..........................................................................................................2 Participants .......................................................................................................................3 Definitions ........................................................................................................................3 Overview of Chapters .......................................................................................................4 CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF LITERATURE ..........................................................6 History of Revealing and Concealing ..............................................................................6 The Concept of Revealing and Concealing ......................................................................7 Methods ..........................................................................................................................12 CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY .....................................................................15 Framework .....................................................................................................................16 Positionality ....................................................................................................................16 Constructing Questions ..................................................................................................17 Respondents and Interviews ...........................................................................................18 Transcription ..................................................................................................................20 Analysis ..........................................................................................................................20 CHAPTER FOUR: SOCIALIZATION AND APPROPRIATENESS .......................24 Being Socialized .............................................................................................................24 Being Appropriate ..........................................................................................................38 Summary ........................................................................................................................62 CHAPTER FIVE: FITTING IN AND STANDING OUT ...........................................63 v Avoiding or Attracting Attention ...................................................................................63 Fitting In/Standing Out ...................................................................................................71 Summary ........................................................................................................................86 CHAPTER SIX: SELF-FOCUSED DRESSING MOTIVES ......................................87 Physical and Psychological Comfort ..............................................................................88 “An Expression of my Personality” .............................................................................101 Summary ......................................................................................................................110 CHAPTER SEVEN: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS ...............................112 Conclusions ..................................................................................................................112 Implications ..................................................................................................................115 REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................123 APPENDICES ................................................................................................................127 Not-to-be-signed Consent Form ...................................................................................127 Question Schedule ........................................................................................................129 Participants ...................................................................................................................131 Tables ...........................................................................................................................133 vi List of Tables Table 1: Socialization and Appropriateness 128 Table 2: Fitting In and Standing Out 131 Table 3: Self-Focused Dressing Motives 134 1 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION The idea for this study started during my first semester of graduate school, in 2009, as I observed the range of clothes that undergraduate women wore to class, from sweatpants or leggings to short dresses or shirts that showed their bras. Initially, I was interested in the idea of dress appropriateness, which evolved into modesty. However, the term modesty did not seem quite right, as it was evocative of morality. My adviser suggested the idea of investigating revealing and concealing. As I researched this topic, I was surprised how little research I found dealing with my specific interest. Given how much women are critiqued by others in common discourse regarding the degree that they show or hide their bodies, I was curious as to why this topic had not been pursued by more researchers. Justification While there have not been many recent studies that relate to this issue, the idea of revealing and concealing has begun to receive attention in popular press. In The New York Times Style Magazine Weber (2010) briefly traced the history of the interplay between flesh-colored clothing and revealing actual skin. She cited the idea that clothing functions as a second skin and wrote that clothing becomes fashion “Whenever aesthetic considerations (what effects does it produce by revealing and concealing different body parts) override practical ones (how well does it insulate those body parts from the elements?” (p. 20). Bazaar featured a piece that addressed the current fashion for going without a bra, suggesting that sheer and braless is not a good combination (Sohn, 2010). 2 Some pieces in the press also addressed the desire to be more covered up. According to the New York Daily News, members of cheerleading squad at a high school in Connecticut requested uniforms that were less revealing because they were uncomfortable wearing uniforms that exposed so much skin (Hartenstein, 2010). As will be elaborated in Chapter 2, the literature that I read prior to conducting my research served less