Unpacking Priscilla: Subjectivity and Identity in the Organization of Gendered Appearance

This paper argues that our understandings ofourselves as gendered, as either masculine or feminine,are a power effect of the contemporary discourse ofgender difference. The main premise of the paper is that this social construction of genderallows for gender difference to be resisted — andthe form of resistance analyzed here isgender-inappropriate dress. Two forms ofgender-inappropriate dress — male transvestism and female power dressing —are discussed in the paper and argued to present aparticular kind of challenge to our discursivelyconstituted sense of the rigidity and mutual exclusivityof the gender divide. This analysis is used in theconclusion to offer some critical comments regarding thestrand of organizational analysis which argues for afeminization/reeroticization of the workplace.

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