Being Gorgeous: Feminism, Sexuality and the Pleasures of the Visual

by Jacki Willson

Being Gorgeous explores the ways in which extravagance, flamboyance and dressing up can open up possibilities for women to play around anarchically with familiar stereotypical tropes of femininity. This is protest through play - a pleasurable misbehaviour that reflects a feminism for the twenty first century. Willson discusses how, whether through pastiche, parody, or pure pleasure, artists, artistes and indeed the spectators themselves can operate in excess of the restrictive images which saturate our visual culture. By referring to a wide spectrum of examples, including Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette, Matthew Barney, Dr Sketchy's, Audacity Chutzpah, Burly Q and Carnesky's Ghost Train, Being Gorgeous demonstrates how contemporary female performers embody, critique and thoroughly relish their own representation by inappropriately re-appropriating femininity.

240 pages, Hardcover

First published August 30, 2015

Reviews

[Matthew Willson · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's my sister and I'm extremely proud, I feel guilty with three stars, it makes her writing seem mediocre( which it is not because my big sis can really write) ; it was just the academic tone that made this an effort.

[Gwen Sargent · Rating 4 out of 5]

time to write a 6-8 page paper about this 😃