Exploring the Emotive Nature of Self-Fashioning Practice Within Competitive Female Relations

For many women, fashioning their bodies in specific ways can be a source of considerable gratification, but can also cultivate great angst and self-deprecation. Competitive psycho-social dynamics within female relations influence each woman’s development of emotional tendencies and conceptions of moral and social (self) worth. In turn, this shapes their fashion consumption practices. Applying greater emotional depth to the theories of Bourdieu, significant connections are established between the overtly emotive nature of self-fashioning and the context of competitive relations. Within the psycho-affective landscape of fashion consumption class-based emotions are seen to hinder, fuel, compromise, or enhance experiences of female consumer subjectivity.

Citation:

Karen Rafferty (2011) ,"Exploring the Emotive Nature of Self-Fashioning Practice Within Competitive Female Relations", in E - European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 9, eds. Alan Bradshaw, Chris Hackley, and Pauline Maclaran, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 460.