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Alternative Femininities: Body, Age and Identity (Dress, Body, Culture)
by Samantha Holland
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Berg Publishers (2004-06-17)
ISBN: 1859738036
EAN: 9781859738030
Dewy Decimal #: 305.42
Hardcover: 256 pages
SKU: B191-1065
Condition: New
Comments: New & Shrinkwrapped. In stock - Immediate despatch from an efficient and professional leading British bookselling firm.
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Customer Reviews
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The only academic book on femininities, subcultures & aging
Rating  (5)
Date: 2005-03-07
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
I cannot recommend this book enough to those in academia (students or staff), or those involved in or interested in subcultures. But I feel it also appeals to a wider readership because of the insights it offers about gender, 'beauty', the body and aging. What makes it new and invaluable are the real empirical data from women who define themselves as 'alternative' coupled with a reflexive and clear account of the (feminist) methodology. It is refreshing to read an academic book which so clearly states its feminist intent. It is a pleasure to read (often rare for an academic book) and the research itself is ground-breaking.
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fascinating and original!
Rating (5)
Date: 2005-01-29
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
this book was bought for me because i have tattooing and am interested in body art. i was wary at first thinking it would be a difficult academic book but i was hooked straight away. the author says in the intoruction that she wants people in general to be able to read it not just academics and she has achieved her aim. very interesting and readable about women "freaks" who do not grow out of being alternative, she talked to goths and punks and comes to fascinating conclusions about getting older, being "feminine", wearing second hand clothes, dyeing your hair, and lots of other subjects. i was nodding my head in agreement all the way through the "fairy princess" chapter! at last a voice given to people like me who are not mainstream but are not teenagers any more.
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an original, enjoyable and important book
Rating (5)
Date: 2004-09-17
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
This is a great book about women who 'negotiate a path between being "alternative" and being feminine'. In fact, it's the only one to have been published on this topic. The book is based around interviews with women in the North of England like 'Miss Pink' and 'Sparkle', and on their use of clothes, tattoos and piercings to express themselves. There are chapters on 'fluffy femininity', the importance of the fairy princess figure for women, different types of unconventional dress, tattooing and piercing, and - most importantly maybe - on ageing. This is an academic book and the author, Samantha Holland, explains how her topic and her findings fits with other ideas about fashion, subculture and woman. But it is very, very readable and enjoyable (I read it on the train which I would NEVER do with an academic book normally). It's also lovely to read about how REAL women work with and around ideas about femininity, rather than abstract tomes on the subject. Very good if you are into alternative lifestyles, subcultures, fashion, clothes, body modifications, and what women get up to when left to their own devices.
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