Social inequality and feminism have been connected to a larger, more mainstream movement in the last few years than ever before. The challenge is to spark a conversation on unlearning our biases and preconceived ideas. "I don't think anybody who's writing for Vogue is necessarily consciously privileging male fashion designer - the way we've constructed our understanding of art what it is, what makes art great and what makes a great artist or creative person." "I don't think it's the case that the CFDA or Vogue magazine are sexist organizations," she said. Our culture is (still) flooded with these conceptions - men as autonomous, rational, independent, creative and women as quiet, diminutive, calm or unable to fully commit to their craft because of "family duties." "When we use those kinds of terms without recognizing the gender assumptions behind them, we end up (even if we're not trying to) creating an image of what it means to be a great designer that is subtly, implicitly, but definitely gendered," Stokes said.īut how do we move forward with this insight in mind? According to Stokes, this inequality is not always conscious behavior.
When Stokes analyzed her data, she found the language used to describe a fashion designer as "great" relies on gendered stereotypes.
Language is powerful in the way it shapes our understanding of the world around us and how we create meaning in our lives. "In this case, that seems to be what's happening here."
"There's a ton of research in psychology, sociology and other social sciences that says when people are operating under circumstances of uncertainty or ambiguity around how to evaluate or measure or make a decision, they end up falling back on conventions, stereotypes and traditions to make decisions," Stokes said. To begin her investigation, Stokes looked at the way 157 designers were written about in the now-defunct Voguepedia, a curated collection of "the greatest designers of all time - a beautifully rich account of how Vogue magazine understood these particular designers." She also isolated vocabulary used in 96 fashion media articles on male designers, in order to find out how these 'tastemakers' decide how a designer is considered 'good.' In her study, Stokes points out 80-90 percent of 2012 graduating students from top fashion programs at the Fashion Institute of Technology, Parsons School of Design and Ryerson University were women. We're all comfortable with the concept of the glass ceiling Stokes coined the term "glass runway" to address the way gay men are 'pushed down the runway' by receiving legitimation and greater fame through awards and praise in a predominantly female industry. "His article was a bit more of an anecdotal observation - no one had actually done any empirical research to figure out, is this really true? If it is true, why is it happening?" "That article basically raised the question: Why do we have so many more male designers receiving CFDA awards and, in a way, special treatment, from magazine editors who take them under their wing?" she told Fashionista over the phone.