Women's Fashion Shows as Feminist Trans-formation

Authors

  • Shauna Butterwick, Marilou Carrillo, Kim Villagante

Keywords:

adult learning, feminist popular education, social acction learning, arts-based community praxis

Abstract

This article has emerged from a research partnership between a feminist Filipino activist, a feminist academic researcher and ally, and community-based researcher. In this discussion, we explore a unique arts-based feminist popular education project which used the format of a fashion show, which is not usually associated with women’s emancipation, to tell stories about the colonization of the Philippines, its history and present neocolonial practices and their role in constructing and constraining Filipino women’s freedom and opportunities. In 2004, 2005 and 2008, the Philippine Women’s Centre of British Columbia (PWCBC), one of the longest standing feminist organizations in Vancouver, created and launched three Political Fashion Shows. Framed by feminist perspectives of transnationalism and global capitalism, as well as feminist approaches to popular education, we comment on three scenes from these shows which we have selected as they exemplify the power of visual and performative art to speak truth to power and create spaces of public pedagogy and feminist praxis.

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Published

2015-03-31

How to Cite

Kim Villagante, S. B. M. C. (2015). Women’s Fashion Shows as Feminist Trans-formation. Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education, 27(2 SE), 79–99. Retrieved from https://cjsae.library.dal.ca/cjsae/article/view/3429

Issue

Vol. 27 No. 2 SE (2015): Special Edition

Section

Articles

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