Picturing the Woman-Child

The childlike character of ideal femininity has long been critiqued by feminists, from Mary Wollstonecraft to Simone de Beauvoir. Yet, women continue to be represented as childlike in the western fashion media, despite the historical connotations of inferiority. This book questions why such images still hold appeal to contemporary women, after three, or even four, waves of feminism.
Focusing on the period of 1990-2015, Picturing the Woman-Child traces the evolution of childlike femininity in British fashion magazines, including Vogue, i-D and Lula, Girl of my Dreams. These images draw upon a network of references, from Kinderwhore and Lolita to Alice in Wonderland and the femme-enfant of Surrealism.
Alongside analysis of fashion photography, the book presents the findings of original research into audience reception. Inviting contemporary women to comment on images of the 'woman-child' provides an insight into the meaning of this figure as well as an evaluation of theory on the 'female gaze'. Both scholarly and accessible, the book paves the way for future studies on how readers make sense of fashion imagery.

Morna Laing is Senior Lecturer and Theory Coordinator for Textile Design at Chelsea College of Arts, University of the Arts London, UK.

List of Figures
Acknowledgements
1. Introduction
PART I
2. Fashion Photography and Gender
3. Childlike Femininity: A History of Feminist Critique
4. Between Image and Spectator: Reception Studies as Visual Methodology
PART II
5. The Romantic Woman-child, Lost from Home
6. Fashion's Femme-enfant-fatale: Surrealism, Curiosity and Alice in Wonderland
7: Rewriting Lolita in Fashion Photography
8: Kinderwhore: From Catwalk to Slutwalk
Post-script: Looking Backwards to Look Forwards
Bibliography
Index
Appendix 1. Participant Demographics