Unpacking Priscilla: subjectivity and identity in the organization of gendered appearance

This paper argues that our understandings of ourselves as gendered, as either masculine or feminine, are a power effect of the contemporary discourse of gender difference. The main premise of the paper is that this social construction of gender allows for gender difference to be resisted - and the form of resistance analyzed here is gender-inappropriate dress. Two forms of gender-inappropriate dress - male transvestism and female power dressing - are discussed in the paper and argued to present a particular kind of challenge to our discursively constituted sense of the rigidity and mutual exclusivity of the gender divide. This analysis is used in the conclusion to offer some critical comments regarding the strand of organizational analysis which argues for a 'feminization/re-eroticization' of the workplace. KEY WORDS: gender; discourse; transgression; dress; transvestism; power dressing.
TICK ... is going to have the most trouble .... He owns more frocks than his two companions put together. He opens a rather large bag and stuffs in a [...]