Part of
Disability in DialogueEdited by Jessica M.F. Hughes and Mariaelena Bartesaghi
[Dialogue Studies 33] 2023
► pp. 115–148
Edited by Jessica M.F. Hughes and Mariaelena Bartesaghi
[Dialogue Studies 33] 2023
► pp. 115–148
Fashion on wheels
What can fashion and fashion journalism tell us about the
actual and possible representations of disability? Unfolding from a dialogue
between the co-authors, this chapter takes a Dutch case study as its
starting point to map and interpret how creative professionals responsible
for communication in an advocacy organization, as well as journalists and
television makers, had great trouble freeing disability from limiting frames
of reference. The aim of the chapter is to provide insight and tools for
inclusive and reflexive practices of representation. Discourse analysis
provides the basis for a multi-layered dialogue. Ingrained, standardized
routines in media practice are the problem that the best of intentions
cannot break. The Dutch Zonnebloem (Sunflower) organization pointed to a way
forward when they invited feedback and engaged in dialogue on their failed
media campaign to find funding to design fashionable clothing for wheelchair
users.
Keywords: fashion, disability, Zonnebleum, media dialogues, interpretive repertoires
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Interpretive repertoires, fashion media, and creative industries
- 3.Fashion on wheels
- 4.The data
- 5.Corpus and thematic analysis
- 6.Fashion and ableism in the Zonnebloem campaign
- 6.1Disability/Normality
- 6.2Counter-narratives and the potential of fashion discourse
- 7.The benefits of foregrounding dialogue
- Note
-
Notes -
References
References (102)
Ahmed, Sara. 2004. Cultural
Politics of
Emotion. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Allan, Julie. 2004. “Chapter
2: The Aesthetics of Disability as a Productive
Ideology.” Counterpoints 270: 32–45. [URL]
Angermuller, Johannes, Dominique Maingueneau, and Ruth Wodak. 2014. The
Discourse Studies Reader: Main Currents inTtheory and
Analysis. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. 
Bakhtin, Mikhail M. 1984. Problems
of Dostoevsky’s Poetics, trans.
by Caryl Emerson. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
1990. Art
and Answerability: Early Philosophical
Essays, ed. by Michael Holquist, trans.
by Kenneth Brostrom. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Bakker, Piet and Otto Scholten. 2009. Communicatiekaart
van Nederland; Overzicht van Media en
Communicatie (7th
Edition). Philadelphia: Kluwer.
Barbareschi, Giulia, Mark T. Carew, Elizabeth Aderonke Johnson, Norah Kopi, and Catherine Holloway. 2021. “When
They See a Wheelchair, They’ve Not Even Seen Me”: Factors Shaping
the Experience of Disability Stigma and Discrimination in
Kenya.” International Journal of
Environmental Research and Public
Health 18(8).
Bartesaghi, Mariaelena and Chaim Noy. 2015. “Interdiscursivity.” In The
International Encyclopedia of Language and Social
Interaction, ed.
by Karen Tracy, Cornelia Ilie, and Todd L. Sandel, 873–878. Hoboken: Wiley Blackwell.
Barton, Ellen. 2001. “Discourses
of Disability in the Digest.” JAC: A
Journal of Composition
Theory 21(3): 555–581.
Barthes, Roland. 1983. The
Fashion
System. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Baxter, Leslie A. 2004. “Relationships
as Dialogues.” Personal
Relationships 11(1): 1–22.
Berger, Natalia. 2017. “The
Rule that Needs to Be Broken: Smart Fashion Is for Gadget Junks or
Special Needs” [Paper
presentation]. IFFTI Conference
2017: Breaking the fashion
rules.
Berger, Natalia and Skylla Blake. 2021. “Fashion
Consumption and Public Discourse: Mechanisms of Sales
Obstruction.” In The
Routledge Companion to Fashion Studies ed.
by Eugenia Paulicelli, Veronica Manlow, and Elizabeth Wissinger, 338–347. London: Routledge.
Beudaert, Anthony. 2020. “Towards
an Embodied Understanding of Consumers with Disabilities: Insights
from the Field of Disability
Studies.” Consumption Markets and
Culture 23(4): 361–375.
Bode, Johann. 2015. “Elegant
in de Rolstoel; Kledinglijn You’re
Unlimited.” Amsterdam: De
Telegraaf.
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1983. “The
Field of Cultural Production, or: The Economic World
Reversed.” Poetics 12(4–5): 311–356.
Brennan, Teresa. 2015. The
Transmission of
Affect. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Chouliaraki, Lilie and Norman Fairclough. 1999. Discourse
in Late Modernity: Rethinking Critical Discourse
Analysis. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Conrad, Peter. 2005. “The
Shifting Engines of
Medicalization.” Journal of Health
and Social
Behavior 46(1): 3–14.
Conrad, Susan. 2002. “Corpus
Linguistic Approaches for Discourse
Analysis.” Annual Review of Applied
Linguistics 22: 75–95.
Cooley, Jessica and Ann M. Fox. 2014. “Disability
Art, Aesthetics, and Access: Creating Exhibitions in a Liberal Arts
Setting.” Disability Studies
Quarterly 34(1).
Couturekrant. (n.d.). Trendy
Fashion on Wheels.
Couturekrant. Retrieved February 20,
2023, from [URL]
Dean, Mitchell. 1999. Governmentality:
Power and Rule in Modern
Society. Newbury Park: Sage.
De
Gelderlander. 2013. “Sjaak
en Edwin Stralen bij de
Spiegel.” Retrieved 27 February
2023 from [URL]
De Stentor / Veluws
Dagblad. 2014. “Modellen
van Fashion on Wheels over
Mode.” Retrieved 20 February
2023 from [URL]
De
Zonnebloem. 2018. Fashion
on Wheels. [URL]
Ellis, Kate, Gerald Goggin, Beth Haller, and Rosemary Curtis (eds). 2019. The
Routledge Companion to Disability and
Media. London: Routledge.
Fairclough, Norman. 2013. Critical
Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of
Language. London: Routledge.
Fashion on wheels
[@ZBFOW]. 2014. @wehkamp
Vraag me af hoe modeketens omgaan met modieuze kleding voor
rolstoelers (of uberhaupt wordt aangeboden) Jullie denken mee
fijn! [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved
from Coosto ([URL]) on December 8,
2020.
. 2014. Gisteren
koos de jury van #Fashon on wheels de beste zes ontwerpen. Best
lastig! Hoe bepaal jij wat goede ontwerpen
zijn@basvanschaik? [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved
from Coosto ([URL]) on December 8,
2020.
. 2014. Benieuwd
wat onze zuiderburen vinden van #Fashion on wheels. Heb jij nog tips
voor onze studenten @DriesVanNoten? [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved
from Coosto ([URL]) on December 8,
2020.
. 2014. Hallo
@LucilleWerner. We zijn benieuwd wat je vindt van de
ontwerpwedstrijd van #Fashion on wheels! Heb je ons al gezien bij
#Life4You? [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved
from Coosto ([URL]) on December 8,
2020.
. 2014. Doet
@TheStingNetwork aan social sponsoring, als onderdeel van het
#MVO-beleid? Willen jullie supporter worden van #Fashion on
wheels? [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved
from Coosto ([URL]) on December 8,
2020.
. 2014. @Fashionchick
Je zei dat je nooit echt hebt nagedacht over #mode voor rolstoelers.
Heb je #Fashion on wheels gevolgd op tv? Vond je er
van? [Tweet]. Retrieved
from Coosto ([URL]) on December 8,
2020.
. 2014. Social
sponsoring past goed bij @PrimarkNL, toch? Dan kunnen jullie echt
een bijdrage leveren aan #Fashion on wheels
http://t.co/OjWx7KxtqP [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved
from Coosto ([URL]) on December 8,
2020.
. 2014. Doet
@Grazia_NL aan social sponsoring als onderdeel van het #MVO-beleid
@HilmarMulder? Willen jullie supporter worden van #Fashion on
wheels? [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved
from Coosto ([URL]) on December 8,
2020.
Fitchett, James and Robert Caurana. 2014. “Exploring
the Role of Discourse in Marketing and Consumer
Research.” Journal of Consumer
Behavior 14(1): 1–12.
Flugel, John C. 1930. The
Psychology of
Clothes. London: Hogarth Press.
Fox, Ann M., Matthias Krings, and Ulf Vierke. 2019. “‘Disability
Gain’ and the Limits of Representing Alternative
Beauty.” In Beauty
and the Norm, ed.
by Claudia Liebelt, Sarah Böllinger, and Ulf Vierke, 105–125. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Garland-Thomson, Rosemarie. 2002. “Integrating
Disability, Transforming Feminist
Theory.” NWSA
Journal 14(3): 1–32.
Goffman, Erving. 1963. Stigma:
Notes on the Management of Spoiled
Identity. New York: Penguin.
Goodley, Dan. 2011. “Social
Psychoanalytic Disability
Studies.” Disability and
Society 26(6): 715–728.
Goodwin, Charles. 1994. “Professional
Vision.” American
Anthropologist 60: 6–633.
Grue, Jan. 2009. “Critical
Discourse Analysis, Topoi and Mystification: Disability Policy
Documents from a Norwegian
NGO.” Discourse and
Society 11(3): 385–308.
. 2016. Disability
and Discourse
Analysis. London: Routledge.
Haines, Anna. 2021. “The
Fight for Adaptive Fashion: How People with Disabilities Struggle to
Be
Seen.” Forbes. [URL]
Hall, Stuart. 1997. The
Work of
Representation. In Representation:
Cultural Representations and Signifying
Practices, ed. by Stuart. Hall, Jessica Evans, and Sean Nixon, 13–74. Newbury Park: Sage.
Hartman, Petra. (n.d.). [URL]
Hermes, Joke. 1995. Reading
Women’s
Magazines. Cambridge: Polity Press.
. 2018. “RuPaul’s
Drag Race: Culture, Politics, and Fashion as Affective
Practice.” In The
Size Effect: A Journey into Design, Fashion, and
Media, ed. by Antonella Mascio, Roy Menarini, Simmona Segre Reinach and Ines Tolic, 257–271. San Giovanni: Mimesis. [URL]
. 2020. “Tracing
Cultural Citizenship
Online.” Continuum 34(3): 314–327.
Hermes, Joke and Leonie Stoete. 2019. “Hating
Skyler White: Audience Engagement, Gender Politics and Celebrity
Culture.” Celebrity
Studies 10(3): 411–426.
Hester. 2014. De
Zonnebloem Introduceert Mode – Initiatief Fashion on
Wheels [Blog post]. [URL]. Retrieved February 20,
2023, from [URL]
Hirschman, Elizabeth C., and Craig J. Thompson. 1997. “Why
Media Matter: Toward a Richer Understanding of Consumers’
Relationships with Advertising and Mass
Media.” Journal of
Advertising 26(1): 43–60.
Hoskins, Tansy. 2014a. Stitched
Up: The Anti-Capitalist Book of
Fashion. London: Pluto Press.
. 2014b. “Fashion
Industry Letting Down Disabled: ‘Disability Is Not a Cost for
Beauty’” [Blog
post]. The
Guardian. Retrieved April 2, 2023, from [URL]
Jackson, Lottie. 2019. “Why
2019 Was a Landmark Year for Disabled
Fashion.” The
Guardian. Retrieved February 20,
2023, from [URL]
Jansen, Y. 2014. “Moderne
Kleding voor Rolstoelers.” De
Gelderlander. Retrieved February 20,
2023, from [URL]
Jongbloed, Ruud. 2010. “Pijn
Omgezet in Kledinglijn.” De
Telegraaf, p. 9. Retrieved February 20,
2023, from [URL]
Jonker, Jan and Niels Faber. 2019. “Business
Models for Multiple Value Creation: Exploring Strategic Changes in
Organisations Enabling to Address Societal
Challenges.” In Sustainable
Business Models, ed.
by Annabeth Aagaard, pp. 151–17. London: Palgrave MacMillan.
Jørgensen, Marianne and Louise E. Phillips. 2002. Discourse
Analysis as Theory and
Method. Newbury Park, Sage.
Kawamura, Yuniya. 2018. Fashion-ology:
An Introduction to Fashion
Studies. London: Bloomsbury.
Levin, Mike. 2010. “The
Art of Disability: An Interview with Tobin
Siebers.” Disability Studies
Quarterly 30(2).
Linell, Per. 2004. “Recontextualizing
Non-Bakhtinian Theories of Language: A Bakhtinian
Analysis.” In Bakhtinian
Perspectives on Language and Culture: Meaning in Language, Art and
New Media, ed. by Finn Bostad, Craig Brandist, Lars Sigfred Evensen and Hege Charlotte Faber, 114–132. London: Palgrave MacMillan.
Livingston, Jennie (Director). 1990. Paris
is
Burning [Film]. Prestige.
McQuail, Denis. 2013. Journalism
and Society. Newbury Park: Sage.
MediaLine. 2014. Carlo
en Irene: Life4You [Television series
episode]. In RTL4.
Mehan, Hugh. 1993. “Beneath
the Skin and between the Ears: A Case Study in the Politics of
Representation.” In Understanding
Practice: Perspectives on Activity and
Context, ed. by Seth Chaiklin and Jean Lave, 241–268. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Moeran, Brian. 2013. “Proposing
Fashion: The Discourse of Glossy
Magazines.” Comunicação e
Sociedade 24: 120–142.
. 2014. “A
Japanese Discourse of Fashion and
Taste.” Fashion
Theory 8: 35–62.
“Nieuwe tv-serie
Er kan zoveel
meer.” (n.d.). De
Zonnebloem. [URL]
Noordhollands
Dagblad. 2015. Bond,
James
Bond. Retrieved February 20,
2023, from [URL]
Oliver, Michael. 1990. The
Politics of Disablement. New York: Macmillan.
Ravotas, Doris and Carol Berkenkotter. 1998. “Voices
in the Text: The Uses of Reported Speech in a Psychotherapist’s
Notes and Initial
Assessments.” Text 18(2): 211–239.
Rocamora, Agnès. 2009. Fashioning
the City: Paris, Fashion and the
Media. London: Bloomsbury.
Rocamora, Agnès and Smelik, Anneke (eds.). 2015. Thinking
through Fashion: A Guide to Key
Theorists. London: Bloomsbury.
RTL
Nederland. 2015. Koffietijd
[Television series
episode]. In RTL4.
Ruis
[@marctruist]. 2014. @RTLLateNight
zondagavond finale Fashion on wheels bij Life4You. Benieuwd of
jullie nog aandacht besteden aan mode voor
rolstoelgebruikers?! [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved
from Coosto ([URL]) on December 8,
2020.
Schön, Donald. 1983. The
Reflective Practitioner. New York: Basic Books.
Shakespeare, Tom. 2006. Disability
Rights and
Wrongs. London: Routledge.
Shotter, John. 1984. Social
Accountability and
Selfhood. Oxford: Blackwell.
Siebers, Tobin. 2005. “Disability
aesthetics.” PMLA 120(2): 542–546. [URL].
. 2008. “Disability
Aesthetics and the Body Beautiful: Signposts in the History of
Art.” Alter 2(4): 329–336.
Sigman, Stuart J. (ed.). 1995. The
Consequentiality of
Communication. London: Psychology Press.
Silvius, Henrik. 2013. “Showcasing
Disabled Fashion Contributors: Henrik
Silvius.” VisABILITY. [URL]
Smeenk, Wina, Janienke Sturm, and Berry Eggen. 2019. “A
Comparison of Existing Frameworks Leading to an Empathic Formation
Compass for Co-Design.” International
Journal of
Design 13(3): 53–68. [URL]
Smith, Dorothy E. 1978. “‘K
is Mentally Ill’: The Anatomy of a Factual
Account.” Sociology 12(1): 23–53.
Stanback, Emily B. 2016. The
Wordsworth-Coleridge Circle and the Aesthetics of
Disability. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Steps City
Magazine. 2014. “Fashion
on Wheels: Mode voor
Rolstoelgebruikers.” Steps. be.
Retrieved February 20,
2023, from [URL]
Support
Magazine. 2019. “Fashion
on Wheels: Kleding
Rolstoelgebruikers.” Support
Magazine. Retrieved February 20,
2023, from [URL]
Thompson, Craig J. and Diana L. Haytko. 1997. “Speaking
of Fashion: Consumers’ Uses of Fashion Discourses and the
Appropriation of Countervailing Cultural
Meanings.” Journal of Consumer
Research 24(1): 15–42.
Tomasini, Floris. 2019. Vulnerable
Bodies: New Directions in Disability
Studies. Berlin: Springer Nature.
Townsend, Lucy. 2015. “‘Too
Pretty to Be in a Wheelchair.’” BBC
News. [URL]
Tuominen, Kimmo, Sanna Talja, and Savolainen, Reijo. 2002. “Discourse,
Cognition and Reality: Toward a Social Constructionist Metatheory
for Library and Information
Science.” Proceedings of the 4th
international conference on conceptions of library and information
science 271–283.
Twigg, Julia. 2013. Fashion
and Age: Dress, the Body and Later
Life. London: A and C Black.
Ungerer, Friedrich (ed.). 2000. English
Media Texts Past and Present: Language and Textual
Structure (Vol. 80). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Van der Kaaij, Meindert. 2014. “Stoere
Identiteit in de Rolstoel.” Trouw
7. Retrieved from [URL]
Van den Nieuwenhof, Martijn. 2014. “Bewoners
voor even Echte Modellen.” Eindhovens
Dagblad 3. Retrieved
from [URL]
van Dijk, Teun A. 2005. “Critical
Discourse
Analysis.” In The
Handbook of Discourse Analysis ed.
by Deborah Schiffrin, Deborah Tannen, and Heidi E. Hamilton, pp. 349–371. Hoboken: Wiley Blackwell.
Wetherell, Margaret, and Jonathan Potter. 1988. “Discourse
Analysis and the Identification of Interpretative
Repertoires.” In Analysing
Everyday Explanation: A Casebook of
Methods ed. by Charles Antaki, 168–183. Newbury Park: Sage.
Wodak, Ruth. 2009. Discursive
Construction of National
Identity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Zelizer, Barbie. 2004. Taking
Journalism Seriously. Newbury Park: Sage.