Managing the lady managers: The shaping of heterotopian spaces in the 1893 Chicago exposition's woman's building

Abstract

This essay argues that World's Fairs offer important examples of the struggle to craft “other places” for minority narratives while, simultaneously, ensuring that dominant narratives maintain their power. Employing Foucault's notion of heterotopia, the essay offers an analysis of the 1893 Columbian Exposition's Woman's Building as a site in which overlapping and contradictory narratives served to affirm the dominant rhetoric of “civilization” as White and male. Representations of the Woman's Building provide three principles upon which this process depends: (a) co‐opting oppressed groups through “middling,” (b) enacting hierarchy through opposing narratives, and (c) marginalizing radical voices through “safe spectacle.” The essay offers a historical parallel to contemporary sites of amusement and ideology such as shopping malls and themed communities, contributing to scholarship that addresses the intersection of place, culture, and “otherness.”