Media as nexus of practice: remaking identities in What Not to Wear

Abstract

In this conceptual piece, we examine media as a nexus of a traditional schooling pedagogy and performance pedagogy to make visible how their overlapping elements produce media's pervasive educative force but also to gain a deeper understanding of the complexities of using media in educational contexts. Nexus analysis examines a fashion makeover television program – What Not to Wear (WNTW) – as an embodied lesson that produces identity revision but also disjunctures and slippages that enable critical responses and productive remakings. WNTW is a dramatization of remediation of one woman's (portrayed) lived practices and clothing choices which are read on her body as personal expression of fashion trends. These globalized lessons with body texts require new ways of reading and responding that allow learners/viewers to see the power relations that construct particular identity performances as errors and cultural practices and ethnicities as unacceptable.

Keywords:

• gender
• globalization
• critical media curricula
• identity revision
• performance pedagogy
• mediated discourse analysis

Notes

1. What Not to Wear is a reality show that originated in the UK; the scenes featured here are excerpted from the US version which airs on The Learning Channel cable network.