Refashioning Feminism: American Vogue, the Second Wave, and the Transition to Postfeminism

This article explores how America's pre-eminent fashion magazine, Vogue, received, interpreted, and translated second-wave feminism. Although throughout the 1960s articles within the periodical criticized gender discrimination, the radicalism of some feminist activism and the condemnation of fashion as patriarchal and oppressive complicated Vogue's position. After the advent of "choice feminism," Vogue's editorial content overcame this roadblock, and by the late 1970s, the magazine advocated a more feminized and consumer-centric form of feminism. In so doing, Vogue's editorial content successfully rehabilitated fashion by reconciling it with feminism. This came, however, at the expense of second-wave feminism, which was diluted in the bid to create a more "modern" product. As a case study, therefore, Vogue's content in the 1970s exposes how the need to engage second- wave feminism enabled the magazine to adapt and modify the feminist message, paving the path to postfeminism.