Asians Wear Clothes on the Internet: Race, Gender, and the Work of Personal Style Blogging

In the first ever book devoted to a critical investigation of the personal style blogosphere, Minh-Ha T. Pham examines the phenomenal rise of elite Asian bloggers who have made a career of posting photographs of themselves wearing clothes on the Internet. Pham understands their online activities as "taste work" practices that generate myriad forms of capital for superbloggers and the brands they feature. A multifaceted and detailed analysis, Asians Wear Clothes on the Internet addresses questions concerning the status and meaning of "Asian taste" in the early twenty-first century, the kinds of cultural and economic work Asian tastes do, and the fashion public and industry's appetite for certain kinds of racialized eliteness. Situating blogging within the historical context of gendered and racialized fashion work while being attentive to the broader cultural, technological, and economic shifts in global consumer capitalism, Asians Wear Clothes on the Internet has profound implications for understanding the changing and enduring dynamics of race, gender, and class in shaping some of the most popular work practices and spaces of the digital fashion media economy.

Author: Minh-Ha T. Pham
Publisher: Duke University Press
Published: 11/13/2015
Pages: 272
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 9.00h x 5.90w x 0.70d
ISBN13: 9780822360308
ISBN10: 0822360306
BISAC Categories:
- Design | Fashion & Accessories
- Social Science | Ethnic Studies | American | Asian American Studies & Pacific
- Social Science | Media Studies

About the Author
Minh-Ha T. Pham is Assistant Professor in the Graduate Media Studies Program at the Pratt Institute. Her research has been featured in the New York Times, the Guardian, the Atlantic, the San Francisco Chronicle, CNN, NPR, Jezebel, and the Huffington Post.