Date of Award

2008

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Program

Media Studies

Supervisor

Dr. Carole Farber

Second Advisor

Dr. Tim Blackmore

Abstract

This thesis explores a resurgence of the handmade movement as a specifically third-wave feminist response to corporate consumer culture. Websites such as Etsy.com and Craftster.org have recently emerged and provide a means for crafters and purveyors of handmade goods to engage in trade, community building, and commerce with one another and consumers. I am fundamentally concerned with how the resurgence of the handmade movement relates to the greater discourse of third-wave feminism in the context of production and consumption, the rejection of corporate profiteering, and the reclaiming of one’s own labor through the handicrafts. Etsy.com and other craft websites have multiple ties to the third-wave feminist magazine, BUST, and this relationship is rigorously examined. My argument is built on a framework of feminist theory, consumption theory, and craft theory. Semiotic analyses of crafting texts and in-depth interviews with twenty-seven active crafters and Etsy members are employed in this research.

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.