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.
Recommended Citation
Williams, Sherilyn M., "CRAFTING RESISTANCE: HANDMADE CULTURE AS A THIRD-WAVE FEMINIST RESPONSE TO CONSUMERISM" (2008). Digitized Theses. 4218.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/digitizedtheses/4218