culturebriefs
Topic

Gender

Roles, expectations and the fights over who assigns them.

9
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9:32
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86 min
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All briefs9
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9:30

Feminist movement

It is not one movement. It is many movements—shaped by who is included, who is excluded, and what power looks like where they stand.
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8:36

Kabuki

Kabuki didn’t begin as tradition—it began as disobedience, then got banned, then rebuilt itself without the women who made it.
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9:07

Bra

The bra didn’t liberate women—it outsourced control from whalebone to wire, and from corsetieres to corporations.
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13:03

Corset

A garment that shaped bodies, then language, then medicine—and never stopped enforcing ideals under the guise of support.
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9:11

Garter

A functional strap became a wedding prop, a male fashion staple, and a Shakespearean punchline—without ever changing shape.
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9:21

Petticoat

The petticoat isn’t one thing—it’s a linguistic smokescreen for centuries of shifting gender, class and cloth.
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9:15

Jean Paul Gaultier

Jean Paul Gaultier

Jean Paul Gaultier is a French fashion designer who launched his first individual collection in 1976. His work uses unconventional motifs—corsets, marinières, tin cans—and materials like plastic rubbish bags. He relaunched the marinière for men in 1983, introduced men’s kilts in 1984, debuted the cone bra in 1984, and launched the 'granny grey' hair trend via his 2011 autumn/winter show. He cast older men, fat women, and tattooed models, and played with gender roles. His influence lies in material specificity and casting choices—not in founding movements or naming ideologies.