Maid to serve: 'self-fashioning' and the domestic worker trope in contemporary South Africa

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Periodical article

Title:	Maid to serve: 'self-fashioning' and the domestic worker trope in contemporary South Africa
Author:	Mahali, Alude
Year:	2016
Periodical:	Journal of African Media Studies (ISSN 1751-7974)
Volume:	8
Issue:	2
Pages:	127-143
Language:	English
Geographic term:	South Africa
Subjects:	political parties domestic workers clothing
External link:	http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/intellect/jams/2016/00000008/00000002/art00002
Abstract:	This article investigates how the domestic worker sartorial trope is reflected and embodied in contemporary South African culture. Domestic work has received very little public or media attention from feminists, trade unionists, or even political activists broadly until the recent movement of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF). This article observes how the South African political party, the EFF, use the domestic worker dress as a subversionary tactic in sociopolitical culture. By appropriating the archetypal domestic worker dress, the EFF demonstrate both identification with the domestic worker and a subversion of what the domestic worker dress has, for so long, inferred. In the context of post-apartheid South Africa, the author examines the domestic worker trope and the significance of dress. This article uses critical discourse analysis and Pierre Bourdieu's theory of habitus to explicate both the personal and political significance of the domestic worker dress in contemporary South Africa. Bibliogr., notes, sum. [Journal abstract]