Talking of Taste: A Discourse Analytic Exploration of Young Women's Gendered and Racialized Subjectivities in British Urban, Multicultural Contexts

Abstract

This article presents an analysis of interviews conducted with young Asian and white women living in urban, `multicultural' areas in the UK. Specifically, the article explores how these young women constitute their own and others' differently gendered, sexualized and racialized identities and subjectivities through their talk about styles of appearance and tastes in, for example, clothing, clothing labels, hairstyles and cosmetics. In so doing, the article aims to elucidate, first, some of the complex intertwinings of gender and ethnicity in these young women's accounts and, second, the equally complex and shifting politics of gender and ethnicity, which are simultaneously constituted, subverted and reconstituted in these young women's talk about styles of appearance.