Feminine Design: The Invisible Thread Between the Ideal of Femininity, the Institutionalization of Textile Art, the Symbolic Distinction Between Genders and the Alliance with Hegemonic Power

Abstract

This article is part of a doctoral research project that investigates hand embroidery as a form of resistance, expression, and struggle associated with women’s causes. Its aim is to understand how this practice, historically shaped by an ideal of subservient femininity, also operates, in a more underlying manner, as an act of disobedience, creating spaces of resistance to gender stereotypes. Within the scope of this essay, the objective was to understand how embroidery engages with the symbolic and evaluative distinctions attributed to social roles and genders, through the analysis of its instrumentalization as a tool of gender discrimination and as a foundation for the construction of what is considered feminine design. To this end, the study examines the institutionalization of textile art in European schools such as the Glasgow School of Art, the Bauhaus, and Vkhutemas — all considered milestones in the history of modern western design. The guiding thread of the study is a brief historical overview of chapters from women’s history, intertwined with specific moments in the history of textile art, embroidery, and western design, articulated in dialogue with theories from the field of gender studies.