Personal Vision and Feminist Epistemologies from a (Gay) Male Standpoint: Implications for 21st Century Textiles and Apparel Scholars

Abstract

This paper emphasizes that feminism is both intellectually and politically relevant to textiles and apparel, a field traditionally dominated by women but also steeped in the home economics tradition, which is sometimes associated with domesticity and women's subservience. Since feminists value personal experience as a valid way of knowing, I use a personal narrative to articulate the site from which this discussion materializes and stress the connections between experience and knowing. The personal narrative also traces my intellectual development, conveys voice and shows that knowledge and the standpoints that knowledge makes possible are emergent and given to almost constant change.