Gay designers experience both valorization and discrimination from intersections of gender and sexuality. Mens bodies have long been presented as desirable to gay men and straight women but the current practice of representing men in fashion magazines is new.
Finally, the case of fashion design offers insights into how intersecting inequalities can shape the glass runway. Because cultural value is ambiguous, processes of valorization are shaped by gender essentialism, pushing male cultural producers down the glass runway and into the spotlight of fame, consecration, and legitimation. Attributions of value and legitimacy construct a gendered image of the ideal fashion designer through discourses of art and culture that reinforce essentialist ideas about gender difference. One night I was attending a basketball game with a couple of guy friends. This trend can be attractive on men with thin frames, but it also reminds me of an experience I had with my guy friends. Second, I show how men and women are consecrated differently by analyzing the content of 157 entries in Voguepedia's design canon and 96 fashion media articles. Skinny Jeans (Originally 'Girl Jeans') Guys of all types are sporting girls' jeans in a skinny jean style for men. First, using design canons and lists of award recipients, I show that men, especially gay men, receive more consecration than women. This article develops the notion of a 'glass runway' to explain this inequality. Fashion design is a feminized occupation, but there is a widespread perception that gay male designers are advantaged in receiving awards, publicity, and praise.
