Beyond the Feminine

The Politics of Skin Colour and Gender in Visual Culture

Ope Lori (University of the Arts London, UK)

$160

Hardback

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English

Bloomsbury Visual Arts
21 August 2025

Theory of art; Human figures depicted in art; Feminism & feminist theory; Gender studies: women; Ethnic minorities & multicultural studies

How can contemporary artists and image makers challenge representations of race and gender in visual culture and produce alternate visions?

Exploring a range of lens-based British art that engages with questions of race and gender, this book critiques power structures that embed racial dichotomies to arrive at a nuanced understanding of the position of race in contemporary visual culture. It examines how white and light-skinned Black women are privileged over Black and dark-skinned women in music videos, advertising, and even in classic paintings. Focusing on skin colour as implicit in constructions of femininity, the works discussed deconstruct the links between race and gender to expose hidden power relations.

Presenting intimate interviews with four British artists – NT, Marcia Michael, Sadie Lee and Ajamu X – along with the author’s own artistic practice, this book provides a much-needed toolkit for image-makers and critics alike. Using the analogy of the ‘set up’, this boundary-breaking book encourages us to not only question what we see, but to see differently, beyond the conventions of the male gaze. Reversing normative categories and social hierarchies, Beyond the Feminine puts forth a new gaze; an up-set to the system.

By: Ope Lori (University of the Arts London UK)
Imprint: Bloomsbury Visual Arts
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 236mm, Width: 162mm, Spine: 18mm
Weight: 620g
ISBN: 9781350204843
ISBN 10: 1350204846
Pages: 208
Publication Date: 21 August 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Ope Lori holds a post-doctoral Research Fellowship at Transnational Art Identity and Nation Research Centre, University of the Arts London, UK. A former lecturer at Chelsea College of Arts and Leeds Arts University, she is the CEO of Pre-Image Learning And Action (PILAA).

Reviews for Beyond the Feminine: The Politics of Skin Colour and Gender in Visual Culture

An impressive set of conversations that question the idea of a feminine ideal from a black, queer perspective. Ope Lori’s thinking and writing dazzles, as she analyses “the set-up” of visual messages that dominate our culture and inform our sense of self. In the process, Lori smashes norm-making constructions that limit black female-hood and offers new possibilities in its place. * Dame Sonia Boyce, Professor of Black Art and Design, University of the Arts London, UK * Teasing apart the complex, uneven, but often devastating entanglements locked inside the terms race, class, sexual choice, sexual identity and gender, Ope Lori exposes the internal hierarchies in contemporary media imagery, and how contemporary women artists resist, disrupt and disturb systems of power. Long overdue, this is a book that we have all needed. * Griselda Pollock, Professor Emerita of Social and Critical Histories of Art, University of Leeds, UK * A provocative, yet compassionate and hopeful analysis of the ways we can dismantle the generations of harm woven into definitions of gender, beauty, and power. Ope Lori is a brilliant theorist and a passionate observer of how the world around us unfolds in its multitude of visual expressions. * Marita Golden, author of The New Black Woman (2023), and How to Become a Black Writer (2025) *