Two Fridas, three dresses: Feminist representations of Kahlo’s “White Dress” from print to digital

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dc.contributor.authorde la Garza, Armida
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-23T11:50:01Z
dc.date.available2026-07-23T11:50:01Z
dc.date.issued2026-06-01
dc.description.abstractThe Two Fridas (1939) is considered the most ambitious work by Mexican painter and feminist icon Frida Kahlo, and dress is central to it. It famously depicts two versions of the painter sitting side by side with hearts visible and a vein bleeding, one wearing a traditional Tehuana costume, taken to stand for her Mexican identity, the other a white dress often described as “Victorian,” regarded as alluding to her European heritage. Based on McLuhan’s study of the way that communication technology affects cognitive organization, this article focuses on the white dress that has hitherto received less attention. Taking the dress as an index of the sensory environments McLuhan theorized, the article examines the versions of it on painting, photography and film, contrasting representations produced under print culture, and those crafted under electronic culture, highlighting the ways in which each illustrates McLuhan’s theories and in one case even enables new interpretations of Kahlo’s work.en
dc.description.versionPublished Version
dc.format.extent14
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.authororcidde la Garza, Armida
dc.identifier.citationde la Garza, A 2026, 'Two Fridas, three dresses: Feminist representations of Kahlo’s “White Dress” from print to digital', Feminist Media Histories, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 128-141. https://doi.org/10.1525/fmh.2026.12.3.128
dc.identifier.doi10.1525/fmh.2026.12.3.128
dc.identifier.endpage141
dc.identifier.issn2373-7492
dc.identifier.issued3
dc.identifier.journaltitleFeminist Media Histories
dc.identifier.startpage128
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/19089
dc.identifier.volume12
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherUniversity of California Press
dc.relation.urihttps://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105044138506
dc.rights© 2026, the Regents of the University of California.
dc.rights.accessrightsopen access
dc.statusPeer reviewed
dc.subjectFilm and fashion
dc.subjectFrida Kahlo
dc.subjectMarshall McLuhan
dc.subjectThe Two Fridas
dc.subjectUnderstanding the media
dc.subject[EnglishDigitalHumanities]
dc.titleTwo Fridas, three dresses: Feminist representations of Kahlo’s “White Dress” from print to digitalen
dc.typeArticle (peer-reviewed)
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