پژوهش های تاریخی (Jun 2021)
A Study of Fashion and Preening Components in Etellat-e-Banovan )Women's Information( Magazine (1957-1961)
Abstract
Abstract One of the plans of the Second Pahlavi Government was trying to create a cultural modernization based on Western patterns. One of the measures taken during this process was to change women’s lifestyles, especially their clothing and preening patterns. To this end, the ideological apparatuses of the Pahlavi government promoted new patterns of preening and fashion among various classes of the society. In the meantime, the media, especially the press, had a special role to play in promoting the models. One of the women's magazines in the 1950s that was active for weekly providing government-friendly templates was Etellat-e-Banovan (Women's Information). The purpose of this article was to study the components of this journal and the way of promoting its fashion and preening patterns from 1957 to 1961 by using a descriptive-analytical method. The findings showed that this magazine placed a special value on Western-style clothing and preening which was in line with the cultural policies of the Pahlavi government, especially in the area of women's clothing and preening patterns. However, although being aware of the consequences of this change of lifestyle and Iranian women’s modernization in the face of ethical and social crises, the magazine sought to familiarize Iranian women with Western-style self-realization and clothing, deeming it to be the correct and real concept of fashion and preening. They made women segregate from such principles as simplicity, modesty, dignity, chastity, and moderation. Introduction Historically, the beginning of a change in women’s types of clothing and preening and turning it into a considerable issue coincided with the changes that took place in the middle of the Qajar period in the Iranians’ various areas of political, social, economic, and cultural lives. It provided a gradual change in the women’s traditional lifestyles. As a result, Iranians became acquainted with the new culture and civilization of the West, one of the most obvious and tangible elements of which was self-decoration, especially based on the Western women’s dresses and styles. In the Pahlavi period, the country’s modernization according to Western models was an important program that was taken into account. Based on this plan, creating cultural changes, especially in the way women wore and preened their appearances, was on the agenda of the country's cultural policy makers and was interpreted as cultural modernization. Under the Pahlavi regime, cultural policies were designed in a way to replace Western cultural patterns with traditional and religious patterns of the Iranian society. In the meantime, the media, especially the press, played an important role in this cultural alteration. One of the publications that promoted the new patterns of clothing and make-up in line with the goals of the second Pahlavi government was the magazine of Etellat-e-Banovan (Women's Information). This magazine sought to engage women with new topics such as clothing and preening, and train girls according to the Western culture, while focusing on the formation of women's association and organization that paid attention to women's employment, social and civil rights, liberation, food, fun, entertainment, marriage, housekeeping, and mothercraft in a new way and encourage them to follow them. It promoted attention to fashionable women's clothing and make-up in Western countries and advertised Western beauty standards in a variety of ways. This article sought to explore how this magazine promoted new Western patterns of preening and fashion among Iranian women in the second Pahlavi era and how it tried to moderate the conflict created by this new phenomenon in the traditional society. Based on the research hypothesis, there was a relationship between the actions taken by the mentioned magazine as the main variable and the preening and clothing pattern as a functional variable, which could have an increasing or positive role, a decreasing or negative role, or an ineffective role. Consequently, it was found to have played an effective role in changing this pattern. Materials and Methods With a descriptive-analytical approach based on the library study, the present article sought to find an answer to the following question: What was the approach of Women's Information Weekly towards the components of Iranian women's preening and fashion? Discussion of Results & Conclusions The Pahlavi government sought cultural modernization based on Western models through iconoclastic actions and policies. Among the measures taken by the government in such cultural renewal were changes in women's lifestyles, fashion, and sexual identity, especially in the field of clothing and preening. One of the most important tools of the government in advertising and promoting its policies in this regard was the media, especially the press, such as the magazine Etellat-e-Banovan. This magazine tried to introduce fashion and preening in a new style based on modernity and reflect the ways of promoting it in women's daily lives. Nevertheless, since the newly-realized values were not in accordance with the values of the society, contradictions were created in this regard. Of course, it had the possibility of acceptance in the upper strata of urban classes and affiliates of administrative institutions and technocrats whose connection with the second Pahlavi modernism was evident and was increasing from the 1930s onwards, thus resulting in a kind of limited protest against the bottlenecks of the traditional system of fashion and women's self-decoration. Nonetheless, this category of self-decoration and new fashion had no place in the traditional life of Iranian women, who made an important and dominant part of the population. On the other hand, the formulation of such a type of distant fashion and self-decoration between the traditional and modern society had led to dualism and behavioral distress about the type of clothing and makeup that put women in a dilemma, which, in a glimpse, the mentioned magazine was not devoid of. The magazine's efforts to simultaneously promote the Western fashion and undermine moralities were made in the process of Iranian women's fashionism. The publication sought to address the dilemma of Western fashion and preening with traditional women's ethics and moral characteristics such as modesty, simplicity, and dignity. Thus, the authors of the journal sought to repair this dichotomy by citing evidence such as men's hatred of extremist fashionism and mentioning moral flaws with regard to the unhealthy lives of Western actors and women's health. These recommendations, however, were contrary to adopting religious references and traditional ethics in some cases though the gap between the Western fashion and traditional ethics could not be principally filled by referring to such moral teachings. The overall referrals and lack of evidence in the articles and images introducing examples of simple and successful western women, besides continuation of extremely large advertising of preening could not prevent misunderstandings of opinions about and actions towards fashion and self-decoration and reduce moral and social crises. Hence, the largest volume of articles about the mentioned magazine focused on the Western fashion and preening in the process of women's modernization. Along with changes in the women’s appearances, the magazine tried to critique the current traditionality and offer a different view and belief that girls and women should look more realistic when accepting Western-style clothing and preening and not being extremist in practicing traditions. The whole magazine contradicted with the Iranian culture by trying to interpret the new clothing and make-up as being according to the cultural standards of the society, which were in line with the Pahlavi cultural policies, while promoting Western fashions and preening. Although it could be accepted that Western fashionism was not necessarily immoral as the magazine tried to persuade women in this way, women’s understanding of such a practice in the Iranian society seemed to be in need of being developed in another time and period.
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