4 - Fashion, Consumption, and Modern Gender Roles

Summary

Modern womanhood was also a cultural project with implications for gender roles and masculinity. This chapter turns to dress as a visual code in the increasingly heterosocial public sphere. The women’s press promoted a model of stylistic progress from head-coverings and loose colorful dresses to makeup and heels, images reiterated in advertisements. Yet fashion catalyzed fears about women’s independence and sexualization as seen in the miniskirt. An iconic 1960s item, the mini provoked controversy around the globe from Greece to France to Tanzania. Attention to the hyper-politicization of women’s dress in the Middle East often focuses on the veil, yet beyond veils or unveiling, scrutiny over women’s dress perpetuated the political and cultural relevance of women’s appearance. The 1960s were also a quintessential decade of student protests, and the politicization of clothing included concerns about men’s appearance as an aspect of men’s behavior. While youthful fashions violated expectations of filial obedience to presidential authority, there was little consensus about the meanings of men’s dress. Adopting an apolitical guise, discussions about fashion in Tunisia’s women’s magazines situated textiles within a future of national industrialization with innovative understandings of style, identity, and authenticity.