ISL 372 Final: Exam 2 Review
Exam 2 Review:
Article 17: Fashion, Anti-Fashion, Non-Fashion and Symbolic Capital: The Uses of Dress
Among Muslim Minorities in Finland
Introduction:
‘eseah ito the fashioale hija ad odest fashio oth i Musli ajoit outies
and among Muslim minorities in Europe and North America, has recently become an important
topic within fashion studies.
In such strategies as fashion, anti-fashion, and non-fashion, dress becomes a tool for
establishing a variety of class, age, and group related social positions through displaying
symbolic capital.
Muh has ee itte aout the podutio, etailig, ad osuptio of Islai fashio,
everyda uses of oth fashioale ad ufashioale fos of the hija, ad the
eegee of a gloal Islai fashio sste.
What remains markedly under-eseahed is the hijas elatioship to idiiduals ultual,
religious, and symbolic capitals and associated social positions.
Questions to do with cultural capital, status, and class are particularly relevant in a European
context where Muslim women face challenges due to their high levels of social visibility, a
situation in part created because thei eligious lothig aks the out as diffeet fo the
non-Muslim majority.
Context and Informants:
In the history of Muslim migration to Europe, Finland is a latecomer.
According to one recent estimate, there are 50-60,000 Muslims in a country of 5.4 million
inhabitants.
Thee is o foal legislatio egulatig the uses of Islai dess, ut Filads Muslis fae
both hardening anti-immigrant public attitudes and a political arena increasingly influenced by
anti-immigration sentiments.
Muslims in Finland are ethnically diverse.
Somalis are the largest and most visible group of Muslims in Finland, and also the most
discriminated against.
A growing group of Muslims in Finland is Finnish converts to Islam.
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The data in this article was gathered in the city of Helsinki in 2011-2012.
• Semi-structured interviews and participant observation was used to obtain a variety of
data.
• Interviewees: 16 Somali women ages between 19-45, and 20 Finnish women, ranging
from 19 to 61 years old.
The Somalis were first and second-generation migrants who had arrived in Finland in the 1990s
and 200s.
Of the Finns, some were recent converts to Islam, others had lived several decades as Muslims
and others again were adult daughters of Finnish converts.
The economic position of Somalis in Finland tends to be relatively poor.
Unemployment within the community is high and for many women full-time motherhood is a
desirable alternative.
Students in Finland are entitled to state-funded student grants, but especially in Helsinki the
relative value of this sponsorship is low.
Finnish women were both capable and willing to spend more on their clothes than Somali
women.
Behavior viewed as vain is often considered socially reprehensible for Finnish women, and
while the importance of a tidy appearance is recognized, being avowedly not interested in
fashion is a form of acceptable social behavior.
Anti-Fashion, Non-Fashion, Islamic Fashion and Cultural Capital:
Fashion as a form of social behavior is about making comparisons between individuals and
groups, and about individuals and groups gaining social status in comparison to others.
Anti-fashion styles primarily seek to be different from certain forms of fashion which are
considered superficial, rather than necessarily involving the rejection of fashion per se.
Non-fashion – the individual indifference to fashion.
Anti-fashion must self-consciously reject fashion.
Fashion can be rejected for a variety of reasons:
• Moral
o Condemnation of vanity
o Waste or sexual (im)morality
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• Feminist
• Class/sub-group related
Anti-fashio a also e a fo of ejetig pesued fashio itihood hih is see as
undermining individual self-determination by blindly following commercial fashion trends.
Muslims criticizing fashion often use secular arguments, such as Marxist, feminist or
environmentalist arguments to challenge fashion phenomena.
Aodig to “iel, dessig i a ae that is osiousl agaist fashio is sipl
another expression of the same principle of fashion that functions to both differentiate and
assimilate people.
Islai fashio shos hae faed seee itiis, fashioale hija stles hae ee
challenged as immodest, and certain styles, perceived as inappropriate, have been condemned.
The veil can be both fashionable and anti-fashion simultaneously, and distinguishing between
fashion and anti-fashion in this regard is far from simple.
Yet it is the case that the hijab to some extent has been transformed for a conscious anti-
fashion statement associated with the political revival of Islam in the 1970s to a fashionable
object favored by middle-class women in different parts of the world today.
Fashion and anti-fashion strategies are always profoundly social, in that they are preformed to
audiences, with the aim of being recognized and valued by others.
Cultural capital refers to those cultural resources that an individual can draw upon in a range of
contexts.
• Can be embodied
o Bodily dispositions
o Actions
▪ Pose
▪ Movement
▪ Appearance
• Can be objectified
o Artefacts
▪ Dress
▪ Accessories
In order to appear fashionable, an individual needs to cultivate a certain amount of cultural
capital that is recognized as fashionable and is valued by others as such.
Religious capital is a particular form of cultural capital, formed of competence in terms of
religious practice and religious knowledge
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Document Summary
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