Pub Date : 2020-05-12DOI: 10.18574/nyu/9781479876334.003.0002
Manata Hashemi
This chapter examines the history and structure of face (aberu) and facework in Iran. Upon analyzing the interlinkages between saving face and cultural norms of modesty, the chapter argues that face-savers uphold a moral code comprised of four rules—hard work, self-sufficiency, appearance, and purity—that mitigate threats to their face. These rules serve as moral evaluative distinctions by which both face-savers and members of their community judge others’ moral worth. This process leads to a system of micro-stratification within low-income communities, whereby those who have accumulated moral capital by mimicking middle-class values hold a higher status than those who have not. By exchanging their moral capital for social and economic benefits, face-savers come to gain social mobility within poverty. Agency thus lies in the process of ritual compliance to the social order. The chapter further discusses how face-savers’ aspirations for middle-class lifestyles not only reflect the embourgeoisement of Iranian society beyond the middle and upper classes, but also the state’s own developmental initiatives.
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Pub Date : 2020-05-12DOI: 10.18574/NYU/9781479876334.003.0004
Manata Hashemi
This chapter examines the physical dimension of facework. As the risk of losing face hinges primarily on being exposed as poor, youth manipulate their mannerisms and appearance to present a middle-class front to others. Fashionable tweaks to their appearance project kelas(class) and a certain cultural know-how that can subsequently help face-savers extend their personal networks to encompass the type of people who can facilitate their entrée into the world of the well-heeled. The imperative to appear classy and knowledgeable of global fashions finds precedence in Iran’s historical preoccupation with modern fashions and is cultivated in the present day through mediums including billboards, officially sanctioned cultural productions, and new media technologies. Face-savers’ bodily capital is used not only by community members to decide which youth are most worthy of incentives, but also by face-savers to provide justification for their own sense of moral worth. Internalization of the gaze thus creates symbolic boundaries between youth that reproduce cycles of micro-stratification within communities.
{"title":"Dress for Success","authors":"Manata Hashemi","doi":"10.18574/NYU/9781479876334.003.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18574/NYU/9781479876334.003.0004","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter examines the physical dimension of facework. As the risk of losing face hinges primarily on being exposed as poor, youth manipulate their mannerisms and appearance to present a middle-class front to others. Fashionable tweaks to their appearance project kelas(class) and a certain cultural know-how that can subsequently help face-savers extend their personal networks to encompass the type of people who can facilitate their entrée into the world of the well-heeled. The imperative to appear classy and knowledgeable of global fashions finds precedence in Iran’s historical preoccupation with modern fashions and is cultivated in the present day through mediums including billboards, officially sanctioned cultural productions, and new media technologies. Face-savers’ bodily capital is used not only by community members to decide which youth are most worthy of incentives, but also by face-savers to provide justification for their own sense of moral worth. Internalization of the gaze thus creates symbolic boundaries between youth that reproduce cycles of micro-stratification within communities.","PeriodicalId":139437,"journal":{"name":"Coming of Age in Iran","volume":"33 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-05-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132485693","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-05-12DOI: 10.18574/NYU/9781479876334.003.0003
Manata Hashemi
This chapter examines the moral norms surrounding hard work and self-sufficiency. It discusses how work, particularly in the informal economy, is a means for some face-savers to become incrementally mobile and exercise agency. For young men, evidence of self-sufficiency and work ethic is key for proving their self-worth and masculinity to others. This push to be seen as “responsible enough” or “man enough,” in turn, stipulates the prioritization of jobs that pay relatively well over the status of the job. For young women, too, work is a means by which they can avert threats to their reputations and signal to others that they are doing well for themselves. Those young men and women who can demonstrate that they are self-sufficient hard workers are often the first to be incentivized by others. However, as such support is often limited, those youth who have certain preexisting qualities or resources—street smarts, family support, and risk-taking abilities—are able to climb the ladder much more easily than their counterparts who are not blessed with similar strengths and backgrounds.
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