University of Moulay Ismail

School of Arts and Humanities

MEKNES-MOROCCO

Master Programme: Communication in Contexts

Fall Semester 2014-2015

“Media and society” S. 10
Instructor: Prof.Kamal El Issaoui

Student’s name: Zakaria Dalil

During the last few decades, the women’s fashion industry has recognized an

exponential growth, specifically the western fashion. The latter has actively contributed in the

empowerment of women and their liberation from the strict conservative norms. Nevertheless,

this liberating entity can also serve as a subjugating and imprisoning tool to keep women in

check and distract them from matters of real substance. Fashion is inextricably linked and

predominantly driven by women mainly to satisfy their materialistic cravings and fill up the

void in their lives. In this respect, how do feminists regard Fashion, how does it confine

women to an inferior social order, and most importantly, how does it reduces women’s social,

cultural and intellectual horizons?

The major two premises upon which feminism is founded are independence and

liberation from men’s control. The latter forcefully contradicts with the fashion dynamics in

the sense that it enslaves women to a materialistic world which is regulated mainly by men.

From a feminist’s perspective, fashion is an ideological instrument that serves to control

women and submit them to worldly materials that blind them and flattens or fossilizes their

reason. We can attribute this to Gramsci’s renowned notion; hegemony. The latter is not done

by brute force or power but rather by consent and agreement. Fashion renders women to
subservient subjects that are willing to be influenced and enslaved by its impact. They

subliminally subjugate themselves to fashion in a way that gives it control and power over

them. This state is in a perfect accordance with Althusser’s notion ‘false consciousness. The

latter assumes that people think that they are in control over the matters of their lives but in

fact they are influenced by an invisibly powerful ideology that regulates their thinking and by

extension, their being. The same concept applies here. Women reckon that they are in control

over their fascination and obsession with fashion, yet they don’t recognize that fashion’s

influence is just too powerful to easily rid themselves of.

Fashion can also be deemed a device for confining women to an inferior social order.

As mentioned above, the fashion industry, with all its constituents like clothes, magazines,

shoes, etc, is run by men. This puts men on a superior stance and subjugates women to a

patriarchal social order where men control and regulate the social, economic and political

proceedings of society while women are pre-occupied with idle materials. Fashion, in this

sense, is utilized as a manipulative tool to distract women from realizing their true essence of

being which is becoming free and independent. More to the point, the very nature of fashion

is materialistic and expensive. Aside from self-sufficient women who are capable of covering

their fashion needs themselves, other women like housewives or those who don’t have the

monetary means end up resorting to men for money which consequently puts them under

men’s mercy and serves to further instill the principles of patriarchy in society. Additionally,

one of the main reasons behind women’s obsession with fashion is due to their desire to

attract the male’s attention. Women use their femininity, which was boosted by fashion, to

seduce and appeal to men which somewhat empowers them. Now, while that is indeed

empowering, yet it is also objectifying. It objectifies women to the male gaze and use.

On a more serious note, fashion can have some serious repercussion on women’s

psyche. Namely, fashion, most if not all the time, gives a far-fetched representation of what
and how women should look like. To illustrate, since the female body is a primary constituent

of fashion and its promotion, they feature a perfectly shaped, stomach-flat body and renders it

a goal for every women to strive for. This is a contradiction in the way that beauty or

appearance is framed in terms of the natural, when in fact it is artificially constructed in the

images they present. In addition, fashion creates a sort of a casting system. It categorizes

women as those who fit the definition of attractiveness and those who don’t. Most of the

fashion designs are meant for thin women with relatively nice bodies. In this respect, it

excludes all the other women who don’t conform to these conditions. Hence, fashion becomes

a source of anxiety and displeasure rather than comfort and enjoyment.

All in All, fashion can be deemed a double edged weapon. It empowers women and

rids them of the rigid conventional social norms yet it also holds the power to control and

subjugate them. For this reason, women must assume a more critical stance towards fashion

and thoroughly examine the addictive subtle proceedings of its consumption.