This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Duits, L. Articles by van Zoonen, L. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Headscarves and Porno-Chic

Disciplining Girls' Bodies in the European Multicultural Society

Liesbet van Zoonen

UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM

This article addresses girls' dress, which has become controversial, especially in contemporary multicultural Europe. Using the Dutch public debate about the headscarf, belly shirts, visible G-strings, and other forms of ‘porno-chic’, the authors show that these seemingly separate debates are held together by the regulation of female sexuality. Through their analysis of the headscarves and porno-chic debate, the authors argue that women's sexuality and girls' bodies in particular have become the metonymic location for many a contemporary social dilemma: of the multicultural society when it concerns the scarf, of feminism and public morality when it concerns porno-chic. They conclude that despite the widely different appearance of girls wearing headscarves or porno-chic, both groups of girls are submitted to the meta-narratives of dominant discourse: the state, school, public opinion, parents and other social institutions ‘resignify’ their everyday practices as inappropriate, and reprieve them from the power to define their own actions.

Key Words: ethnicity • fashion • feminism • gender • girls' culture • public debate

European Journal of Women's Studies, Vol. 13, No. 2, 103-117 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/1350506806062750


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				K. Whitehead and T. Kurz `Empowerment' and the Pole: A Discursive Investigation of the Reinvention of Pole Dancing as a Recreational Activity Feminism Psychology, May 1, 2009; 19(2): 224 - 244. [Abstract] [PDF]

				L. Duits and P. van Romondt Vis Girls make sense: Girls, celebrities and identities European Journal of Cultural Studies, February 1, 2009; 12(1): 41 - 58. [Abstract] [PDF]

				E. Renold and J. Ringrose Regulation and rupture: Mapping tween and teenage girls' resistance to the heterosexual matrix Feminist Theory, December 1, 2008; 9(3): 313 - 338. [Abstract] [PDF]

				C. Pedwell Weaving relational webs: Theorizing cultural difference and embodied practice Feminist Theory, April 1, 2008; 9(1): 87 - 107. [Abstract] [PDF]

				L. Duits and L. van Zoonen Who's Afraid of Female Agency?: A Rejoinder to Gill European Journal of Women's Studies, May 1, 2007; 14(2): 161 - 170. [PDF]

				K. Davis Editorial European Journal of Women's Studies, February 1, 2007; 14(1): 5 - 8. [PDF]

				R. C. Gill Critical Respect: The Difficulties and Dilemmas of Agency and 'Choice' for Feminism: A Reply to Duits and van Zoonen European Journal of Women's Studies, February 1, 2007; 14(1): 69 - 80. [PDF]