Veiling in Style: How Does a Stigmatized Practice Become Fashionable?

71 Pages Posted: 18 Nov 2009 Last revised: 23 Nov 2009

See all articles by Ozlem Sandikci

Ozlem Sandikci

Bilkent University - Faculty of Business Administration

Güliz Ger

Bilkent University - Management

Date Written: November 17, 2009

Abstract

Although stigma is prevalent in everyday life, consumer researchers’ interest on the topic remains scant and focuses mostly on stigma management. We move beyond individual coping strategies and examine the processes of stigmatization and destigmatization. Through an ethnographic study of fashion consumption practices of urban Turkish covered women, we explore how veiling, a deviant practice stigmatized in the secular and urban mindset, first became an attractive choice for some middle class women and then transformed into a fashionable and ordinary clothing practice for many. We map out the global multi-actored work that underlies the emergence of veiling as an attractive choice and explicate its gradual routinization and destigmatization. We discuss the findings in terms of their implications for understandings of choice and free will, the formative role of fashion in the evolution of a new habitus and social class, and the relationship between the market and religion.

Keywords: Veil, Clothing, Fashion, Choice, Stigma, Deviant Consumer Behavior, Social Class, Religion, Routinization, Turkey, Ethnography

JEL Classification: M30, M31, M39

Suggested Citation

Sandikci, Ozlem and Ger, Güliz, Veiling in Style: How Does a Stigmatized Practice Become Fashionable? (November 17, 2009). Journal of Consumer Research, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1507461

Ozlem Sandikci (Contact Author)

Bilkent University - Faculty of Business Administration ( email )

06533 Bilkent, Ankara
Turkey

HOME PAGE: http://www.bilkent.edu.tr/~sandikci

Güliz Ger

Bilkent University - Management ( email )

06533 Bilkent, Ankara
Turkey
90 312 290 1253 (Phone)

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