Abstract

This study looks at the histories of state imposed dress codes during the Cultural Revolutions in the People's Republic of China and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Following a communist ideology in China, a peasant attire called the Mao jacket was enforced on Chinese men and women, eliminating elitism and projecting a unified image of the people of China which also resulted in women looking similar to men. In Islamic Iran dress codes were enforced on both genders as well but it was women's attire which was most restrictive and regulated. The hejab in the form of the black chador resulted in women to be differentiated from men. But what these states have in common is that in both states dress codes have entailed a de-sexing of a woman's body in public. But humans are social actors, they make decisions, they choose, they resist. Formal and informal methods of regulation have important social effects on individuals and society at large. Thus clothing laws are not a simple history of regulation, they are also a history of opposition and resistance. This study, based on field and library research, also looks at how the same dress codes imposed by states have the potential to be used by individuals as mechanisms for countering state ideologies. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)