Consumer Culture and the Design of a Modern Self in Iran: The Cultivation of Mind and Body in Iranian Lifestyle Magazines

Abstract

This paper examines two distinct forms of how a modern Iranian self is crafted in relation to and in negotiation with Western modernity. Consumption as a way of forming and expressing identities is a strongly contested practice in Iran, where identity politics have changed drastically after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. An examination of the visual and discursive material from two contemporary Iranian lifestyle magazines shows that practices such as managing and disciplining the self and the constant improvement of one's personality and body are an important part of the public discourse in Iran. They are reflected in the journals by endorsing different products, tastes, and choices of lifestyle. Analysing the magazines’ strategies to address different income groups brings to light distinct ways in which practices of modern self-management are embedded in an Islamic framework. As will be demonstrated, the journal targeting high income-level groups frames the successful self almost exclusively in relation to the outward appearance while the more middle class-oriented magazine instead engages in discourses based on religious or moral values. Refuting perspectives focused on religious or cultural identity exclusively, the paper points to the socioeconomic background as an influential factor in the process of conceptualising images of a modern Iranian self.