Female-Centered World Views in Iranian Culture: Symbolic Representations of Sexuality in Dramatic Games

Abstract

How do women in male-dominant cultures define and interpret reality-their own reality, particularly, attributive and rational,1 erotic and nonerotic aspects of their sexuality? Are their conceptions merely extensions or derivations of reality as defined by the male-centered culture? In the absence of movements or organizations, such as we find in Western societies, that explicitly aim to defend the female's legal, economic, and political interests,2 do women passively participate in the structures of their own domination? Do they accept the notions of how they are supposed to feel, think, and act, because they are influenced by the weight of moral or mechanical3 sanctions or because they internalize these structures through socialization and enculturation processes? In this paper, I hope to underscore the inadequacy of this perspective for understanding the dialectical nature of sexual as well as other forms of sociocultural domination.4 I will examine the case of Iran, a society that