Unpacking nontarget majority consumers’ responses to modest fashion: how market controversy perpetuates marketplace exclusion

Abstract

ABSTRACT Combining trends in style and form with religious considerations, modest fashion has grown worldwide despite a series of intense controversies in Western countries from the mid-2010s. Building on the sociology of scandal, we identify three rhetorical strategies that structure nontarget majority consumers’ responses to modest fashion, i.e. the place of religion in modern society, the defence of freedom, and the search for a harmonious society. Interestingly, the strategies of both the detractors and promoters of modest fashion appear to be built upon common values and norms, though at a collective vs. an individual level, respectively. This discursive dynamic allows the former to moralise their attack while neutralising the defence of the latter, thereby setting the public agenda, and leading to Muslims’ marketplace exclusion.