Dressed for Success: Hegemonic Masculinity, Elite Men and Westernisation in Iran, c.1900-40

From the late nineteenth century until the mid-twentieth century, men of an emerging western-educated Iranian elite utilised knowledge, practices and objects originating from western countries to reach and preserve a hegemonic position in their society. This article follows the appropriation of western knowledge and education, along with western clothes and manners, and explores how these became essential components of a new hegemonic masculinity in Iran. It also describes the criticism this model of masculinity met from conservative segments of society and the manner in which men of the western-educated elite dealt with this - by giving new meanings to the criticism and redirecting it towards non-elite men. Thus, men of the western-educated elite appropriated 'correct' westernisation and excluded non-elite men from it and from the new model of hegemonic masculinity. The new model was further promoted during the reign of Reza Shah (1926-41), when dress laws enforced western attire upon all Iranian male lay citizens, a move which entrenched the social and political hegemony of westernised men as well.