Analyzing Historical Evolution of Beauty Discourses and Its Effects on Iranian Women´s Lives

Beauty discourse could be considered as way for individuals and groups to speak on beauty as a system of codes and symbols used in referring to body. This system is formed through a historical process in a social-cultural texture using existent social powers. In this research, we tried to explore the process of historical evolution of beauty phenomenon and its effects on Iranian women´s lives based on Lacla and Mouffe's reading using theory and method of discourse analysis. On this basis, historical documents and data from Iranian constitutional period as the historical turning point, and the periods before and after were analyzed to show Iranian society´s transition and deepening and intensification of the beauty phenomenon of women. The results show that following modernist effects on beauty values, appearance of discoursal and institutional restlessness in Qajar period, constitutional period in particular, and interaction with Europe, turning of beauty discourse started. Deepening of modernist effects in Pahlavi period resulted in relative domination of new beauty discourse whose effects could be traced in individual and social lives of women - in the limits of social visibility of women, consumption and life style of women, family structure, criticizing or accepting patriarchal dominance, body ...