Enoughness, accent and light communities: Essays on contemporary identities

 

35 

 

Image 2. 

http://www.muslimness.com/2009/11/whats-your-hijab.html

  

 

 

Image 3. 

http://www.turntoislam.com/forum/showthread.php?t=47697

  

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When it comes to ‘how to’ discourses on identities, these discourses are always 

accompanied by a ‘how not to’ component explicitly or implicitly embedded in 

the ‘how to’. The prescriptive images presented above are all very explicit, and 

clearly the objection here is to the stereotypically ‘Western’ fashion element: 

these images unequivocally reject the ‘Western’ ideal of female bodies (wear 

make-up, show your figure and preferably some skin, follow fashion trends, etc.), 

and they guide the viewer in ‘how to do it instead to get it right’. Revealingly, the 

text accompanying Image 2 refers to the modification of the template for the 

prescribed style ‘to a degree’ – pointing directly to the ‘unique’ recognizability 

that should be part of one’s self-articulation, while not being overwhelmed by 

too strong an accent.  

Here we also see how the notion of authenticity is relevant in understanding 

accents: indeed, Entwistle (2000: 121) points to a whole ‘moral universe’ in 

which “dress and appearance are thought to reveal one’s ‘true’ identity”. Here, 

that ‘true’ identity would be that of a religious, modest self projected onto a fully 

‘veiled’ body. However, evoking different centers of recognition – always a 

potential ‘risk’ in articulating one’s accent – becomes a problem here, as too 

strong a fashion-conscious (‘Western’?) accent potentially overrides the ‘true’ 

self that is supposed to be visible in the articulation of one’s identity. Crossing 

the boundaries of expected authenticity is possible and tolerated, but the limits 

of that are strictly policed. 

As we shall see next, details are indeed of essence in the successful articulations 

of (hijabista) identities 

The pink marshmallow look, the hipster hijab and other accents 

In today’s global supermarket of identities, the internet is full of instructions on 

how to attain certain accents, and the fracturing of identities is visible in the 

immense range of items and commodities that are made to seem important in 

one’s articulation. As noted earlier, constructing oneself revolves around 

arranging an ordered cluster of details; permutations of such clusters enable a 

virtually endless range of ‘small’ identities to be produced. 

We can view the ‘how to’ discourse, here in the case of the hijabista, as a 

continuum, where at one end of ‘how to’ hijab, we find basic, generic 

instructions. Hijabista videos on YouTube feature this whole range. For instance 

the video “How to wear hijab’

11

 gives a detailed description on how to wear the 

headscarf, specifying four different types of instruction: how to wear a square 

hijab, an oblong Shayla, a one-piece Shayla, and a Al-Amira hijab. This is quite 

general, as we find out when we start examining the ways in which the hijabista 

can be accessorised to achieve certain stylised identities. Getting more specific, 

we find, for instance, the following: ‘Criss Cross hijab style/tutorial’

12

; ‘Hijab 

Tutorial Style for Work/High School/College – A Requested Look’

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; ‘Hijab Style 

                                                        

11

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1tYfBNfqgU

 

12

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Knb6tJ3N9-s

 

13

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEwP4h6gxn8

 

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37 

Tutorial Using Lace Headband and a Butterfly Brooch’

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 (with the caption 

pointing out that ‘The lace headbands and butterfly brooch are all from H&M’); 

‘Hijab style/tutorial – The Pink Marshmallow Look’

15

; ‘Hijab/Hijaab Tutorial 

Style-Two Arabian Princess Looks’

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; ‘Hijab tutorial: how to wear a 

headscarf/hijab modern style with a flower.wmv’

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; ‘Hijab tutorial for 

glasses/sunglasses’

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; ‘StyleCovered- hijab tutorial pashmina with accessories’

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; 

‘Pleated caterpillar style Hijab Tutorial By Ruby Ahmed’

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;  ‘The Roley Poley 

Style Hijab Tutorial’

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; ‘Hijab Tutorial: Funky Layered Look (Requested)’

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; 

‘Everyday Hijab Style/Hoodie Hijab Tutorial’

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  – and so on, and so on, ad 

infinitum.  

Being a hijabista is thus by no means a single, uniform thing, and the ‘how to’ 

discourse illustrates the infinite possibilities provided by stylisation through the 

consumption and display of different commodities to suit certain occasions 

(‘everyday’; ‘work/high school/college’) and to produce certain accents 

(‘Arabian Princess’; ‘The Pink Marshmallow’). The details and artefacts used give 

one one’s accent, and open up whole universes of meaning, pointing to certain 

identities and lifestyles. Hence also – given that keeping up with fashion trends 

requires the spending of sometimes great amounts of money – we now see that 

the phenomenon of ‘frugal fashionistas’ has appeared (e.g. ‘The Frugal 

Fatshionista’

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). As described in the Hijab Savvy blog, “I’m really excited to be 

sharing this new series with all of you! The Frugal Hijabista is for the woman 

who enjoys – yes I said actually enjoys saving money and finding a bargain.”

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. 

Being frugal is, in fact, about enjoying being frugal, i.e. not something dictated by 

economic necessity, but a lifestyle actively chosen. Another such example is the 

                                                        

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kyEYcyMTwA

 

15

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9et52qHKVTY

 

16

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipgjgKGUqEQ

 

17

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwRu5ljtD-E&feature=fvst

 

18

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZfNqhZEC6s

 

19

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRpzZhxbm0U

 

20

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSq9RqIs7pE

 

21

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hs9sTBANRgs

; “Well it’s the turban style 

of wearing the hijab but more bulky and more loose. Works well with the crinkly 

type rectangular scarves. Inspired by the african dead dresses”. 

22

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2u_iXRG9KY

 

23

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCeZriQma8I

 

24

 

http://rhapsodani.com/thefrugalfatshionista

 

25

 

http://hijabsavvy.com/category/frugal-hijabista/, emphasis original

 

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