STRATEGY FOR CULTURE
Year:2017 | Volume:10 | Issue:38 |Papers Count:8

Commercial advertisements, as a significant part of the visual communication network, besides leaving direct impacts on the audience in the field of commodity sale, have many indirect effects on upbringing and orientation of audience society’s attitude. The present research, employing Norman Fairclough’s discourse analysis method, is an attempt to study the way of representation of women’s image in TV advertisements. After a precise reading of a set of 500 TV advertisements of detergent powders, hygienic materials, cosmetics, home appliances and kitchenware in 2016, five cases were picked up that were aired in all seasons by the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting Organization. Focusing on the relationship between the text and context, the results indicate that contrary to the previous perception of researchers, the representation of woman’s image in the commercial advertisements is not limited to the stereotype image of a consumer, inactive and ignorant housewife; rather the recently produced advertisements are moving towards the promotion of a new discourse based on valuing women’s status and approximating them to their present position as an active, wise and able member of the Iranian society.

The present paper is an attempt to study the mediation of constructionist-interpretive approach in exploration and investigation about the contexts and semantic implications of premarital relations of the youth and their consequences for martial life in the Sanandaj City. The data of this qualitative study were collected through in-depth interviews and analyzed through grounded theory method. 21 respondents were selected through targeted theoretical sampling method and were interviewed. The collected data were coded and analyzed in 18 axial categories and one core category. The findings of the research indicate that the youth have turned to relations with the opposite sex before marriage because of emotional problems, intensified sexual desires, and membership and facilitation of acceptance in peer groups. However, stimulations of opposite sex have functioned as facilitating grounds and modern information and communication technology as intervening conditions. The responding youth have sustained relations with the opposite sex with the mediation of two strategies, i. e. “love relations” and “relations based on deception”. According to the findings of the present study, the experience of premarital relations, by strengthening the sense of nostalgia, has such consequences as regret, seeking sexual diversity and comparison, family conflicts, unfaithfulness, and lack of commitment to marital life. The core category of “volatility of marital ties” is related to the consequences of premarital relations of the youth for marital life.

Consumption of commodity in its different kinds and forms, has several cultural-social implications which are the basis for justification of the consumption stance of consumers. The objective of this paper is to explain how the consumers justify their conspicuous and posing consumption which is usually accompanied by using brands which are continually being updated. To find out answer to the latent meanings of conspicuous consumption, 38 women in Mashhad, who more or less, had this kind of consumption, were selected through targeted sampling method and in-depth interviews were conducted with them about consumption of body management commodities and services. The findings of coding and analysis of the interview texts show that there are five main justifications for the conspicuous consumption of body management commodities and services: Identity justification of consumption that shows prestige and is a representation of the consumer’s social position; psychological justification in which the individual refers to psychological needs of himself, mankind or women; economic (rational) justification, through which the consumer assesses the consumption choices as rational after comparing consumption–exchange value or economic and social cost-benefit; Supervisory justification (compulsory) in which the individual finds himself under the supervision of the demands and proposals of significant others or generalized others or ethical and religious doctrines; and habitus justification which refers to “the precedence of the conspicuous consumption pattern or tendency towards it in the individual’s life history”.

Hyperreality is one of the key concepts in Jean Baudrillard’s theory. Sexual issues are one of the contexts in which hyperreality has intensely penetrated. Hence, in the present study, pornography is taken as a kind of hyperreality in the sexual domain and by employing concepts specific to Baudrillard in this regard, the experiences of the users of these products are analyzed by using the grounded theory method. The sample consisted of 20 users (10 women and 10 men) of pornographical products who were selected through targeted sampling method from three psychological clinics as well as from virtual groups with sexual contents and in-depth interviews were conducted with them. The data was analyzed through three-stage open, axial and selective coding. The findings of the research included three main categories with their sub-categories consisting of relational hyperreality (media sex action and illusion of joyfulness and satisfaction), experimental hyperreality (sexual adventurism and overlapping of sexual imagination with routine affairs) and consequential hyperreality (woman as a consumption commodity and entanglement in the sequence of sexual signifiers). The overall result indicates that imitation of the sexual actions demonstrated in pornography does not lead to the desired outcome nor does it lead to sexual satisfaction in the real world of the people, because they are not real and are made by the media. Hence, lack of sexual satisfaction in the real world is considered the pivotal concept of present research, for in pornography, a thing is projected more glittering, more colorful and sexier through increasing the resolution of colors.

The developments in the Iranian society have caused significant changes in the forms of premarital relations among the youth. A review of the related literature indicates that if such a relationship is with several persons and in the advanced formed, it will leave adverse impacts on the quality of relations with the next person. But, if it is adopted as a means to marriage under the supervision of family and society, it will upgrade the quality of the person’s choice. Attempts have been made in the paper to study the relationship between different levels of premarital relations with the level of couple’s marital compatibility. Given the decisive role of family in the discourse of Iranian society, attempts have been made to study the attitude of parents towards premarital relations and marriage of their children. The accessible sampling frame and snowball method was used to collect the data. The respondents were asked to fill out the forms of the level of their relations as well as the Marital Compatibility Test. The findings indicate that the level of marital compatibility of individuals who did not have any relations or had limited relations before marriage is higher than those who had advanced and multiple relations. In addition, the consent of the parents to marriage, increases the level of marital compatibility.

The present paper is an attempt to study marital commitment from the viewpoint of women through a constructionist approach and based on their interpretation depict a comprehensive picture of the reasons and factors causing the commitment as well as changes in the commitment in the couple’s relationship. The construct of marital commitment has been studied through an interpretive approach based on grounded theoretical method. The sample for this study consisted of 38 women with marriage experience who were selected through targeted and theoretical method. After confidence building, the necessary data were collected through semi-structured in-depth interview and analyzed through three-stage open, axial and selective coding. The findings of the research indicate that childhood and adolescence life experiences, paradox of individual values, personality traits, joint life experience, consumption/leisure lifestyle, prescribed marital norms, need to experience love and women’s modern achievements, as causal conditions, construct commitment into a volatile issue. In such contexts as epistemological contradictions, hegemony of the discourse of sexual satisfaction in the couple’s relations, relative welfare of society and under the circumstances of media intervention and intercultural relations, the volatility of the issue of marital commitment leads to two types of women’s interactions: A group of women, through positive assessment of their marriage and by using appropriate education and consolidation of life skills, have caused commitment-based sustainable marriage to turn into a normal situation. In contrast, another group, through negative assessment of their marriage and clandestine separation from their husband, have faced negative consequences such as breach of commitment, promotion of multiple emotional and sexual relations, divorce and lack of mental health. Awareness and proper approach to the consequences can reduce the degree of problems stemming from cognitive changes of marital commitment to the minimum level.

Based on Joachim Wach theory, attempts have been made in this paper to phenomenologically understand and recognize the types of the life experience of women from their presence in women religious ceremonies and sessions. Statistical sample is 40 women who participated in religious sessions in different regions of Tehran. The data were collected through interview and analyzed through Schmidt method. The findings indicate that life experience of women from their presence in religious ceremonies on three levels of intellectual, practical and social types are as below: A) Intellectual: gaining otherworldly rewards and proximity to God; positive impact of such a presence on human soul and psyche (acquisition of peace) with more acquaintance with the Quran, religious commandments and the life of the Infallible Imams. B) Practical: Finding appropriate and religious cases for marriage; positive impacts on family and marital life (improvement of relations between the couples and those of the parents and their children); and spending leisure times. C) Social: participation in social charities; awareness of condition of friends and relatives and assisting them in case of their need; and family visits.