Consumption and Gender in Southern Europe Since the Long 1960s

Consumption and Gender in Southern Europe since the Long 1960s offers an in-depth analysis of the relationship between gender and contemporary consumer cultures in post-authoritarian Southern European societies. The book sees a diverse group of international scholars from across the social sciences draw on 14 original case studies to explore the social and cultural changes that have taken place in Spain, Portugal and Greece since the 1960s. This is the first scholarly attempt to look at the countries’ similar political and socioeconomic experiences in the shift from authoritarianism to democracy through the intersecting topics of gender and consumer culture. This comparative analysis is a timely contribution to the field, providing much needed reflection on the social origins of the contemporary economic crisis that Spain, Portugal and Greece have simultaneously experienced. Bringing together past and present, the volume elaborates on the interplay between the current crisis and the memory of everyday life activities, with a focus on gender and consumer practices. Consumption and Gender in Southern Europe since the Long 1960s firmly places the Southern European region in a wider European and transatlantic context. Among the key issues that are critically discussed are ‘Americanization’, the ‘cultural revolution of the Long 1960s’ and representations of the ‘Model Mrs Consumer' in the three societies. This is an important text for anyone interested in the modern history of Southern Europe or the history of gender and consumer culture in modern Europe more generally. This volume explores the intersection between consumer cultures and gender since the 1960s in and between Spain, Portugal and Greece. It co-examines these contexts, due to their shared experience of dictatorial rule and the subsequent transition to democracy. Contributors either take a directly comparative perspective or offer cues for such a comparison. The volume extends to the present, since the financial crisis that all three countries have been experiencing since the early 2010s has triggered reflection not only on transition to democracy, but also on consumer patterns and gender relations there since the 1960s. Our case studies help refine a number of key concepts for the analysis of consumption and gender not only in the European South, but also in Northern Europe and North America. The volume addresses the key categories of the ‘Long 1960s and ‘Americanization’. It demonstrates that these societies were to an extent linked with what Arthur Marwick describes as ‘cultural revolution of the Long Sixties’, although no uniform ‘Southwestern plus Greek’ version of this appeared. In addition, it argues that the shifts in material culture in these countries are not merely the outcome of cultural Americanization, but also of intra-European transfers as well as of transnational flows stemming from non-‘Western’ countries. Finally, it revisits transitions from dictatorship to democracy in these three countries and complements the perspective that prevails in relevant transitological research, which focuses on ‘high politics’. It shows that the transition to democracy brought complex developments that did not necessarily amount to democratization of gender relations and expansion of consumer practices. Cover page Halftitle page Title page Copyright page CONTENTS Untitled ILLUSTRATIONS CONTRIBUTORS ACKNOWLEDEGMENTS TRANSLITERATION OF GREEK CHARACTERS INTO LATIN CHARACTERS FOREWORD Notes INTRODUCTION Defining gender The Long 1960s in (post-)authoritarian Southern Europe Localizing the ‘Model Mrs Consumer’ Revisiting transitology A transition to postmodernity An ‘irresistible empire’? Entangled temporalities Structure of the book Notes PART I CONSUMPTION AND GENDER IN DICTATORSHIP AND DISCIPLINED DEMOCRACY CHAPTER 1 GENDERING TOURISTIC SPAIN, 1950s–70s Touristificated contact zones and gender roles European perceptions of Spanish gender roles between ‘Hispanization’ and ‘Mediterranization’ Conclusion Notes CHAPTER 2 BASQUE NATIONAL IDENTITIES, YOUTH CULTURE AND GENDER IN THE 1960s: BEYOND THE FARMHOUSE AND THE YE-YÉ Introduction Being a young girl in the 1950s ‘Modern girls do not want to speak Basque . . .’ The 1960s and the arrival of a new generation19 The importance of singing modern songs in the Basque language Conclusions Notes CHAPTER 3 CONSUMERISM, GENDER DIVERSITY AND MORALIZATION OF SEXUALITY IN THE IBERIAN 1960s Introduction ‘Miniature consumer societies’? Economic and gender transformations in Iberia Consuming psychotropic drugs to mould subjectivity Moulding the psyche of the ‘sexy and domestic’ secretary: the meaning of female emotional discontent `Pathologies of lifestyle’ and the balanced man Modernizing gender advertising in Portugal The scientific morality of sexuality in Portugal Conclusions Notes CHAPTER 4 GENDER AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR : A PORTRAIT OF PORTUGAL IN THE 1960s Introduction The greatest taboo Electric fairytale How and where to buy An approach to cultural consumption Glimpses into the reception of novel patterns of consumption Conclusion Notes CHAPTER 5 TOURISM, BODY AND SEASIDE RECREATIONAL PRACTICES IN POSTWAR GREEK SOCIETY UNTIL 1974 Introduction Theoretical considerations The coming of the Golden Hordes Pedagogies of the sea Symbolic struggles by the coastlines Everyday life by the sea An excluding hedonism Conclusion: the body and its symbolic functions Notes PART II CONSUMPTION AND GENDER THROUGH THE MOMENT OF TRANSITION CHAPTER 6 REPRESENTATIONS OF SEXUALITY AND GENDER IN PORTUGUESE CINEMA DURING THE LATE ESTADO NOVO AND THE CARNATION REVOLUTION The clash between hegemonic masculinities, subordinated masculinities and femininities in the Estado Novo The Marcelist Spring and the Gulbenkian Golden Years Revolution and eroticism Homosexuality and revolution Controversies and rollback Conclusions Notes CHAPTER 7 THE SPANISH HOUSEWIVES IN TRANSITION (1959–80) Introduction The adoption of the ‘Model Mrs. Consumer’ in the late Franco dictatorship (1959–75) The political socialization of women during the Transition through Ama , la revista de las amas de casa (1975–80) Ascensión Sedeño and the first Spanish housewives’ association (1963–81) Responses to the traditional housewife model from the women’s movement in Madrid: from the female conscience to the feminist conscience (1969–80) Notes CHAPTER 8 DOCUMENTING POST-AUTHORITARIAN SUBCULTURES IN THE EUROPEAN SOUTH: THE CASES OF PEDRO ALMODÓVAR’S PEPI, LUCI, BOM AND NIKOS ZERVOS’ DRACULA OF EXARCHIA1 Post-authoritarian cinema Two directors, two films Documenting subcultures Post-politics Commodifying marginality Gender, pleasure, frivolity A gradual cooptation Conclusions Notes CHAPTER 9 ‘NAKED PIAZZA’ : MALE (HOMO)SEXUALITIES, MASCULINITIES AND CONSUMER CULTURES IN GREECE SINCE THE 1960s Conceptualizations of gender and male sexuality from the 1950s to the 1970s Class/gendered differences, male body and desire Sexual and consumer pleasures in all-male public places The emergence of new, modern, Western conceptualizations of gender and sexuality Shift in masculine desires and new consumerist masculinities Heterosocial and homosexual/‘gay’ places Anti-conclusion Acknowledgements Notes PART III CONSUMPTION AND GENDER BETWEEN THE TRANSITION TO DEMOCRACY AND THE FINANCIAL CRISIS OF THE 2010s CHAPTER 10 TELEVISION CULTURE AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN POST-REVOLUTIONARY PORTUGAL Introduction Post-revolutionary television in Portugal Television culture Television’s imagined society Epilogue Notes CHAPTER 11 LEAFING THROUGH THE 1980s IN PORTUGUESE FASHION MAGAZINES The emergence of popular fashion in Portugal Notions of memory and national identity in Portuguese magazines Fashion editorials Conclusion Acknowledgments Notes CHAPTER 12 CONSUMING THE PAST AS A TELEVISUAL PRODUCT : GENDER AND CONSUMPTION IN CUÉNTAME CÓMO PASÓ/TELL ME HOW IT WAS Introduction Television, gender and memory in Tell Me How it Was ‘La llegada del futuro’/The arrival of the future: electrodomésticos and automobiles Conclusion Notes CHAPTER 13 AUDIO-VISUAL CONSUMPTION IN THE GREEK VHS ERA : SOCIAL MOBILITY, PRIVATIZATION AND THE VCR AUDIENCES IN THE 1980s After the ‘ Allagi’ : changing life, changing habits Video practice and consumption as an ‘index of identity’ Direct-to-video film genres: five years of fun, sadness and laughter Putting forward a hypothesis: VCR spectatorships Conclusion Notes CHAPTER 14 REVISITING THE GREEK 1980s THROUGH THE PRISM OF CRISIS1 Speaking about lifestyle when lifestyle is dying Memories from a ‘period of prosperity’ Memories from a ‘period of safety’ Conclusions Notes INDEX Preface / Guya Accornero Introduction / Kostis Kornetis, Eirini Kotsovili, Nikolaos Papadogiannis PART ONE. CONSUMPTION AND GENDER IN DICTATORSHIP AND DISCIPLINED DEMOCRACY. Gendering touristic Spain, 1950s-1970s / Moritz Glaser Basque national identities, youth culture and gender in the 1960s : beyond the farmhouse and the ye-yé / Amaia Lamikiz Jauregiondo Consumerism, gender diversity and moralization of sexuality in the Iberian 1960s / Rosa M. Medina-Domenech and Richard Cleminson Gender and consumer behavior : a portrait of Portugal in the 1960s / Inês Brasão Tourism, body and seaside recreational practices in postwar Greek society until 1974 / Michalis Nikolakakis PART TWO. CONSUMPTION AND GENDER THROUGH THE MOMENT OF TRANSITION. Representations of sexuality and gender in Portuguese cinema during the late Estado Novo and the Carnation Revolution / Érica Faleiro Rodrigues The Spanish housewives in transition (1959-1980) / Elena Díaz Silva Documenting post-authoritarian subcultures in the European South : the cases of Pedro Almodóvar's Pepi, Luci, Bom and Nikos Zervos's Dracula of Exarchia / Kostis Kornetis 'Naked Piazza' : male (homo)sexualities, masculinities and consumer cultures in Greece since the 1960s / Kostas Yannakopoulos PART THREE. CONSUMPTION AND GENDER BETWEEN THE TRANSITION TO DEMOCRACY AND THE FINANCIAL CRISIS OF THE 2010s. Television culture and social change in post-revolutionary Portugal / Luís Trindade Leafing through the 1980s in Portuguese fashion magazines / Giulia Bonali Consuming the past as a televisual product : gender and consumption in Cuéntame cómo pasó/Tell Me How it Was / Abigail Loxham Audio-visual consumption in the Greek VHS era : social mobility, privatization and the VCR audiences in the 1980s / Ursula-Helen Kassaveti Revisiting the Greek 1980s through the prism of crisis / Panagiotis Zestanakis. El libro analiza las relación entre consumo y género en los países del sur de Europa que sufrieron en el pasado regímenes dictatoriales y autoritarios. Un grupo de expertos expone los cambios sociales y culturales ocurridos en España, Portugal y Grecia a través de aspectos relativos al género y a la cultura de consumo. Este estudio tiene también interés para entender los orígenes sociales de la actual crisis económica que tanto afecta a estos países