Idealized images: Appearance and the construction of femininities in two exclusive organizations

Two exclusive organizations, Holdeman Mennonites and college sororities, are chosen to illustrate diverse uses of idealized images. These images represent socially constructed notions of idealized feminine behavior and appearance. Using qualitative fieldwork, the research explores the stages of membership for each group, and investigates the use and control of appearance in relation to idealized images in each group. Compliance to idealized images is encouraged through social control measures that vary depending on the type of organization.; The Holdeman Mennonites, representing total institutions, reject the world and its fashions, and retain rigid control of ideology. Informal and formal methods of social control are used to keep members committed to group norms such as the exacting dress code. Consequently, the Holdeman Mennonites are a relatively homogeneous group of members who have a particular notion as to women's role in general, and femininity in particular.; As an example of greedy institutions, sororities are also exclusive, but exercise less control over their member's lives than do total institutions. They embrace the world, fashion, the beauty myth, and accept multiple roles for women. Sororities accept role conflicts as inevitable, and maintain group consensus through subtle measures of social control. Society at large controls girls through the beauty myth. The greedy institution does not rely on coercion in the same way as does the total institution.; The data showed that adherence to the idealized image (symbolic self completion) is strong in the early stages of membership when combined with commitment to prescribed roles. Conversely, role conflict occurs as girls prepare to leave the organization. Since this struggle may be visible in the rejection of the group's symbols and idealized image, deviance from the norms may be met with formal social control measures.; Each organization has different expectations and perceptions as to women's roles, and different notions as to what constitutes appropriate feminine behavior and appearance. Consequently, sociocultural differences play a part in the social construction of femininity: This data refutes notions of an "essential" feminine nature, which attempt to present a universalistic notion of femininity irrespective of culture and history.