Dress, Gender and Cultural Change: Asian American and African American Rites of Passage (review)

In Dress, Gender and Cultural Change, Annette Lynch analyses the dress styles in male and female rites of passage from two American ethnic groups. Based on her fieldwork among Hmong-Americans in the St. Paul/Minneapolis area and an African American community in Waterloo, Iowa, Lynch attempts to show how young men and women "negotiate and instigate changing gender constructions" by means of dress (p. 1). While she achieves this goal in some of the chapters, the volume as a whole is unbalanced and lacks cohesion.

Lynch dedicates four chapters to her Hmong-American subjects. Chapter 2 provides an informative overview of Hmong religion and social structure, and their migratory history from China to Southeast Asia and eventually to the United States. She also introduces the subject of dress and its significance both in Lao Hmong everyday life and New Year rituals, and describes contemporary New Year celebrations among Hmong-Americans in St. Paul. Chapter 3, "Dressed to be Successful in America: Models of Masculinity at Hmong New Year," discusses issues facing young male Hmong-Americans, one being the conflict between generations and the other being their emergent roles as community leaders and liaisons to the greater American community. Lynch identifies four "models of masculinity" in their New Year celebration dress styles, namely the hegemonic, counterhegemonic, "new style" traditional, and American popular culture styles. These styles, she argues, represent different methods of engaging the conflict between two models of masculinity-either the traditional model, "with its strong emphasis on family, respect for elders, and cultural knowledge," and the dominant American construct of masculinity "focused on individual accomplishment and productive ability in the workplace" (p. 46). The prevalence of Euro-American business suits as the basis for the outfits, she suggests, indicates "a commitment to the American hegemonic ideal" (p. 46).

Chapter 4, "I am Hmong, I am American, I am a Hmong American Woman," provides a thorough, engaging analysis of the New Year dress styles of young Hmong-American females. Lynch classifies the young women's dress into two categories: "old style" traditional and "new style" traditional. A very specific discussion of headdresses (turbans vs. rooster-style hats) demonstrates just how meaningfully loaded even a single item of clothing can be. Turbans denote tradition and dependence, while the rooster-style hat (one with "shapes on the top resembling a cockscomb" that "rests upon, rather than [wraps] around the head" [p. 59]) denotes modernity and independence. Here as in chapter 5, "Invention of Tradition: Emergence of Ethnic Dress in America," Lynch makes a compelling argument for New Year dress styles as reflections of the negotiation and transformation of gendered and ethnic identities of Hmong-Americans.

Chapter 6 examines the Cotillion Ball in Waterloo, Iowa, an African American debutante ball. Lynch explains that body and dress have historically been the means through which African Americans express cultural pride and reconstruct gendered identities. With its requisite white gowns, the Cotillion challenges "historical stereotypes depicting black women as promiscuous and lacking in intelligence and grace," presenting instead women "of integrity and promise" (p. 92). However, Lynch neglects to explore her subjects' innovation, creativity, and agency in recreating these positive images. Only one paragraph is devoted to the debutantes' dresses themselves. The chapter includes a photograph of a young lady in a gown and Nikes, but there is no discussion of what the significance of those shoes might be. Chapter 7 looks at the Beautillion, the African American male counterpart of the Cotillion. The dress style is uniform and conventional, a style "linked in America to versions of institutionalized power, but within individual walks, gestures and hairstyles distinct expressions of African American aesthetics of movement and art emerge" (p. 111).

Overall, this book mostly fails to deliver on its intriguing premise. Most chapters would have benefited from more input from their subjects. The smaller African American section seems like an afterthought, and the lack of transition between sections makes this unevenness...