Couture and Consensus: Fashion and Politics in Postcolonial Argentina

2. Dressed to Kill

35 two Dressed to Kill T hrough the lens of dress, we can unravel some of the everyday transactions inflected with the burdens of the colonial order and the formation of citizen-subjects in the River Plate region. It can also bring us closer to “dreams full of history, of known unknown persons”1 and enact a dialogue between the individual and the collective in the realm of the cultural imaginary. We have seen how the Rosas regime worked to create a consensus around Federalism, particularly through legalized dress codes and the display of masculinity that represented political legitimacy. Representations of uniform, in particular, forged a strong relationship between the soldier-citizen, the caudillo, and the Confederation. Because the regime feminized the Unitarian opposition to exclude its participation, the political agency of marginalized social groups and women presented a unique discursive challenge. How, then, to depict female supporters of the regime? This chapter analyzes representations of female bravery and beauty, sewing and embroidery, and other fashionable poses in the promotion of political vanity. The emphasis placed on their utility in mobilizing the population at large reveals an interesting shift in representation . When piecing together a flag the night before battle during independence, everyday acts like sewing became emblems of cultural and prenational identity. During the Rosas regime, a focus on recruitment and assembly extended the role of political actors to women as with all popular sectors—that is, on a discursive level.This was an 36 Dressed to Kill altogether new phenomenon. Turning the mirror on the seams, this chapter uses dress to recover a diverse range of female voices—both real and imagined—and some of the creative forces that helped shape the postcolonial battlefront and home front. Female complicity in war making has long been overlooked,argue Helen M. Cooper, Adrienne Auslander Munich, and Susan Merril Squier.“The paradigmatic narrative of ‘men’s wars’ builds on theWestern literary tradition celebrating ‘arms and the man’, to figure a culture in which men fight while women remain at home preserving the domestic front.”2 Those studies that do integrate women into the narrative of war tend to present a beautiful soul contributing to a just war or to challenge the “femininity” of the female soldier (beginning with the mythological Amazons).When studying the military history of postcolonial Argentina, one quickly notices that the images of the women viewed as instrumental in building loyalty and creating consensus have been rendered almost invisible. At the time, women’s participation in the war effort (whether in uniform or during its construction ) brought to mind sensations, continuities, and the dream of national happiness. During independence, many women contributed to the war effort. By the early years of the Rosas regime, networks remained in place and tensions at an all-time high.“All women need to band together,”a popular magazine announced,“and,from our homes, tame the tempers of men once and for all.”3 Furthermore, its anonymous author threatened to tear off men’s collars and put skirts over their heads if soldiers did not resolve the war quickly.4 Meanwhile, the regime promoted images of women dressed to kill, as if vanity alone would advance the cause of alliances.The words of Shari Benstock and Suzanne Ferris thus ring true in this context: although popular poetry afforded women roles as political actors, violence lurked “just around the corner of those hidden grounds, the eye taking aim, sighting the subject.”5 Dressed to kill,women and other marginalized groups found themselves “prey to the Look”6 and their images subject to manipulation . Beginning with independence war efforts and continuing to the first decades of the Rosas regime, this chapter traces the genderspecific assignment of political vanity in an altogether forgotten chapter of Argentine history. In Recuerdos del Buenos Ayres Virreynal (Memories of Viceregal Dressed to Kill 37 Buenos Aires), Mariquita Sánchez de Thompson (1786–1868) depicts colonial Latin America in very gloomy terms, especially when it comes to the experiences of women. From religious customs to the economy, the Spanish dominated every aspect of life, and the inhabitants of the River Plate region felt compelled by their misery to band together.Women found themselves subject first to the Spanish,then to the Church, and finally to the whims of parents and husbands. For this reason, Sánchez wrote that many women felt sentenced to life imprisonment in their homes. She...