INSTRUCTOR’S NOTE The Anthropology of Fashion (ANTH 2293G/650)
Week 8: February 29 - March 4 Winter 2016
Western University
Dress, Power, and Resistance
Readings:
Constable, Nicole
1997 Sexuality and Discipline Among Filipina Domestic Workers in Hong Kong. American
Ethnologist 24(3):539–558.
Nimatuj, Irma Alicia Velásquez
2011 Transnationalism and Maya Dress. In The Guatemala Reader: History, Culture, Politics.
Greg Grandin, Deborah T. Levenson, and Elizabeth Oglesby, eds. Pp. 523–531. Durham: Duke
University Press.
There are those who have power. And there are those who don’t. This is a commonly held
perspective on power. Following Michel Foucault (1995), power might be better thought of as
something that is “everywhere,” that is present in all interactions. In this view, power does not
belong exclusively to the dominant class or is not only held by formal political institutions.
Power shapes relations between people at all levels of society. Instead of thinking of power in
terms of “having” or “not-having,” we should rather recognize that individuals are “dominant”
in some contexts and “subjugated” in others. Closely related to the notion of power is the
concept of resistance. Resistance is commonly viewed as collective, open, and formally
organized acts such as demonstrations or rebellions. However, resistance also takes on the form
of small, individual, and disguised acts. These “everyday forms of resistance” include, for
example, false compliance, sabotage, foot dragging, and gossip (Scott 1985).
Nicole Constable’s article discusses the power relations between female Chinese employers
and their Filipina domestic workers in Hong Kong. These employers try to control the sexuality
of their servants, which they consider as threatening to themselves and the Chinese family in
general. One way of how employers attempt to discipline their servants is through restricting
their dress choices. Employers usually prohibit their domestic workers to wear, for example,
tight pants, skirts above the knee, make-up, or jewelry. Workers either need to wear an
“asexual uniform” of blue jeans and a T-shirt or a “real” uniform of a dress with a white apron.
At the same time, dress is used by Filipina workers to resist the disciplining efforts. Some of the
women dress up in fancy dresses, heels, jewelry, and make-up on their days off; they aim to
look like “ladies” not like domestic servants. Constable is careful to point out that Filipina
workers have several choices in regards to clothing style (pp. 552, 553). She also stresses that
these workers not only resist attempts of disciplining, but that they are also complicit in forms
of control (p. 553), for example, by avoiding to dress “too sexy.”
The second article returns us to the topic of traje (“traditional” dress) in Guatemala, which
has already been addressed in Jon Schackt’s article (week 3). This time, however, the article is
written by a “cultural insider”: Anthropologist Irma Alicia Velásquez Nimatuj is a Maya herself.
The author discusses the marginalization and racial discrimination Maya continue to experience
in Guatemala. Traje plays an important role in this context. On the one hand, it facilitates the
discrimination of Maya women because it identifies the wearers as Maya. On the other hand,
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wearing traje is a form of resistance against discrimination, social exclusion, and the various
attempts to make the Maya “disappear.” It demonstrates that the Maya maintain their culture,
and it is a political act of asserting their right to self-determination. Nimatuj further discusses
the exploitation of Maya in the context of the tourism industry. Images of Maya women dressed
in traje are used to promote tourism. Garments like blouses or skirts are sold without
adequately compensating the local Maya producers. At the same time, the author also
recognizes that tourism provides (or can provide) benefits to indigenous people.
What Do You Think?: Do you think that some of the dress practices of Filipina domestic workers
can be considered “everyday forms of resistance”? What commonalities and differences can you
find in the discussions about Maya dress by Nimatuj and by Schackt?
References Cited
Foucault, Michel
1995[1975] Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Alan Sheridan, trans. New York:
Vintage Books.
Scott, James C.
1985 Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance. New Haven: Yale Press.
Schackt, Jon
2005 Mayahood Through Beauty: Indian Beauty Pageants in Guatemala. Bulletin of Latin
American Research 24(3):269–287.
