White Brides: Images of Marriage across Colonizing Boundaries

McGrath, Ann

doi:10.1353/fro.2003.0011

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 33 publications

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“…This was so especially for Black women. Not only did white evoke eternal glory (Foster 1997), but it also “denoted purity and virtue” (Navickas 2010:556) and respectability (Rabinovitch‐Fox 2019), symbols which, over the course of the nineteenth century, were inscribed in the white wedding dress (McGrath 2002). Thus, a Black woman who chose white for her execution attire readied herself for death like she would for her wedding, while simultaneously laying claims on a respectable and virtuous self.…”

Section: Attire Suitable For Deathmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dressed for Death: Gender, Respectability, and Resistance at the Gallows

Linders

Casanova

Shupe

2021

Symbolic Interaction

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In this paper we examine the dress of execution victims. Executions provide both the convict and the state with an opportunity to claim honor and respectability. Drawing on newspaper accounts of executions conducted between 1840 and 1940, we demonstrate that convict attire reveals an important tension between the convicts' gendered character claims and the efforts by execution managers to arrange a credible execution. But whereas displays of masculinity reinforce more than challenge the propriety of executions, women's femininity displays challenge not only the propriety of executions, but also the respectability of those tasked with their killing. We conclude that the subversive potential of clothing is found not only in the garments themselves, nor only on the wearers' intentions, but also on the institutional settings in which they are presented.

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Section: Attire Suitable For Deathmentioning

confidence: 99%