1108 WISIW prelims_p6.indd 1 2012/03/05 1:30 PM Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za 1108 WISIW prelims_p6.indd 2 2012/03/05 1:30 PM Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za eDiteD BY ReLeBoHiLe MoLetsAne cLAUDiA MitcHeLL Ann sMitH DRESS IDENTITY MATERIALITY 1108 WISIW prelims_p6.indd 3 2012/03/05 1:30 PM Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za Published by HSRC Press Private Bag X9182, Cape Town, 8000, South Africa www.hsrcpress.ac.za First published 2012 ISBN (soft cover) 978-0-7969-2362-2 ISBN (pdf) 978-0-7969-2363-9 ISBN (e-pub) 978-0-7969-2364-6 © 2012 Human Sciences Research Council The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Human Sciences Research Council (‘the Council’) or indicate that the Council endorses the views of the authors. In quoting from this publication, readers are advised to attribute the source of the information to the individual author concerned and not to the Council. Copyedited by Juliet Haw Typeset by Nicole de Swardt Cover design by Firebrand Cover photo by Marina Faust Printed by [Name of printer, city, country] Distributed in Africa by Blue Weaver Tel: +27 (0) 21 701 4477; Fax: +27 (0) 21 701 7302 www.oneworldbooks.com Distributed in Europe and the United Kingdom by Eurospan Distribution Services (EDS) Tel: +44 (0) 17 6760 4972; Fax: +44 (0) 17 6760 1640 www.eurospanbookstore.com Distributed in North America by River North Editions, from IPG Call toll-free: (800) 888 4741; Fax: +1 (312) 337 5985 www.ipgbook.com 1108 WISIW prelims_p6.indd 4 2012/03/05 1:30 PM Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za Contents Tables and figures vii Acknowledgements ix Acronyms and abbreviations x DRESS, IDENTITY AND METHOD 1 Reconfiguring dress 3 Claudia Mitchell, Relebohile Moletsane and Kathleen Pithouse 2 ‘White’ women in ‘black’ clothing: Overtures towards Africanness in dress in a South African context 19 Juliette Leeb-du Toit 3 Stories fluttering in the wind: How clotheslines write our lives 41 Hourig Attarian 4 Take a picture: Photographs, dress, gender and self-study 57 Ann Smith 5 Aesthetics and identity in contemporary South African fashion 72 Desiree Lewis ACCESSORISING DEMOCRACY 6 Gender and the politics of the Basotho blanket 95 Mathabo Khau 7 Ayashisa 'mateki: Converse All Stars and the making of African masculinities 112 Kopano Ratele 8 Do clothes make a (wo)man? Exploring the role of dress in shaping South African domestic workers’ identities 132 Sithabile Ntombela 9 A loud silence: The history of funeral dress among the Ndau of Zimbabwe 148 Marshall Tamuka Maposa 10 Dressing sex/wearing a condom: Exploring social constructions of sexuality through a social semiotic analysis of the condom 162 Ran Tao and Claudia Mitchell 1108 WISIW prelims_p6.indd 5 2012/03/05 1:30 PM Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za DRESSING TO LEARN/LEARNING TO DRESS 11 Who wears the trousers here? Women teachers and the politics of gender and the dress code in South African schools 181 Pontso Moorosi 12 Was it something she wore? Gender-based violence and the policing of the place of girls in the school space 196 Naydene de Lange 13 The gender politics of the school uniform 208 Nolutho Diko 14 The perfect matric dance dress 225 Linda van Laren 15 Angeke ngibe isitabane: The perceived relationship between dress and sexuality among young African men at the University of KwaZulu-Natal 242 Thabo Msibi 16 Khangela amankengane: The role of dress amongst rural extension workers in KwaZulu-Natal 259 Bongiwe Mkhize DRESSING FOR SOCIAL CHANGE 17 Wearing our hearts on our sleeves: The T-shirt and the South African activist agenda 277 Relebohile Moletsane and Peliwe Lolwana 18 The art of representation versus dressing to be invisible: Who am I dressing for in contemporary Rwanda? 288 Éliane Ubalijoro 19 Rewriting the script: Drag, dress and the body politic 304 Crawl Evans and Robert J Balfour 20 Sari stories: Fragmentary images of ‘Indian woman’ 323 Nyna Amin and Devarakshanam (Betty) Govinden 21 Personal adornment and creative process as micro-resistance 341 Marlene de Beer Picture credits 354 Contributors 356 Index 358 1108 WISIW prelims_p6.indd 6 2012/03/05 1:30 PM Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za vii Tables and figures  8.1 Profile of the five domestic workers 139  8.2 Employer’s profile 139  4.1 Three little girls with matching dresses 61  4.2 Three young women with matching hairstyles 61  4.3 Predictions (of what sort) for a clever girl? 62  4.4 Wearing an accessory of a dierent sort 63  4.5 Signing 1965 64  4.6 Signing 2009 65  4.7 The missing picture 66  5.1 Nkhensani Manganyi, South African TV personality and owner of the clothing range, Stoned Cherrie, August 2003 80  5.2 Trio I 2007 85  5.3 Ayanda Makhuzeni 2007 88  6.1 Basotho blanket seal of quality 98  6.2 Mathabo and her blanket 101  6.3 Drawing of Basotho blanket 105  7.1 Woman wearing All Stars with denim jeans 114  7.2 Man wearing black All Stars takkies with black suit 115  7.3 The author in a kurta 116  8.1 A woman wearing a domestic worker’s uniform 134  8.2 A woman in a coverall pinafore 141  9.1 Map locating Chipinge and Chimanimani districts in Manicaland province, Zimbabwe 150  9.2 A man wearing an example of machira dress 155  9.3 Members of the UCCZ Ruwadzano Council 158  9.4 Versatile chitenje fabric 158  9.5 Examples of Zambian chitenje worn at a funeral 159  10.1 Delegates look at dresses made from condoms at an exhibition ahead of the 15th International AIDS conference in Bangkok, Thailand, 09 July 2004 164  10.2 A Trojan condom advert in a Shanghai subway car 168 1108 WISIW prelims_p6.indd 7 2012/03/05 1:30 PM Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za viii  12.1 A female student in school uniform in a rural district 202  14.1 Lilly’s sketch of her matric dance dress drawn when she was in Grade 8 230  14.2 Photograph of Lilly in her matric dance dress, taken on the day of the dance 230  16.1 The author and students visiting a small scale poultry farmer at Adams Mission, south of Durban 260  16.2 The author and students in appropriate attire for the field 263  16.3 The author and a colleague exchanging information with a member of the uMlazi Farmer’s Association 264  16.4 Women dancing in traditional dress to welcome the author and students 265  16.5 The author dressed in traditional Zulu attire for a parade at Mangosuthu University of Technology 266  17.1 TAC HIV positive T-shirt 280  17.2 Gender, race and HIV 282  17.3 Protesting gender-based and sexual violence 283  20.1 Fatima Meer in a sari at the microphone during a Passive Resistance Campaign 335  20.2 Kasturbai Ghandi in a cotton sari with her husband Mahatma 336  21.1 ‘Poppie’ and embroidered heart medals 346  21.2 Street name enamelled brooches 350 1108 WISIW prelims_p6.indd 8 2012/03/05 1:30 PM Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za ix Acknowledgements     Was it something I wore? Dress; Identity; Materiality, we are indebted to the contributors for having faith in us and agreeing to contribute to a relatively new area of interdisciplinary research. When we came together on 25—26 August 2009 at the Was it something I wore? Writing and Research Workshop, held in Durban, to deliberate and give each other feedback on our draft chapters, many of us were entering uncharted territory in working with dress as material culture in social research in South Africa. We are particularly grateful toJuliette Leeb-du Toit, Sarah Nuttall and Desiree Lewis for leading an exploration ofa variety of theoretical and practical approaches to the study in this area. Their contributions at the workshop introduced us to some of the conceptual frameworks and debates, and to a variety of methodological approaches to dress studies that have woven their way into many of the chapters in this volume. The book as a whole would never have been the rich collection it is without Ann Smith’s mentorship during the writing and editing process. Although we are writing this set of acknowledgements as a team, Relebohile and Claudia would like to acknowledge the critical role Ann has played in working closely with so many of the contributors and in helping to build a community of practice in the area of dress studies in social science research. We would also like to thank Mathabo Khau who helped us keep track of the various stages of the chapters and who organised the writing workshop and its follow-up activities. Finally, we acknowledge the support of the Human Sciences Research Council for providing the intellectual space and initial funding, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for their financial support. Relebohile Moletsane (University of KwaZulu-Natal) Claudia Mitchell (McGill University, Canada) Ann Smith (University of the Witwatersrand) 1108 WISIW prelims_p6.indd 9 2012/03/05 1:30 PM Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za x Acronyms and abbreviations AAM – Anti-Apartheid Movement ANC – African National Congress ARVs – anti-retrovirals CGE – Commission on Gender Equality COPE – Congress of the People GASA – Gay Association of South Africa GLOW – Gay and Lesbian Organisation of the Witwatersrand IFP – Inkatha Freedom Party NEPAD – New Partnership for Africa’s Development SACC – South African Council of Churches SAPA – South African Press Association SASA – South African Schools Act TAC – Treatment Action Campaign UCCZ – United Church of Christ in Zimbabwe UN – United Nations 1108 WISIW prelims_p6.indd 10 2012/03/05 1:30 PM Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za [...]... union In between these is a ‘missing’ portrait of her–this gap a political statement in itself–as a lesbian activist Drawing on the use of the visual (family portraits) and memory work within a framework of self-study, Smith explores the significance of her earlier assimilation into heteronormativity and her later oppositional politics towards such a stance, as she considers the shifting relationship... segregationist nationalism and its opposition by white liberalism and African nationalism She then traces the ways in which, by the 1970s, both white nationalists and liberals used such dress to highlight very divergent aspirations, and how, in recent decades, intercultural dress has entered into mainstream fashion, with new agendas attached to patriotic nationalism 8 1108 WISIW ch1_p6.indd 8 Was it something. .. equally important in the construction of dress Further distinctiveness in dress occurred when people were confronted with change resulting from historical or political events, engendering both overt and covert displays of affinities with, or opposition to prevailing policies, institutions or groups Coupled with prevailing strategies of inclusion, exclusion and even coercion, dress became a visible sign... persuasion or polarising legislation and stereotyping, neither black nor white South Africans can be said to represent clearly identifiable racial or ethnic distinctiveness, with multilayered inflections present in each group that belie any totalising expression of racial or cultural homogeneity.2 In using the terms ‘white’ and ‘black’ in this chapter, I therefore knowingly enter into a semiotic field... dress? And how might such a rethinking of dress deepen and extend our inquiry into critical issues in education? Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za Overview of Was It Something I Wore? Was It Something I Wore? is divided into four main parts Section 1, ‘Dress, identity and method’, positions the chapters within the broad body of scholarship on dress, material culture and method Chapter 1 introduces... title used by Mitchell in her chapter in Not Just Any Dress which focuses specifically on gender-based violence While the essays in Was It Something I Wore? include but are not limited to addressing issues of gender-based violence, it is, we think, an appropriate title to signal the type of interrogation that is needed at this point in the history of the developing democracy of South Africa, and in... Claudia Mitchell, Relebohile Moletsane and Kathleen Pithouse ‘Is it something I am wearing?’ This is a question that can be used to frame our narratives in relation to constructing and performing personal and social identities It is also the kind of question that can be used to challenge the socio-political status quo in that people may actually wear their causes–on their t-shirts, in choosing traditional... whiteness (Steyn 2004: 144, in Passmoor 2009).5 Legislated after 1948, as an outcome of the process of apartheid, race6 became a divisive instrument of the State,7 in which race became ideologically attached Whiteness was no longer an invisible norm but became visible both to itself and to others, inevitably inviting critical scrutiny In this it was unlike conceptions of whiteness in the rest of the world... attached to shifting perceptions of self and ‘other’ located in cultural and historical change, whiteness was to be modified by political allegiance/ influence that further inflected its nature and affinities Thus while whiteness was initially attached to the power of the centre, ruptures in the centre resulted in shifting perceptions of what whiteness was presumed to be or have been Eicher’s contention that... beadwork and functional items such as basketry and carving– items that reflected a vernacular idiom The embrace of African ‘ethnic’ clothing by white South African women reflects an important moment in the recognition of black South African alterity, its wider manifestations and significance This recognition assumes that black South ‘White’ women in ‘black’ clothing 1108 WISIW ch2_p6.indd 21 21 2012/03/05 . critical issues in education? Overview of Was It Something I Wore? Was It Something I Wore? is divided into four main parts. Section 1, ‘Dress, identity. (or, at times, have it imposed upon us) within and in response to contingent, changing socio-political and individual conditions and situations (Pithouse