First, the positives...

Enstad does an admirable job of presenting the cultural influences of the three F's: fashion, fiction, and film in the formation of what she calls female workers' "subjectivities" that they used to claim some semblance of formal political status. Througout the next few chapters she supports her major thesis that it was not their identities as workers that shaped their political actions, but rather the "...very contradictions they experienced as they found themselves excluded or only provisionally included in powerful cultural categories such as 'worker,' 'lady,' or 'American.' (p.5, intro) The author ties all this together as she describes the failure of labor leaders to effectively exploit the power of these subjectivities to the advantage of the striking workers; instead, labor leaders presented the women within the socially prescribed norms of the era, catering to middle-class pity/charity, and forced a public image of them as "serious and thinly-clad" that they had already rejected en-masse. Enstad calls this a "sub-altern counterpublic" (p.154) - a sub-culture of politics and exchange that existed in the U.S. culture, but was largely invisible to the public. Good point, and germaine to her thesis.

What I could have done without was the endless repetition of nearly identical phrases throughout the book. Of course, this is merely an editing detail, (and pardon the fraternity reference) but if I had to do a shot of whiskey each time she said "most women's clothing was purchased ready-made from pushcarts" I would have been drunk by chapter 2.

An interesting case study but not much new information...

Nan Enstad's work Ladies of Labor, Girls of Adventure without a doubt illuminates an area of popular culture in the early 20th century that few are aware of. Her study of the the dime novels, that surely had an influence on the way lower class women (who could read them) imagined themselves, failed to me to prove that this situation was inherently unique. During this time period workers groups, which included national unions were fighting back against corporations for mistreatment, and poor management practices. To say that these strikers were unique may be a stretch. And the most glaring stretch that Enstad makes is in the way she paints the picture that the sharing of literature between the female factory workers was a unique situation. Literature sharing is far from a new phenomenon not only in the United States but in Europe as well. Even with the incredible amount of literature that was printed at this time; amongst the poorer classes the sharing of a book was common place. Many did not have the money to afford all of what they sought to read, and this exchange just made sense. But it was far from a tradition that existed only among women in factories. It seems to me that Enstad is trying to make too much of the influence these dime novels had on the women workers without sufficient evidence. If she were to assess that these novels had an influence on changing how these women viewed themselves, that I could buy.

Ladies of Labor and Mothers in Korea

Actually I don't know what I wrote is good or not as a comment for this blog, because it's related with the historical event in Korea... Anyway... I wrote it here.

This book by Nan Enstad reminds me of a huge demonstration in South Korea held in the summer of 2008 in defence of right to eat safe and harmless food. It was sparked off by the import of the U.S. beef which could cause mad cow disease. The government made a law to grant the import as one article of FTA with the U. S. without a general consensus. It was a nationwide demonstration and over 1,000,000 Korean people had gathered at the center of Seoul, the capital of South Korea to show their opposition to the import for over three months. Holding candles which are the symbol of democracy of Korea, they confronted the armed police with no violence.

What I want to say is there were women, especially mothers at the demonstration. These were mothers which confronted the armed government forces at the head of protest procession with their babies sitting down their baby carriages. Usually mothers are categorized as conservative group in Korea. They do not want to be changed and change. In the given social circumstances, they just have raised their children and have lived without talking their grievances silently. We call the feeling “Han(恨),” the grief that couldn’t be released and be cured by anything, so just they could not but keep it in their heart for a long time. Even some Korean democratic leaders said that mothers didn’t do anything to protect our democracy. Why mothers who had controlled their emotions with Han went to the street and fought the government at this time? What made them go out and protest? What factor and internal vibration made them be called “BABY CARRIAGE TROOPS”?

The demonstration in Korea seems to be different from the strike of “working ladies” of Nan Enstad in many parts, but I think that these are the same thing fundamentally. Like the foreman of factory who made Regina work quicker and harder, extremely patriarchal Korean society made them silent and dream in the kitchen. Inventing “Han culture” to explain that, they have placed them under another binding like a norm for married women that women should have Han their mind. I don’t want to and I cannot say why mothers went out of their kitchen, breaking their silence, but I just can imagine “in the kitchen, about and for whom they dreamed?” When they confront a serious danger in food which they feed to their babies, how do they act towards the danger? In a certain situation, mothers can lead political movements in Korea like working women in Enstads’ book. If we realize it, like she noted, we can create new political visions and narratives. (206)

Not completely convinced...

Enstad argues that working women during the early 20th century used fashion, dime novels and popular film as a way to channel political standing and fight against the poor working conditions to which they were being subjected. It is an interesting argument, but I'm not completely convinced. One of the main reasons is because of her focus group. She narrows in on the Italian and Jewish immigrant populations in New York City. Sure, I'll go along with Enstad with the fashion and film argument, but not with the dime novels and their influence on this group of women changing their appearance and attitudes. What I find to be weak her is her lack of assessment of literacy in English of these immigrant women. For many immigrants, their schooling was sporadic and limited. If they were not literate in English, how then could they read and be influenced by these novels which depicted women rising from terrible conditions and backgrounds and becoming successful and powerful? Therefore, I'm not completely convinced that dime novels were as influential as Enstad argues.

Simply an imaginative reading of dime novels?

Enstad's purpose of the book, namely to raise analytical concern regarding past historians' neglect of the role of cultural studies within social history, is an interesting point and a helpful exhortation for further consideration on the issues--especially regarding working-class women and their rise to political activism during the late 19th century (p.12). Specifically, I appreciated the unique interpretation she brought to the reasons why initial efforts made by working women to advocate improved conditions through labor unions. For Enstad, these were the contradictions they underwent because of their exclusions from such categories as "worker", "lady" and "American (p.5)." One issue I'd like to bring up though, is the effectiveness of Enstad's method. Much (if not, most) of her discussion surrounds the quite imaginative reading of dime novel romances, past historians' work and primary source newspaper and labor literature. While she openly admits that there is a shortage of material that allows historians to see such labor events through the eyes of the working-women, the effectiveness of this work seems to be limited through what Enstad admits is a reading of the existing sources creatively or "against the grain. (p.123)"

Shameless Self-Promotion

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