Arresting Dress

Clare Sears is Associate Professor of Sociology and Sexuality Studies at San Francisco State University.

“[A] slim yet comprehensive look at how an 1863 law against appearing in public dressed as a different sex invited a regime of surveillance upon “problem bodies.” The book covers a lot of ground.” - Peter Kane (SF Weekly) “[A]s the first in-depth examination of cross-dressing laws in an American city, the book is a valuable contribution to gender studies. It demonstrates convincingly that societal discomfort with difference in gender-expression was historically tied to societal discomfort with other sorts of difference. Both led to the marginalization of “problem bodies.”” - Lillian Faderman (Women's Review of Books) "Arresting Dress gives one much to think about beyond its well-argued and convincing conclusions. This is what I consider a good book - a scholarly endeavor that causes one to think about how one might look at evidence, arguments, and conceptualizations in different ways.... Arresting Dress is highly recommended, both for the conclusions it draws and for the further thinking and research it encourages." - Peter Boag (GLQ) "Arresting Dress is an impressive work of history, based in deep archival research, written in engaging prose, woven with smart analysis, and complete with wonderful images from primary sources... that bring the text to life. Never over-theoretical, the work is both approachable for undergraduates as well as useful for specialists. As such, it deserves to be read and assigned widely." - Emily Skidmore (Journal of American History) "In her compelling historical account of a multiplicity of cross-dressing practices and their incorporation into certain cultural venues and proscription in others, Clare Sears demonstrates the ways in which stabilizing gender and sexuality was central to state-making projects of that time.... [T]he result is a book well worth reading."  - Tey Meadow (American Journal of Sociology) "Sears’s book is important because it historicizes cross-dressing and cross-gender behavior in ways in which it never has been before. Indeed, it is the sort of interdisciplinary study that is often attempted but rarely executed with such interpretive precision.... Despite such scholarly intersections, however, the book is remarkably accessible. A stimulating read for undergraduates, specialists, and general readers." - Adam Q. Stauffer (Journal of American Studies) "There is much to admire in Sears’ analysis of this topic, especially in her persistent and convincing analysis of how cross-dressing laws interacted with racial politics at the time-two topics that seem unrelated at first glance. Overall Sears gives a nuanced, sensitive and in intelligent reading of a little-known law and its vast consequences for the culture of the city and the nation." - Ariel Beaujot (Social History) "What is especially admirable about Sears’s text is the depth and breadth of her interdisciplinary archival research that draws together a variety of processes and relations that demonstrate the fascination and outrage with forms of cross-dressing. This is equally well-balanced and supported with an application and articulation of a variety of theoretical perspectives that make this a valuable book about belonging, othering, bodies and dressed appearance, not just historically but with relevance today." - Shaun Cole (International Journal of Fashion Studies) "Sears deftly uses a variety of well-placed illustrations (newspaper clippings, political cartoons, posters, and photographs) to explain and expand her arguments. She also, in a surprising twist in view of her emphasis on the prevalence of cross-dressing, successfully challenges the popular notion of frontier San Francisco as a ‘wide open' permissive town." - Nancy C. Unger (Canadian Journal of History)

• Acknowledgments viiIntroduction. Not Belonging 11. Instant and Peculiar 232. Against Good Morals 413. Problem Bodies, Public Space 614. A Sight Well Worth Gazing Upon 785. Indecent Exhibitions 976. Problem Bodies, Nation-State 121Conclusion. Against the Law 139Notes 149Bibliography 175Index 191