Unsettling Assumptions is the kind of book you open for a specific essay and then get sucked in to read the whole thing. Each chapter offers a close reading of a folkloric or popular media text and investigates the intersections of tradition, gender, and drag. Topics and analyses are richly interdisciplinary but have a strong grounding in folklore theory. The title suggests both that the content itself is unsettling and that the content works to unsettle the readers’ expectations; indeed, essays delve deeply into identities and representations, with all the attending colonial and patriarchal baggage.
Chapter 1, “Three Dark-Brown Maidens and the Brommtopp” by Marcie Ferh and Pauline Greenhill, explores gender and ethnic drag in the Southern Manitoba Mennonite Brommtopp mumming tradition. Male mummers dress as women, performing a highly stereotyped gender presentation while simultaneously presenting enough masculine markers to avoid passing. Some performers also put on an ethnic identity, representing themselves as Chinese, Jewish, or First Nations, though song lyrics that refer to skin color have been removed. Ethnic appropriation is also investigated in chapter 6, “Let’s All Get Dixie-Fried” by Patrick B. Mullen, which details homosociality in rockabilly music and bar culture. In this case, white musicians imitate a musical style and attempt to assume an imagined cool black persona. In chapter 12, “Just Like Coming to a Foreign Country” by Anne B. Wallen, ethnic representations on a Danish island are analyzed through advertising and museum publications. A small community that can trace its roots from the Netherlands 500 years ago makes interesting choices in how it performs “Dutchness” within the broader context of contemporary immigration.
Body transformations in narrative lore are explored in chapter 3, “If Thou be Woman, Be Thou Man!” by Pauline Greenhill and Emilie Anderson-Grégoire, and chapter 5, “Global Flows in Coastal Contact Zones” by Kirsten Mollegaard. Chapter 3 presents a detailed analysis of ATU 514, “The Shift of Sex,” in which a biological female cross-dresses, rescues and marries a princess, and is the recipient of a supernatural curse that transforms her into a biological male. Chapter 5 examines a different kind of transition: from seal to woman and back. Both transsexual and transspecies lore emphasize gender roles and tensions between men and women, as well as the subtleties and ambiguities of power and agency.
Masculine gender identity and presentation are investigated in chapter 2, “Cutting a Thousand Sticks of Tobacco Makes a Boy a Man” by Ann K. Ferrell, which provides rich description of the rites of passage involved in Kentucky tobacco work; masculinity is performed in distinct ways that connect kinship lines, class, and community traditions. Chapter 10, “What’s Under the Kilt?” by Diane Tye, considers masculine identity as it intersects with Scottish reconstructed ethnicity in a kilt-wearing pipe band in St. John’s. The fascination with “what’s under the kilt” is revealed in bawdy humor, visual jokes, and occasional groping; and kilt-wearers use the kilt to perform an ultra-masculine Highlander identity as well as to joke with fellow band members and audiences.
Portrayals of women’s sexuality in narrative lore are analyzed in chapter 11, “Composed for the Honor and Glory of the Ladies” by Theresa A. Vaughn, and chapter 13, “Encountering Ghost Princesses in Sou shen ji” by Wenjuan Xie. Chapter 11 analyzes medieval women’s beliefs, remedies, and humor in The Distaff Gospels. Although this text was written by a male scribe, it very likely contains genuine folklore about and from women. This lore deals heavily with female sexuality in and outside of marriage, and the narrators, though stereotypical, are complex characters with outspoken personalities. Chapter 13 offers a close reading of Chinese ghost princess tales, in which highborn women return from the dead in order to marry and have children with peasant men. Although these ghost women serve to enrich poor men and give them male heirs, they also have agency to choose sex partners and initiate sex.
Female sexuality—and turkey sexuality—are examined in visual media relating to Thanksgiving in chapter 8, “Sexing the Turkey” by LuAnne Roth. Not only are men and women positioned in stereotyped gender roles around the labor and pleasures of the Thanksgiving holiday, but turkeys are portrayed as sexually compliant flesh ready for erotic and culinary domination. Visual media are also interrogated in chapter 4, “From Peeping Swans to Little Cinderellas” by Kendra Magnus-Johnston, with a close reading of filmic representations of the Grimm Brothers. The Grimms are variously feminized, queered, and coerced; portrayed as too scholarly or not scholarly enough; and questioned for their too-close fraternal bond.
Chapter 7, “Man to Man” by William G. Pooley, also considers the relationships between legend collectors and their legends; in this case, Jean-François Bladé and his fascination with his informant Cazaux. Bladé clearly saw Cazaux as a rustic, brave, and honorable man; a particular imagined rural masculinity. Interestingly, Cazaux was not impoverished as Bladé’s descriptions suggest, and his legends are not nearly as heroic as Bladé claims. It seems that this legend collector was caught up with nostalgia for “pure” peasant folklore.
Chapter 9, “Listening to Stories, Negotiating Responsibility” by Patricia Sawin, a narrative analysis of international adoption stories, is the only essay that I felt didn’t quite fit. The essay is very interesting and thoughtful, but lacks exploration of queerness, gender, or drag. That said, there is discussion of how both adoptees and parents reimagine their identities, including assimilation and cultural pride; I would have liked more in-depth analysis of how international adoptees shape their cultural/national identities.
The essays in this volume explore many variations of drag (ethnic, gender, species); representation, of self and others; authenticity, nostalgia, and tradition; and the performance of identities. With the exception of chapter 9, the collection feels very balanced to me. Overall, the pieces are well-researched (the bibliography is over twenty-nine pages long!), provide insightful commentary and analysis, and are interesting and enjoyable to read. Unsettling Assumptions is essential for academic libraries supporting social sciences and humanities. This book could be very useful for both undergraduate and graduate courses in anthropology, folklore, and gender/sexuality studies, among others. Essays from this text would pair well with Simon Bronner’s scholarship on masculinities, Kimberlé Crenshaw’s work with critical race theory, and Susan Stryker’s queer and transgender histories.
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[Review length: 1033 words • Review posted on March 25, 2015]