Deviance, Agency, and the Social Control of Women’s Bodies in a Mennonite Community

Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted over eight years, this article uses the metaphor of dress to describe the social control of women’s bodies in a conservative Holdeman Mennonite community, ¹ The body was controlled both internally and externally, in terms of emotional expression, diet, sexuality, and especially by dress. As a symbolic marker of group belonging, adherence to a strict dress code was considered a sign of religiosity and was required for all female church members. Women who strayed from the orthodox style were defined as deviant and subjected to a variety of constraints from gossip and reproval to expulsion and shunning. Nonetheless, women manage to resist what appear to be overwhelming constraints, and create an alternative image through minute changes in the dress code. In doing so, they illustrate female agency. This research sheds light on the use of the body as a cultural symbol as it is used in the definition of deviance and the process of social control in an ethno-religious subculture.