Race and Manufacturing (reading response)

In Handmaidens of the Glamour Culture: Costumers in the Hollywood Studio System, Elizabeth Nielsen traces the work of costumers from the “Golden Studio Era” of the 1920s to the present, and the role organized labor played in excluding certain female laborers (particularly African American) during the studio era to the current state of a female driven and influential Hollywood labor union. Neilsen contends that women were restricted from most Hollywood unions until the 1970s to keep men’s salaries high, and most women during this era were clustered in two local unions—the film lab workers and costumers union. Neilson points out that many of the women employed in as costumers where immigrant laborers from such countries as Mexico, Italy, Japan or Russia inter alia. They often specialized in the manufacture of clothing in their native lands and English was a second language in the shops. Interestingly, Neilsen points out that African American were not among these workers, and to illuminate Inna’s point about the “obliteration of labor from the final fantasy,” –the issue of why African American women were excluded while Latino or Asian immigrants were allowed (albeit limited) access to costumer positions and the union should to be addressed. Neilsen does not engage the issue further—whether Black female bodies associated with “agitation” more so than recent immigrant laborers. I am reminded about a similar issue involving Latino and Black professional athletes, where some Black players have public raised the issue that professional sports organizations prefer Latino players over Black players due to the perception that Latinos are easier to ‘control.’ Is this the same rationale adopted by the union leader and studio heads, or as Inna suggest, a deliberate mechanism used to disrupt a collective and unified female union? If, as the author suggests, costume labor was not a respected profession, and the conditions and wages for costumers were among the worst in the industry, why were studio and union heads reluctant to hire a skilled Black seamstress or relegate her to “dirty work” while employing other ethnic minority costume laborers?