Journal of Sociology

http://jos.sagepub.com/ Marias and marriage: ethnicity, gender and sexuality among Italo-Australian youth in Perth1
Loretta Baldassar Journal of Sociology 1999 35: 1 DOI: 10.1177/144078339903500101 The online version of this article can be found at: http://jos.sagepub.com/content/35/1/1

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Marias and

gender and sexuality among Italo-Australian youth in Perth 1

Loretta Baldassar

marriage: ethnicity,

Department of Anthropology University of Western Australia

Abstract
an ethnographic account of weddings and network activities among Italo-Australian youth in Perth, and, in particular, a symbolic analysis of garters and bouquets, this paper explores the intersections of ethnicity, gender and sexuality, and reviews social scientific theories of ethnic identity and cultural transmission. By investigating the double standard-where men are free to be sexually active and women are not-it confronts some of the stereotypes about second generation Australians and culture clash, female oppression and the control of sexuality. Of particular concern is the way that some Italo-Australian women perceive sexual freedom in Australian society. The paper argues that the moral community represented by the youth network and, in particular, the challenges posed by it to the traditional model of female honour, allow for significant generational changes in the construction of ethnic identity. By analysing how identities are constructed and articulated across difference, and how this kind of relativising is embodied in the habitus [cf. Bourdieu 1977] of the second generation (Bottomley 1992a: 132), the paper explodes homogeneous conceptions of what is Italian, and ltalo-Australian culture.

Using

Introduction
There are two theoretical issues I wish to highlight in relation to the ethnographic material presented in this paper. The first concerns the construction of ethnic identity in the second generation and how cultural transmission is theorised. The second relates to the feminist concern with how women express themselves socially and sexually within the constraints of patriarchy. These two issues are brought together through an examination of two ethnographic case studies to explore gender and sexuality construction in relation to ethnicity. The paper begins with a brief overview of the literature on these topics, with particular reference to the manner in which second generation Italian-Australian identities have been
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theorised about. Following this, and a brief section outlining my methodology, I present my fieldwork findings. Ethnographic research among the Italian communities in Perth revealed that some Italo-Australian youth in Perth form an informal network which is separate, or bounded off from, their parents networks. Through an analysis of the social activities and perceptions of the participants of this informal network, along with a symbolic analysis of the rituals which comprise their weddings, I examine how the youth deal with restrictions of family honour and in so doing establish their own moral community. I argue that this moral community constitutes part of the emerging culture of these second generation Italian migrants and that they construct their identities in accordance with certain traditional values held by their parents. Not all of their parents traditional values are embraced, however, and the ambiguities and contestations that occur point to the fact that ethnicity, gender and sexuality are generation-specific constructs influenced by the particular socio-economic status of the subjects. Most importantly, however, the Italo-Australian youth define themselves in opposition to the perceived identity, pattern of gender relations and sexuality of their Australian

peers.2
Theoretical considerations
.

Social science research on so-called second generation Italian migrants in Australia has been steadily increasing in both quantity and sophistication. The initial interest in the second generation was in attempting to gauge how ethnic they were and, by implication, how viable was the ethnic community to which they belonged. In most early studies on ethnic groups in Australia, researchers tended to believe that the second and subsequent generations would become increasingly assimilated into Australian society (see, for example, Borrie 1954, 1959; Cox 1976; Bowen 1977; Zubrzycki 1960, 1982; Wilton and Bosworth 1984; Storer 1985). Price (1982), for instance, looked at intra-ethnic marriage statistics as an indication of ethnic community viability. He found that Italian in-marriage for the period 1947-1978 was just under 50 per cent for the first generation and approximately 30 per cent for the second. From these statistics, Price concluded that most immigrant groups are breaking up quite rapidly (1982: 4), and that the second generation, while sometimes being quite proud or intrigued at their ethnic origins, will be identified with the mass of the population as Australian (1982: 5).3 In this work, ethnic groups are presented as being at risk of losing their ethnicity through the loss of their subsequent generations and, by implication, their failure to transmit culture. This view is summed up by Bertelli (1985: 70) who described intergenerational difference as the major challenge to the Italian community in the next few decades (my emphasis). Although this culture loss or straight line theory has been criticised as too simplistic (see Gans 1979, 1994), it has been a dominant viewpoint regarding the future of migrants in Australia. Notwithstanding Australias policy of multiculturalism, the process of cultural transmission is often portrayed as breaking down or weakening; seeping out to be lost forever and replaced by Australian-ness.
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The forecast of the loss of culture in the second and subsequent generations is based on empirical evidence, but rather is derived predominantly from the theories of ethnicity and the ethnic group models used to represent them. What is at issue here is the way cultural transmission is theorised. For example, in her work on Italians in California, di Leonardo (1984) debunks the family model theory of ethnicity which defines ethnicity as dependent on family culture. In this view, culture is thought to be static and unchanging, and its transmission conceptualised in terms of normative behaviour: ethnic cultures are merely mental tracks, transmitted through families (women), over which ethnics travelrather than cognitive resources that they strategically choose and alter over time (di Leonardo 1984: 23). Similarly, the conflation of culture with ethnicity implies the existence of homogeneous categories (such as Italian culture) masking the divisions and intersections that exist within such categories.4 More recent research reveals that ethnic groups in modern settings are constantly recreating themselves, and ethnicity is continuously being re-invented in response to changing realities within the group, in the host society and in the home country (cf. Banks 1996; Jenkins 1996; Govers and Vermeulen 1997; Yinger 1997; Bottomley 1998). Proponents of the invention of ethnicity theory (cf. Sollors 1989) and symbolic ethnicity theory (cf. Gans 1979, 1994; Alba 1985) argue that culture is not being lost, but that ethnicity is taking on an expressive rather than an instrumental function. People are recognised as having some ability to choose the expression of ethnicity that best suits them (cf. Waters 1990). The study of ethnicity has thus become a study of ethnic consciousness (Govers and Vermeulen 1997). Some of the latest theorising about the second generation refers to Homi Bhabhas (1990) notion of the third space inhabited by so-called hybrids or hyphens. A focus in this literature is on the in between status of these dual identities. Various commentators on the subject present conflicting views regarding the implications of this position, which can be described as doubleedged. The positive implications have been identified as the development of double cultural competences (Vasta 1993: 220) or double vision (Hannerz 1992: 133, 199) and the ability to act as bridges (Bottomley 1992a: 133). The negative consequences revolve around the idea of being caught between two cultures. Ang (1994: 9), for example, is cautious about the positives she sees in this position, and reminds us that assimilation is often desired by migrants themselves for they are longing for fitting in rather than standing out, even though this desire is often at the same time contradicted by an incapability or refusal to adjust and adapt completely. Naficy (cited in Ang 1994: 17) defines such a position as liminal and thus temporary. Similarly, Papastergiadis (1986: 56) sees it as bound for annihilation. While there is no agreement on the implications of this in-between-ness for the second generation individuals, the debate does highlight the profound creativity of such hybridity and the potential for creative syncretism. Ang (1994: 16) refers to the multiperspectival productivity of the position and cites Bhabha, who sees it as representing sites of resistance against the assimilatory impositions of the dominant culture (Ang 1994: 17). Similarly, Benmayor and Skotnes (1994:
not
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9) point out that new generations born out of mixed ethnic/racial, and crosscultural marriages resist conformity to an &dquo;assimilated&dquo; norm (whether that of the dominant society or of the home culture) and affirm instead a more consciously complex notion of who they are. This approach to the second generation identities allows us to see culture not as a zone of shared meanings but as a zone of disagreement and contest (Verdery 1994: 42, her emphasis). Recognising culture as political process in this manner eschews the straight-line and family models of cultural transmission, highlighting instead the intersections of various aspects of identity, such as ethnicity, gender and sexuality, as they are continuously negotiated between the genders and the generations. Discussions of ethnic identity have thus moved from an attempt to measure or quantify just how ethnic a group is to a critical appraisal of both the politics of representation, and the politics of articulation (cf. Hall 1987). This recognition of both objective and subjective interpretations of identity (Bottomley 1991) ensures that adequate attention is paid to how the construction of ethnicity is not only subject to control by the state and academics,s but also by migrants themselves.6 The state and academic discourses have tended to function as hegemonic mechanisms rendering the migrants voices muted, if not invisible. A consequence of theorising about second generation identities without adequate attention to empirical data is the tendency to assume, rather than investigate, ideas and values designated in cultural terms (as Italian, for example) (cf. Bottomley 1991: 102), let alone how these ideas and values may differ between the genders, and how they may change over time as they are transmitted from one generation to the next. This is particularly the case with regard to notions of female oppression and subordination. An increasing amount of feminist and other literature shows that much of what passes as female subordination is not self-evident (see, for example, Herzfeld 1983; Bottomley 1984, 1992a; Martin 1986; Pallotta-Chiarolli 1989; Loizos and Papataxiarchis 1991; Vasta 1992). The question of degrees of female freedom is a complex one and, given its patriarchal context, contains ambiguities. There is a limited amount of empirical research on the intersections of ethnicity, gender, sexuality and second generation Australians. One such rarity, by PallottaChiarolli and Skrbis (1994), advocates the incorporation of a feminist perspective into the study of ethnicity wherein sexuality is analysed as a site of contention in power and authority relationships (Pallotta-Chiarolli and Skrbis 1994: 259). Their research deals with issues of parental, communal and societal authority and how these impact on gender codes and regulations of sexuality. This paper expands on their analysis to include the young peoples own moral community (a domain of meaning and social action that has often been ignored), not only as an additional type of authority (in which gender discourses can be identified), but as the domain in which parental, societal and communal expectations are tested, negotiated and transformed. No discussion of the politics of culture, identity and representation among the second generation is complete without reference to Barths (1969, 1994) seminal
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work

the management of socially constructed boundaries. In this paper, recognition of boundary maintenance as a principal factor in ethnic group continuity makes it clear that generational changes in constructs such as ethnicity, gender and sexuality do not necessarily imply the demise of the ethnic group; ethnic groups and their features are produced under particular interactional, historical, economic and political circumstances: they are highly situational, not primordial (Barth 1994: 12). Bourdieus notion of habitus is also employed to account for the manner in which these second generation identities are both reproductions and reformulations of shared beliefs and practices that are handed down from the parents generation. The notion of habitus not only allows us to study culture as political process, but also to acknowledge both subjective and objective representations of ethnicity. As systems of durable, transposable dispositions (Bourdieu 1977: 72) or, to quote Bottomley (1992a: 122), as categories of perception and appreciation that provide a commonsense understanding of the world, the habitus of the second generation is characterised by in-between-ness and relativising:
on
are themselves socially produced within very specific contexts and mediate the experience and interpretation of changing objective conditions. Thus, the durable, transposable dispositions acquired in childhood are overlaid and transformed by adjustment of later circumstances. But those adjustments are themselves biased by pre-existing perceptions, which mostly operate below the level of consciousness (Bottomley 1992a: 122).

[Tlhese categories
continue
to

they

categories of perception about sexuality, ethnicity marriage are both socially produced and articulated within specific contexts. Examples include the highly delineated context of the marriage rite and the less formal social contexts of the youth network activities. I present a symbolic analysis of some Italo-Australian wedding ceremonies as rites of transition in which the rituals of the bouquet and the garter, as rites of institution (cf. Bourdieu 1992), fix legitimacy and establish consensus as to how things should be. I investigate gender stereotypes as they are played out in social practice (cf. Herzfeld 1991), to explore how some second generation women express themselves socially and sexually within the constraints of patriarchy, particularly with regard to the double standard-where single men are free to be sexually active and women are not. Such an analysis challenges the classical dichotomy between virginal and diabolical images of women forcing a revaluation of the traditional model of honour and shame and supports a dialectical analysis of ethnic identity and cultural transmission incorporating history, structure and volition.
and

In this paper I show how

Methodology
The two case studies documented in the next sections of this paper were carefully chosen to present an analysis of gender, sexuality and ethnicity in specific contexts involving varying degrees of formality. After briefly describing the activities of the informal youth network to provide the necessary background information, I examine their wedding rituals as contexts where gender, sexuality

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ethnicity are highly formalised. In the rites that comprise the wedding celebration, gender discourses-perceptions about the correct way for the genders to behave-are clearly delineated, with limited space for resistance. Following this, I explore the less formalised contexts of the informal youth network, where relations between the genders and the generations, and where discourses about sexuality and ethnicity, are produced and articulated with more freedom. The informal youth network is comprised of second and subsequent generation Perth Italian youth between the age of 17 and 25.7 I studied this network through participant observation, network analysis and the use of semi-structured interviews over a period of 18 months beginning in 1985.8 Few of these youth were tertiary students; most were employed in a range of jobs including the public service, small business, manual labour and trades. Their parents broadly fell into the category of self-employed, working class-they were all labourers, small business owners or tradespeople who had migrated after World War II. In the majority of cases, both parents had been born in Italy. Where this was not the case, the mother was a second generation Italian migrant. I also conducted twenty-eight semi-structured interviews with other network participants whose parents came from different regions in Italy.9 All interviewees were single at the time of the research and all identified as being Roman Catholic. In 1990 I conducted follow-up interviews with twelve principal informants, all of whom had since married (I attended six of the twelve weddings). During 1988 and 1989 I collected comparative information on youth social networks and weddings in Italy. Where relevant, this comparative material has been included in this paper.
The informal youth network The network youth participate in various contexts of meaning and social action (Baldassar 1992). The most important is the family domain where youth are brought up and traditional values are taught. The importance of the family is evident in many aspects of Italo-Australian culture, but particularly in the fact that throughout their lives young people are continually, through gesture and word, directed to marriage which encompasses the re-establishment of the family domain. The family domain is defined in opposition to the outside, that is, everything beyond the family, apart from Italian clubs and associations, is considered not to be Italian. Being Italian is set up in opposition to being Australian. The context of the informal youth network comprises a set of practices where youth frequent particular places around Perth and the routine of
their activities makes the network function like an informal club. In 1985 and 1986 the informal youth network had several regular meeting places. On Thursday evenings youth would meet in Hay Street Mall in the city centre. This was the grapevine meeting where participants found out what was happening on the weekend. Saturday afternoon was known by informants as soccer time. Not all youth frequented this predominantly male domain, but most attended when the two Italian teams played each other. On Sunday afternoons youth would congregate at Kings Park, close to the city centre. Called the

and

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parade in all of the places frequented by youth, this was by far the most conspicuous display of ethnicity and sexuality. One young woman explained:
Kings Park is really
sort of famous for meeting on Sunday afternoon. A lot of the guys go there to show off their cars. They all sit along one side of the road and inspect every car, and every girl, that goes past and all the girls and all the guys and everyone just sort of judges everyone else, so everyones trying to act their best.

Saturday nights were reserved for night clubbing. Hannibals, a club in Northbridge (close to the city centre), was known as the home base. It was the place most often referred to as where people joined the network. Indeed, the network was often called, the Hannibals crowd. One young man explained: Hannibals is definitely no beer, no jeans and very few Australians. This description is supposedly the antithesis of a pub. Pubs are associated with Australian leisure and are considered by youth as un-Italian and therefore unacceptable. Youth consciously define themselves in ways that differentiate them from what they perceive to be Australian. In Barths (1969) terms, they consciously construct a social boundary. The family domain can be a place of restrictive tradition and opposition to the outside. By contrast, the informal youth network provides a space in which youth can express themselves in ways that are perhaps not allowed at home. This does not mean that the informal youth network is free from restrictions. It, too, has its own moral codes that must be respected. Inclusion and exclusion work through gossip and who you know, how you dress, and what you do-getting a reputation-honourable or not. According to the young people, the most important function of the network is, to quote a male informant, as a hunting ground where potential spouses are sought. In Hay Street Mall I was told by a young man that he and his mates were waiting for good catches, while young women at Kings Park expressed the desire to find someone and stitch him up. The primary importance of the family domain is revealed in the fact that it works to produce individuals who will in turn re-establish a similar paramount reality (cf. Schutz 1967) for their progeny. Youth do not generally leave home unless it is to enter marriage and a new family domain. The ritual of the trousseau-the collection of which usually begins on or at about the time of a girls First Holy Communion-is an extended packing in preparation for marriage. There is a term in Italian for exactly this movement from one home domain to another-sistemarsi-to establish oneself. The young peoples knowledge of the meanings which family holds for their elders is a powerful influence on their actions. Rejecting the home world is the most difficult act imaginable. The young peoples habitus, as Bottomley (1992a: 123) points out, while not determining... is a powerful mediating construct that can predefine what is necessary or even imaginable. Of major importance to the women in the network were two seemingly contradictory concerns-social and sexual freedom, and making a good marriage. One informant explained that she and her friends wanted time to enjoy their youth and not go straight into marriage. Many youth were planning time for travel, particularly to Italy to visit their parents birthplaces, as well as the tourist sites,
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before settling down (Baldassar 1997, 1998). The young women believed that increased social and sexual freedom would enable them to make the best choice of marriage partner. On the one hand, they were questioning their parents views about social and sexual freedom, but on the other, they wanted to fulfil their parents expectations that they would marry. All the young women I spoke to, whether engaged to be married or not, had begun to plan their weddings.

Italo-Australian weddings Marriage not only reflects the success of the individual (to marry is to become a successful adult), it also reflects honour on the extended family and the community in general (for having successfully raised a child). The wedding is therefore considered the most important event in a young persons life, as well as one of the most important social events for the family. According to Vasta (1992: 167), weddings are cultural symbols that form the cultural cement which binds first, second and third generations and working-class, petit-bourgeois and middle-class urban Italians. In this respect the Italian wedding can be seen as a symbol of what it means to be Italian in Australia. It is thus not surprising that a great amount of money is spent on them. Indeed, given the meanings which marriage holds for Italians and given the context of migration-a better life for children-elaborate and expensive wedding feasts are proof of a successful migration. The conspicuous materialistic nature of the Italo-Australian working class wedding has become well known to non-Italians as an over the top or excessive ritual.l The Italo-Australian style of wedding can thus be interpreted as a boundary sustaining device. The wedding provides fertile ground for an analysis of the differing generational perspectives on gender, sexuality and ethnicity. The wedding is pertinent to the relationship between the generations because it marks the beginning of a new family and, in most cases, represents the continuity of Italian culture in Australia. During many Italo-Australian weddings in Perth a ritualised expression of the transition from single to married status is a key aspect constituting the wedding as a rite of transition. The rituals can be analysed as a comment on
the social and sexual freedom of men and women. There comes a point, usually late in the evening, after the speeches, the meal, and cutting of the cake, when attention is turned to the unmarried guests. All the single women are called together, usually into the centre of the room. The bride then stands with her back to the group of single women and throws her bouquet over her head into the crowd. Sometimes a game is played where the winner receives the bouquet. The single woman who receives the bouquet will, it is said, herself be married within two years. This belief reaffirms the importance of the wedding in these young womens lives. The single men are called together to compete for the brides garter. Usually the competition involves a test of masculinity-who can do the most push-ups or the best limbo. Once the victor is decided, the bride stands on a chair, and the chosen man removes the garter from her leg. Often the audience is asked to choose in

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he should do this, whether he should use his hands or his teeth. The usually unanimous-teeth. There is much whistling, hooting and cheering as the garter is removed. The proud winner often displays his trophy (the garter) in his car, either hanging from the rear vision mirror or around the gear stick. Often these rituals are performed in an exaggerated manner. There are always some single women who clearly and exaggeratedly act as if they do not want to catch the bouquet (they refuse to join the circle or they huddle at the rear and hold their hands behind their backs) and there are others who act as if they are desperate to catch it (they rush to the front and try to block out any competitors). In the rite of the garter, the single men often ham up their masculinity and the bride may eitheract very demure or very risqu6, or a combination of both. What do these rituals tell us about Italo-Australian sexuality, gender and ethnicity? It is important to note that these rituals are not exclusive to Italo-Australian weddings There is nothing quintessentially Italian about them except that they have been appropriated by some Italians in Perth and are defined by them as expressions of Italo-Australian identity. In Gans (1979, 1994) terms, the bouquet and the garter are examples of symbolic ethnicity. They could be defined as part of the general grammar of collected mementoes in Italian culture: every significant event has a souvenir; the most common being the bomboniere and sugared almonds of weddings, christenings, communions and confirmations. The bouquet represents the brides virginity (cf. Goody 1993: 227; Rubin 1994: 159) which she will lose on her wedding night. It is for this reason that the bride gives away her bouquet to a single (virgin) woman before she leaves for her marital bed. In giving away her bouquet the bride is bestowing her good fortune, evident in the fact that she is getting married, upon one of her unmarried companions. To quote one female informant: Thats what good luck means, getting married. The removal of the garter is a more complex act that can be read in a variety of ways. The bouquet, given its association with purity, is connected with the sacred. Through their association with the Virgin Mary, women are identified with the realm of the sacred (cf. Peristiany and Pitt-Rivers 1992). The garter is instead directly related to the profane-it is a symbol of the flesh and represents the brides sexuality. It is significant that the garter is removed, however provocatively, in the presence of the groom. Indeed, all the single men who compete for the garter are known to both the bride and groom and their respective families; they are invited guests, many are kinsmen. These men would normally be charged with defending the brides honour because her seduction would mean their disgrace. The fact that an unmarried kinsman, not the husband, removes the brides garter, makes the ritual what Bourdieu (1992: 81) terms a rite of institution: [I]t effects a solemn, that is to say a licensed and extraordinary, transgression of the boundaries which constitute the social and ideational order which it is concerned at all costs to protect. The ritual is also a comment on the single mans sexuality. He is given the freedom to remove the garter and this he does usually with great deliberation, earning much applause from the audience. The single mans action and the audience reaction are a direct comment on mens sexual prowess and machismo
manner

what
vote

is

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10

wherein sexual experience is seen as a constituent of masculinity (cf. Peristiany and Pitt-Rivers 1992: 115), and thus the seduction of a woman adds to the renown of the seducer (cf. di Bella 1992). This ritualised celebration of the sexuality of single men and the bride is conducted in a highly formalised manner in a context where gender discourses are clearly delineated-at a wedding, which is an extension of the family domain. In the rite of the garter, the bride (virgin) symbolically acts out her diabolical nature (whore) through the pretence of infidelity. The fact that this acting out is done publicly, so obviously only feigned, reinforces the preclusion of such promiscuous behaviour for the Italo-Australian woman. It is a rite which establishes consensus as to &dquo;how things are&dquo; and thus fix[es] legitimacy (Peristiany and Pitt-Rivers 1992: 2), reinforcing the ideal of the good (virginavfaithful) woman and of the real (sexually proficient) man. It is pertinent to note that the rite of the garter is not part of wedding ceremonies in modern Italy. At the working class weddings I attended in the Veneto and Marche regions of Italy, the groom sometimes has his tie cut in two by the bride amidst much clapping and cheering. In both the Italian and Italo-Australian contexts, the object of celebration is different, though comparable. In the Italian example, the grooms sexual restrictions are established, while in the Australian context it is the sexual freedom of single men which is applauded. The implication of the two actions, tie-cutting and garter-taking, are congruent-outside of marriage men are sexually free; within marriage they are not. The position which the bride holds in the two contexts is however contradictory. In the Italian example she cuts the tie and is therefore seen as the agent of restriction, while in the Australian context her sexual freedom is highlighted as is her potential corruption. The brides freedom to be sexually active is defined by very clear limits-that is, within her marriage. Sex outside marriage would result in a fall from grace. Both the Italian and Italo-Australian rituals celebrate the single mens sexual freedom and machismo, particularly in the treatment of the garter as trophy. In this example, as in others described below, the womans perceived freedom contains ambiguities. Besides tie-cutting and garter-taking, other aspects of the wedding ceremony differ between the two countries. Weddings in Italy do not include bridesmaids and groomsmen. Instead two witnesses, a male chosen by the groom and a female chosen by the bride, are asked to sign the wedding papers. Nor do these witnesses dress up in any particular fashion, rather they wear an outfit of their own choice. Italo-Australian weddings, in contrast, are quite famous for the presence of elaborate bridesmaids and groomsmen. Indeed, the more of them there are, the more really Italian the wedding is thought to be. Bridesmaids and groomsmen are a British tradition that has been incorporated into Italo-Australian weddings. This incorporation of non-Italian customs indicates that a unique Italo-Australian identity exists in Australia and that it is continually being created.12 There is an obvious difference in the treatment of men and women in the various wedding customs. The wedding ceremony gives symbolic expression to the fact that it is acceptable for single men to be sexually active while it is unacceptable for single women. In the remainder of the paper I analyse how young women in the informal youth network deal with this apparent gender inequality.
...

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11

Marias and stallions13 The rituals that comprise the Italo-Australian weddings suggest that single men can be sexually active and single women cannot. The sexual freedom indicates the general social freedom of males.
name

You call a girl a Maria and that means that shes a virgin because Maria is an Italian and Italian girls dont have sex, well supposedly, so the popular name is Maria. Italian guys are stallions, studs, hot blooded, basically sexual (male informant).

In contrast, young

women

are

chaperoned, curfewed, controlled,

quote
a

monitored in their protected. The usual

goings and comings, warnings include, to

female informant:

Dont be home

too late, careful what you do, theres always people around, dont drink, dont drive too fast, careful who you talk to, things like that. My dad doesnt brief my brother, he just laughs, like hes got girls ringing him up and dad thinks, ha, ha, ha, thats

my

boy.

Italian women are traditionally accorded spiritual and emotional superiority to by reference to the Virgin at the most abstract level (hence the name Maria), and to the mother at the more mundane (indeed the well-known stereotype is of a mamma Maria). According to the Mediterranean honour and shame maxim as described by Bottomley (1983: 193; see also Peristiany 1965), women are, at the same time, believed to be temptresses with voracious sexual appetites, thus requiring constant supervision. The key to this contradiction lies in the fact that male honour depends on female modesty. Female infidelity is considered a grave insult to men and a serious threat to family stability. At the same time however, it is expected of a normal, healthy man that he will take every opportunity for sex that presents itself and his self-image, evident in the garter display, will thereby be enhanced. If a woman were to engage in the same kind of behaviour, she would be realising her potential corruption and forsaking her chances of being seen as a woman in the positive sense (Goddard 1987: 178). Many of the women I spoke to, and some of the men, question the fairness of this double standard. Given the honour/shame model, the Italo-Australian women in the network explained that there are really only two types of acceptable relationships they can have-Platonic friendships or serious relationships. The latter are characterised by the fact that the couple frequent each others homes (fidanzamento in casa), that is, they have met each others families and have become a part of each others family domains. There are regional and social class variations regarding the strictness of this division between serious and Platonic relationships. According to the youth, the South Italian-Australian experience is often more restrictive. Single men joke about watching out for young South Italian women for fear of the marriage contract. One young man explained, If you get involved with certain Italian girls before you know it you have to sign a marriage contract. The way youth talk about making good catches and stitching someone up reveals their expectation that a serious relationship will lead to marriage. Casual sexual relationships with network women are therefore not acceptable. Italo-Australian men treat women in the network very differently from non-network women, their attitude to the two groups of women is
men
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12

summed up in the following statement conveyed to me on numerous occasions by both males and females: Italian guys feel that Australian girls are there to be used while Italian girls are there to be respected. A shared belief of the network participants is that Italian girls are for marrying and, by implication, that Australian girls are for sex. The use of the labels Italian girls and Australian girls is not a strict reference to ethnicity at all. Australian simply refers to all non-network women whatever their ethnicity. Indeed, Italo-Australian women who have bad reputations are said to have become Australian. Likewise, any woman in a serious relationship with a network male is accepted into the network even if she is not ethnically Italian. The distinction is between serious relationships (sex in marriage) and casual relationships (sex out of marriage). These types of relationships stem directly from traditional conceptions of sexual morality, and the influence of the young peoples habitus on their actions and perceptions is again clear, as one young woman explained: Our parents are Italian, we must face up to this. In their day the woman had one man, the first guy she met she married. Thats how they want it to be with us. Italo-Australian single women who frequent the network do not advocate virginity on marriage as their parents do. However, neither do they advocate casual sex. Although it is acceptable for Italo-Australian single men to have casual relations with nonnetwork women, this will be condoned only if the single men are not in a serious relationship with anyone from the network. Italo-Australian single men say that they brag about their sexual exploits to male friends. In the presence of female friends from within the network they speak very derogatorily about the so-called Australian girls with whom they have casual relationships. Generally, Italo-Australian single women disapprove of the males treatment of these women. They often voice pity for the Australian girls involved, although they do imply that it is the womens fault for allowing men to treat them this way. Non-network women are defined as being stupid enough to fall for these men who obviously are not interested in them for anything but sex. Clearly, this is the Italo-Australian womens definition of what is happening. In this paper I do not cover non-network womens perspectives. The so-called Australian women are not seen as being socially and sexually free at all, nor are they perceived to be in a better position-one of more equality. The Italo-Australian women are far from envious of non-network women and, indeed, given the condescending way they refer to these outsiders, network women appear to feel superior to them. Vasta (1993: 219) describes this moral/social superiority prejudice as a form of ethnicity which emerges from the discriminatory ethnic, class and gender power relations experienced by migrants in the Australian context. Women in the informal youth network have a social protection that non-network women lack. It is much more difficult for an Italo-Australian woman to be used because she is continually being monitored by others in the network. Obviously, the network women enjoy their position which does command much respect from the men. They see themselves as having pride, a very important concept in Italo-Australian conception of self. Given their

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13

positions in the family domain, and their association with the sacred realm, in many ways network women feel they are superior to network men. To paraphrase Martin (1986: 245), the family is a sphere of validation for women (particularly the first generation), providing a base of opposition from and within which they can act. The womens position of superiority, however, is still contained within a patriarchal system. This contradiction is a polemic to which I return later in discussing the feminist concern with how women express themselves socially and sexually within the constraints of patriarchy. There is leeway for sex outside marriage and serious relationships as long as reputations are not ruined. Age is an important factor in female sexual freedom. By their late twenties women are given more freedom, particularly if they are financially independent (and especially if they have a professional career), perhaps even moving out of home into shared or single accommodation without being married (although the majority are married by this age). A woman may lose her honour in a serious relationship, but that honour can be restored by marriage. Indeed, not only is honour restored in marriage, it is increased because the womans position as wife and future mother places her at the very centre of the powerful family domain.

central

Honour from a female perspective important to consider how women hold power within their culture. Martin (1986: 245) notes that, although the family is the site of female oppression, it is an extraordinarily ambiguous and contradictory site. At first glance there appears to be gender inequality-men have more freedom than women. However, men also have restrictions, particularly evident in their position in the family domain compared with that of women. Men are brought up within the home-a very female-oriented domain. Inside the home men are considered quite useless and, traditionally, everything needs to be done for them. In contrast, women create the home world from which they determine and maintain the moral order. The home world is a sacred place, evident in the rules governing who can be admitted. It is not acceptable for single men to bring home their girlfriends unless they are serious about them. Most importantly though, if a man gets a serious girlfriend pregnant he is obliged to marry her because it is considered his fault, his responsibility. This belief is comparable to the traditional practice whereby a womans honour could be taken in exchange for a marriage promise (cf. Ferrante 1990), thus the view that a serious relationship is as good as marriage. According to Goddard (1987: 173), an analysis of honour from a female perspective sees women themselves as having a system, if not of honour, then of selfappraisal and self-esteem which is related to their judgement of others. Goddard notes that by focusing on the normative aspects of the honour code from the point of view of the interests of the men of the society, the classical literature on this subject does not provide insights into the operation and implications of the code for women. She goes on to explain that although the rules restrict womens capacity for autonomy and very much determine the direction of their self-realisation, these
It is
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14

rules can also be played by women to try to gain recognition, self-respect, and fulfilment within socially established terms (1987: 178). From this interpretation Goddard (1987: 188) concludes that in spite of all attempts to control and contain women, they are the ones who ultimately decide how and when to allocate their sexuality. The types of relationships I have described are cultural ways of attempting to control women, but also provide some protection from error. There are cases, albeit rare, of the manipulation of honour, where women use pregnancy as a way of gaining parental consent to marriage. A female informant described such a case in the following terms:
one wanted her to marry this guy so she thought fine, Ill get myself pregnant, then Ill have to marry him. Hes Italian. See, that way she used the rules to her advantage. It took a lot of guts, she went through a hell of a lot.

No

Of course, men are also capable of manipulating honour. There are cases of jilted boyfriends, for example, who purposely ruin their desired girlfriends reputations by spreading malicious gossip about the womans conduct. In one case, the jilted young man caused the break-up of a serious relationship. The mother of this womans boyfriend found out about the rumours and began to put pressure on her son to end the relationship. The young womans female friend explained:
At first he said he didnt
care what his mother thought but then it created so much problem he just said to her: I cant keep going like this, its either you or my Mum, and

one

just have to stick with my Mum. And he just left her and she was pretty upset ... stage he was talking of marrying her and everything.

at

This scenario clearly shows both the extent and the limitations of womens influence. A comparison of the position of the mother and the girlfriend reveals that the womans perceived freedom contains ambiguities and reflects the feminist concern to which I referred earlier. On the one hand, we can acknowledge the position of strength these women have within their culture, but on the other, their power, although it is real, is also their powerlessness. Orsi (1985: 146), in his study of Italian Harlem notes that:
in the [family domain], their power was also their fashioned from the material of the public definition of the good woman. They were compelled to exercise only a certain kind of power in a certain way, as defined by the community by means of the normative ideal of the good woman. This public ideal was available to men to wield against women in retaliation for, or as a result of, the power exercised in the [family domain].

[A]lthough

women were

powerful

cage, the bars of which

were

Italian women. are often the principal agents of control over their children and herein lies their power. Women are guardians of the very morality that I have been describing. As Orsi shows, in this context womens power itself becomes another form of constraint. The public ideal of the good woman is however contested, especially in the informal network. In discussing what she calls the myth of the good Italian girl, Pallotta-Chiarolli (1989) explains that Italian mothers generally raise their daughters in accordance with traditional patriarchal laws and values, shaping their daughters to fit the myth. However, Pallotta-Chiarolli (1989: 55) also

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15

acknowledges that Italian mothers

could not prevent daughters being faced with different ideals emanating from the external society, those of liberal individuality. The network women I spoke to almost all described their mothers as intermediaries, mediating the opposing views and tensions between their fathers and themselves. These young second generation women are trying to change their mothers, and are adamant that they will not be like them in certain respects. Such young women are bringing about change and the area where this evident is gender role inequity. The traditional model of honour and shame is being challenged by young Italo-Australian women. All of the women are in constant tension with their parents about social freedom, going out, curfew, and friendships. The well developed relationships which the young women have with their female friends, relatives and especially their mothers, enables the mediation of tensions between generations and genders. The close ties, particularly between mother and daughter, are, I think, central to the current development of female awareness and increased power. Mothers are changing through the influence of their daughters within the family domain. The single women spoke of getting their mothers to trust them, to stop worrying about what other people will think. Their relationships of trust are breaking down the restrictions imposed by maintaining an honourable reputation. Sex is a moral issue for single Italo-Australian women and they are not about to reject their parents beliefs and values. Indeed, they say they will uphold them and try to instil them in their children. However, they do want more freedom and this has been achieved in the youth network. Sometimes, in trying to gain this freedom, young women choose to keep certain things secret from their families. In other cases, not secrecy but a form of conspiracy exists between daughters and their mothers, especially concerning contraception. One female network participant, who was in a serious relationship with an Italo-Australian man, told me that she used contraception and that her mother probably knew, but she [Mum] would never say anything and I would never tell her because if I did she would feel like she had to disapprove.
is
most

Conclusion
When discussing gender inequality it is important to consider womens agency from the perspective of the viewed as well as the viewer. A culturally informed perspective reveals insights into the ways Italo-Australian women manoeuvre within the structures of their culture. The honour/shame model, for instance, tends to view women as mens property with little or no power, void of volition, passive (see, for example, Peristiany 1965). A different understanding of women is gained if they are seen as agents who are integral to the social structure and who actively direct their lives (see, for example, Goddard 1987; Gabaccia 1994). Once women are viewed as agents, the traditional gender stereotypes of virginal and diabolical woman become, as Herzfeld (1991: 80) argues, rhetorical strategies that only make sense in terms of social practice. At issue here is the

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16

gender (gender discourses) are manifested in action, articulated difference (cf. Hall 1987), and the way this kind of relativising is embodied in the second generation (cf. Bottomley 1992a: 132). Loizos and Papataxiarchis (1991: 5) point out that gender discourses vary in accordance with the context in which they are established, and the less instituted the context, the more problematic is their delineation. Context here refers to spheres of activity in which ideas of gender can be identified, and they may range from discrete domains, such as the household or family (cf. Collier and Yanagisako 1987), to more informal and transient sets of practices, such as those represented by the informal network of second generation Italo-Australian youth in Perth. In each of these spheres of activity, ideas about gender are inextricably linked to ideas about sexuality and ethnicity. However, in the less delineated context of the network, ideas about maleness, femaleness, sexual relationships and ethnic identity are less formal, being either provisional or on their way to fuller institutionalisation. By concentrating on the way ideas of gender inform roles and relations as actually observed (cf. Loizos and Papataxiarchis 1991: 4), new patterns of variation which transcend traditional ideas about both male and female sexual relations, and what it means to be Italo-Australian, can be accounted for. However, it is clear that whatever the context, no matter the level of delineation, the individual is influenced by habitus-the dialectical interplay between history, structured circumstance and ones actions and orientations. While habitus does not determine behaviour, it helps to explain that even when rebelling against a parental tradition, as is evident in the youth network, the forms of resistance are mediated by the very cultural practices and perceptions being resisted. Italian families, like the Greek families Bottomley (1983: 197) researched, are extremely efficient at sustaining traditions of morality and that these traditions are also reinforced by elements in the Anglo-Australian environment. I, too, continually received the message that perceived Anglo-Australian alternatives were not attractive. However, attention to the moral community of the youth revealed ways in which these traditions of morality were being transformed, resisted and passed on. The inside domain, or the informal network of second generation youth, provides an appropriate site for an analysis of theories of identity construction and cultural transmission. By focusing on the social interrelations of the young people, and the social networks they create, we can begin to see the space in which parental rules, community gossip, societal laws and individual volition are negotiated (this is an example of Bhabhas 1990 notion of the third space). Sexuality can be analysed as a site of contention in power and authority relationships in each of the contexts of meaning and social action in which the network youth participate. The family domain corresponds to Pallotta-Chiarolli and Skrbis (1994) notion of parental authority. From the perspective of the youth, parental authority is often a reflection of communal authority where what others will think or the politics of reputation (Bottomley 1979) provides a strict behaviour guide. In contradistinction to the family domain, the outside represents Australian society at large, or, in Pallotta-Chiarolli and Skrbis (1994) terms, societal authority. The informal youth network is a sphere of activity which could
across
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way ideas of

17

be defined as part of communal authority; however, it is a bounded off section of the community, representing a separate type of authority with a different construction of morality which bears witness to the generation-specific construction of identities. The informal youth network represents a moral community which reinforces its members understanding of the world. The moral community represented by the network is, however, not exactly the same as the family domain. Vastas (1993: 220) claim that, despite the cultural ambivalence they experience, the second generation develop double cultural competences, can be seen to be occuring in the network. The relative freedom provided by the youth network provides a place for the development of these cultural competences. But, more importantly, it provides a province of meaning and social action in which traditional beliefs and modes of behaviour can be tested and changed to suit the specific needs of this generation. In Martins (1986) terms, it provides another sphere of validation for women; it is another structure, however, which both supports and contains their agency. Change in this context does not imply loss of culture or loss of ethnic identity. Rather, the network gives youth some freedom to construct their own life-world and to develop their own symbolic expression of ethnicity. It enables both affirmation and transformation of the values of the family domain in a two-way process. Not only are values taken from the home and changed, but changes are brought into the home by youth. If transformation were not possible, the traditions would remain static and unchanging and would consequently have to be fiercely coercive over individuals in order to contain them. Many Italo-Australian women are concerned about unfairness in the home and the double standard. They do not, however, define womens domestic role as necessarily negative and restrictive, nor do they undervalue the role of wife and mother. The representation of other is central here, just as the network womens construction of non-network women presented in this paper can be seen to be a misinterpretation. The construction of Italian women by many outsiders is often just as misleading. Goddard (1987) views the control of women and their sexuality, which results in their exclusion from various activities and spheres, in terms of womens role as boundary makers and carriers of group identity. Yuval-Davis (1997: 22) puts forward a similar argument with regards to the biological reproduction of the nation. Defining women as the bearers of group identity gives them a very irnportant part to play in the process of demarcation of group boundaries. This role becomes particularly important in a multicultural society where, on the one hand, the existence of the socio-cultural group is threatened by conflicting values found in the outside, while on the other hand, the group is constructed as the (homogeneous) Italian community despite its internal divisions. Obviously, cultural controls on who women marry, or more to the point, whose children they bear, have a direct effect on the composition of the group. In the Italo-Australian case, it is not so important which ethnic group spouses come from, as long as they accept the value system of their partners culture (cf. Chock 1987). According to Goddard (1987: 190):

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18
meets a crucial obstacle: the fact that themselves who control their sexuality. The contradiction between the power over women established to control them and the power of women to subvert the relations through which they are controlled is expressed in the ambivalent perceptions of women as passive victims and predatory nymphomaniacs.

The

necessity for controlling womens sexuality

it is
women

ultimately

These young Italo-Australian women are resisting the traditional ideal of the good woman through the relative freedom afforded them by the informal youth network. How then is one to explain their involvement in the rites of the garter and bouquet that symbolically reproduce the classical model of honour and shame? I have argued that the rituals of the garter and the bouquet are rites of institution, reinforcing the ideal of the good (virginal/faithful) woman through the symbolic acting out of the brides diabolical nature (whore). It is important to note that these rituals take place in a highly formalised public context, at a wedding. In this public, and therefore male domain, women have little choice but to play out the roles assigned them. However, this says nothing of what the women feel about these roles. Heeding Herzfelds (1991: 96) charge that we should note any situations in which women clearly play up their submissive role because exaggeration is the essence of a poetics that addresses the social manipulation of cultural form the womens participation in the rituals can be interpreted as a form of resistance. The exaggerated performances in both the rite of the bouquet and the garter can be seen as a form of subversion, though not one that challenges the communitys standing in the wider society. Rather, it is a form of resistance that does not subvert the boundary sustaining function of the Italo-Australian wedding. Much like the family domain, the wedding rites are ambiguous and contradictory sites of both female oppression, female validation and resistance (cf. Martin 1986: 24S) .14 Bourdieus notion of habitus provides a way of understanding the specific adaptations of the young women to their network. It seems to provide a ready explanation for the apparent inconsistencies between the wedding rituals and the young womens dispositions in the context of the network. Whatever the context, no matter the level of delineation, the individual is influenced by habitus. As noted earlier, while habitus is not determining ... [it] is a powerful mediating construct that can predefine what is necessary or even imaginable (Bottomley 1992a: 123). The contradictory images of women presented by the tie-cutting and gartertaking rites challenge the ambivalent perceptions Goddard (1987) identifies by presenting women as both active controllers of sexuality and as active sexual beings. My research demonstrates that the patriarchal context within which womens power is contained does not mean that they lack agency, nor that their agency is faulty or weak. Similarly, the ambiguous nature of the network womens sexual and social freedom does not mean that they are passive recipients of traditional value structures. The ambiguity is instead representative of the complexities inherent in the construction of gender, sexuality and ethnicity. This ambiguity allows for change and negotiation.

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19

Notes
1 I would like to thank colleagues and students in the Departments of Anthropology and Womens Studies for their helpful comments on this paper, and in particular, Dr Michael Pinches (UWA), Dr Cheryl Lange (UWA) and Dr Zlatko Skrbis (QUT).

3 4

The informal youth network discussed in this paper does not, of course, include all Italo-Australian youth in Perth. As di Leonardo (1984) points out, a homogeneous ethnic culture (with its implicit judgments about normative ethnic behaviour) cannot be assumed. The comments I make about the informal network are not necessarily relevant to Italo-Australian youth who do not belong to the network. Price (1993: 6) found that for the period 1987-90 half or more of second-generation brides of Italian origin were marrying within their own ethnic community. For a discussion of the importance of separating the concepts of ethnicity and culture see Govers and Vermeulen (1997: 6); Bottomley (1992b, 1994a: 62, 1998: 35) and

Eipper (1983). In these formulations, the dominant

institutions in Australian

society

are

seen as

hegemonic

in their

functioning. Ethnicity is
as

multiculturalism is defined
Vasta 1993). 6
7

Lepervanche 1984; Papastergiadis

also first

described as a marginalising device, while assimilation in disguise (cf. Martin 1978; de 1986; Castles et al 1990; Bottomley 1992a, 1994b;

individual social fields and the broader social activities of the network. I attempted to interview equal numbers of people from Northern and Southern regions. The main regions include Sicily, Abruzzi, Molise, Calabria, Veneto, Lombardy and Tuscany. 10 Indeed, Italo-Australian weddings are also the butt of much humour amongst Italians themselves (Vasta 1993: 221). 11I have witnessed the rite of the garter at working class Australian weddings in Perth and the rite of the bouquet is even more widespread. 12 I have received bomboniere at non-Italian weddings in Perth. As is evident in the popularity of different types of cuisine, the adoption of cultural traditions is not only from host to immigrant. 13 A man is said to have become a stallion after his first sexual experience (cf. Peristiany and Pitt-Rivers 1992: 115). 14 In this paper I have focused on the womens perspective. Given that the men also exaggerate their performances in the rites, one could argue that the wedding is also an ambiguous and contradictory site for the construction of second generation mens ethnicity and sexuality.

Bottomley (1991: 95) points out, for example, that second generation migrants are generation Australians, although they are rarely described as such. Given its informal structure, it was impossible to estimate the exact number of participants in the network. At the nightclub considered to be the main meeting place there was invariably a full house of 300 patrons. Being of a similar age and ethnic background, I was easily adopted into a friendship group of six young women whom I interviewed and went out to network gatherings with regularly. I also had six principal male informants each of whom I interviewed three times. These six male informants comprised a friendship group and they often attended network gatherings together. The twelve principal informants each kept a diary of their social activities over a period of six months which I used to graph their

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20

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