Kristen Richardson onderzoekt de nuances van maatschappelijke tradities en verwachtingen met een scherpe, vaak ironische, blik. Haar schrijven, dat vroege erkenning kreeg door essays voor Rookie, biedt inzichtelijke commentaren op hedendaagse sociale fenomenen. Richardson onderzoekt hoe individuen complexe structuren navigeren en daarbinnen hun identiteit smeden. Haar stijl is scherpzinnig en reflectief, en nodigt lezers uit tot diepere contemplatie van maatschappelijke normen en persoonlijke autonomie.
In this enthralling history of the debutante ritual, Richardson sheds new light on contemporary ideas about women and marriage. While Richardson came from a family of debutantes, she chose not to debut. But as her curiosity drove her to research this enduring custom, she learned that it, and debutantes, are not as simple as they seem.
". . . A revealing story of women across six centuries, their limited options, and their desires. Digging into the roots of the debutante ritual, with its ballrooms and white dresses, [the author]- herself descended from a line of debutantes- was fascinated to discover that the debutante ritual places our contemporary ideas about women and marriage in a new light. In this history of the phenomenon, [the author] shares debutantes' own words-from diaries, letters, and interviews-throughout her vivid telling, beginning in Henry VIII's era, sweeping through Queen Elizabeth I's court, crossing back and forth the Atlantic to colonial Philadelphia, African American communities, Jane Austen's England, and Mrs. Astor's parties, ultimately arriving at the contemporary New York Infirmary and International balls. Whether maligned for its archaic attitude and objectification of women or praised for raising money for charities and providing a necessary coming-of-age ritual, the debutante tradition has more to tell us"--Adapted from publisher description