In histories of nineteenth-century San Francisco, cross-dressing is seldom acknowledged and rarely investigated. Although contemporary letters, diaries, memoirs, and newspapers abound with descriptions of men donning petticoats and dresses and women attempting to pass as men by wearing masculine apparel, few scholars have attempted to discuss the phenomenon at length. Clare Sears's refreshing new book aims to fill this void. Her study seeks to recover “an important component of lesbian, gay, and transgender history that has consistently appeared in the footnotes of twentieth-century studies but has yet to be brought to the fore” (5). Employing a wide variety of archival material, including municipal laws, court records, and police reports, as well as newspaper scandals, freak shows, and vaudeville performances, Sears argues that cross-dressing, typically seen today as marginal, was a visible feature of nineteenth-century San Francisco life. Furthermore, she argues that laws enacted to regulate such activities resulted in clear social and legal distinctions between normative gender practices and what city leaders considered deviant behavior.

Sears's approach centers on what she terms “trans-ing analysis,” and it is here that she sets herself apart from previous transgender and queer scholarship. As described by Sears, trans-ing analysis seeks to connect “a range of cross-gender phenomena that are rarely considered alongside one another” (9). Essentially, this theoretical intervention allows Sears to examine not only practitioners of gender nonconformity but also less easily categorized transgendered bodies such as dress reformers, stowaways, vaudeville performers, and the physically disabled, as well as cross-gender representations in popular and political discourse. Such an all-inclusive framework works to the book's benefit, as it allows Sears to incorporate a wide range of cross-gender practices into her study while simultaneously historicizing the ambivalent meanings of nineteenth-century cross-dressing.

Sears's argument hinges on an 1863 law passed by San Francisco's Board of Supervisors that criminalized the public wearing of “a dress not belonging to his or her sex” (2). As part of a much larger campaign against indecency, the law represented an important moment in the city's social history. During the California gold rush the overwhelmingly male population, combined with the social disorder and cultural diversity of the event, produced a liminal space in which complex and contradictory cross-dressing practices flourished. With the arrival of more middle-class women and families, however, this “peculiar” gender landscape gave way to the forces of social and moral order. While the passing of the 1863 law did not signal a dramatic shift from sexual openness to sexual repression, it did provide the legal foundation for policing and containing cross-gender behavior and constructing a gender-normative urban space. By century's end over one hundred individuals had been arrested for cross-dressing in public, indicating a concerted effort by local officials to purge cross-gender practices from public life, while the stigma of cross-gender behavior was used in campaigns against Chinese immigration. As a result, cross-dressing practices were confined to the city's underworld, where they became entertainment spectacles in vaudeville performances, freak shows, and slumming tours. San Francisco's law remained in effect until 1974. Still, as Sears suggests, the national conversation over gender normativity continues to remain at the forefront of public debate.

Despite Arresting Dress's theoretical underpinnings, Sears's engaging prose and precise analysis guide the reader through the complexities of nineteenth-century law and the cultural tensions embedded within popular discourse. One potentially rewarding area of investigation Sears does not consider is literature. For example, the California author Bret Harte's 1871 short story “The Poet of Sierra Flat” revolves around a cross-dressing poet named Milton Chubbuck who turns out to be a woman and a female music-hall dancer who impersonates young boys onstage to the delight of the miners. Although Arresting Dress is more focussed on the social rather than the literary, I was curious as to how such literary representations of cross-dressing fit into the production and policing of gender normativity.

Sears's book is important because it historicizes cross-dressing and cross-gender behavior in ways in which it never has been before. Indeed, it is the sort of interdisciplinary study that is often attempted but rarely executed with such interpretive precision. Although primarily situated within queer and transgender studies, her methodology draws from several scholarly fields, including critical legal studies, urban history, race studies, and the history of gender in the United States. Despite such scholarly intersections, however, the book is remarkably accessible. A stimulating read for undergraduates, specialists, and general readers.