Educational Media Reviews Online

Described both as a “marriage market” for African-American teenage girls and a celebration of “our kind of people,” debutante balls historically have given middle- to upper-class African-Americans a way to associate with other African-Americans who have attained a similar educational, economic, and social status in their communities. Girls in White Dresses documents the 2009 debutante ball sponsored by the 20th Century Onyx Club in Oxnard, California. Six young women between the ages of 16 and 19 debuted in 2009 in Oxnard, and filmmaker Ronisa Wilkins Shoate attempts to tell their “coming out” stories.

The film suffers from the lack of a compelling narrative arc. Early on, we briefly meet Jerilyn “Cookie” Clayton, who chose not to debut in 1968. It is a shame that we barely see Clayton in the rest of the film, for Girls in White Dresses would be so much richer if it juxtaposed the story of why she chose not to debut with the stories of the current crop of debutantes. While Girls in White Dresses is essentially told chronologically to show the preparations leading up to the ball, we spend so little time with each debutante that we do not get a clear sense for each young woman’s feelings about this social ritual. We see them getting etiquette lessons about the proper way to pass rolls at the dinner table and how to cross their legs (at the ankle, not the knee), and we see them performing some community service, but there is little of substance that Shoate is able to elicit from the interviews with each young woman. The length of the film makes it difficult for the audience to become invested in any of the debutantes’ stories. Equally unclear is the filmmaker’s agenda: is Shoate trying to portray this social ritual as outdated and quaint, frame it as still culturally relevant, or simply offer it up as an example of cultural heritage amongst the African-American community in this southern California city? Although the subject matter is interesting and exhibits great potential for prompting discussions of African-American history and cultural traditions, it deserves a more thorough treatment than it receives in Girls in White Dresses.

Not recommended