GEIITIER ATNENTISEIIEIIT$

GETIDER ATIUERTISEIIEIITS
Erving Gollman
(
HARPER TORCHBOOKS
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cENDER ADVERTTsEMENTs. Copyri Sht O 1976 by rvi n8 Cof f man l nt roduc-
t i on copyri ght O 1979 by Harper and Row Publ i shers, I nc Al l ri Sht s
reserved. Pri nt ed i n t he Uni t ed St at es of Ameri ca Nopart of t hi sbookmay
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Fi rst HARPER roRcHBooKs edi t i on publ i shed 1987
rsBNr 0-06-132076-5 (pbk.)
93 94 95 15 14
GOIITEIITS
Acknowledgements
Introducti on by Vi vi an Gorni ck
Cender Di spl ay
Pi cture Frames
Cender Commerci al s
Rel ati ve Si ze
The Femi ni ne Touch
Functi on Ranki ng
The Fami l y
The Ri tual i zati on of Subordi nati on
Li censed Wi thdrawal
Concl usi on
vi i
t
1 0
24
2A
29
32
3 7
40
84
[l'
AGIIII0WIEIIGEiIEIITS
Apart from a few changes, this monograph first appeared as
vol. 3, no. 2 (F all 1976) of Studies in the Anthropology of
Visuol Communicotion, a
publication of the Society for the
Anthropol ogy of Vi sual Communi cal i on- | am very
grateful
to i ts then edi tor, the l ate Sol Worth, for support i n worki ng out
the ori gi nal edi ti on and for permi ssi on to use i ts
pl ates and
gl ossi es. I am al so
grateful to El sa Vorwerk, managi ng edi tor
of the Ameri can Anthropol ogi cal Associ ati on, for a
great
deal of hel p wi th the ori gi nal l ayout. The sl i des from whi ch
the reproducti ons were made were themsel ves done from the
ori gi nal s by
J
ohn Carey and Lee Ann Draud.
IIUTROTTUGTIOT
byVivian Gornick
The contemporary femi ni st movement, wi th al l i ts cl amor about
the meani ng of the l i ttl e detai l s i n dai l y l i fe, has acted as a ki nd of
el ectri c prod to the thought of many soci al sci enti sts, gi vi ng new
i mpetus and di recti on to thei r work, the very substance of whi ch
i s the observati on of concrete detai l i n soci al l i fe. Because of the
feminists the most ordinary verbal exchange between men and
women now reverberates with new meaning; the most simple
gesture, familiar ritual, taken-for-granted form of address has
become a source of new understanding with regard to relations
between the sexes and the social forces at work behind those
rel ati ons. Operati ng out of
"a
pol i ti cs that ori gi nates wi th one' s
own hurt feel i ngs," the femi ni sts have made vi vi d what the soci al
sci enti sts have al ways known: l t i s i n the detai l s of dai l y exchange
that the discrepancy between actual experience and apparent
exDerience is to be found.
Ervi ng Coffman i s a bri l l i ant soci al sci enti st who has spent hi s l i fe
observi ng soci al behavi or the way a fi ne l i terary cri ti c reads
literature. He does not sacrifice the text to theory, he knows one
readsoutof it ratherthan into it, he never forgets that both the text
and soci ety are al i ve.
At the same time, Coffman's reading of the text is informed by
a pi ece of systemati c thought about soci al behavi or that has been
gathering shape and force over a great many years. He knows that
the detai l s of soci al behavi or are svmptomati c revel ati ons of how
a sense of self is established and reinforced, and that that sense of
self, in turn, both reflects and cements the social institutions upon
whi ch rests a cul ture' s hi erarchi cal structure. Li ke the real l y fi ne
teacher he is, Coffman is always workinS to demonstrate that if
one exami nes the detai l s of soci al l i fe wi th a hi ghl y consci ous eye
one l ear n s- deepl y- who and what one i s i n t he soci al l y
organi zed worl d.
In thi s wonderful l y dense and l i vel y monograph Coffman
turns hi s aftenti on, speci fi cal l y, to the ways i n whi ch men and
women-mai nl y women-are
pi ctured i n adverti sements
(those
hi ghl y mani pul ated representati ons of recogni zabl e scenes from
"real
l i fe"), and specul ates ri chl y on what those ads tel l us about
ourselves; whatthe interplay is between fashioned image and so-
cal l ed natural behavi or; the de8ree to whi ch adverti sements
embody an artificial pose reflecting on perhaps yet another artifi-
ci al pose-that i s, the process by whi ch we come to thi nk of what
we cal l our natural sel ves.
This ouestion of men and women in advertisements is interest-
ing and important, Coffman says, because
"So
deeply does the
mal e-femal e di fference i nform our ceremoni al l i fe that one fi nds
here a very systematic
'opposite
number' arrangement," one that
al l ows us to thi nk profi tabl y about the way i n whi ch sel f-defi ni -
ti on i s gui ded and external l y determi ned.
For Coffman, social situations are settings for ceremonies
whose function is
"to
affirm social arrangements and announce
ul ti mate doctri ne." In the soci al or
publ i c
si tuati on the most
minute behavior has meaning. Cesture, expression, posture re-
veal not only how we feel about ourselves but add up, as well, to
an entire arrangement-a scene-that embodies cultural values.
Within these scenes, Goffman posits, human behaviors_can be
seen as
"di spl ays."
Expl ai ni ng that i n ani mal s a di spl ay i s an
"emotionally
motivated behavior
lthat]
becomes formalized,
provi des
a readi l y readabl e expressi on of
[the
ani mal ' s] si tuati on,
speci fi cal l y hi s i ntent,
[and] thi s...al l ows for the negoti ati on of an
efficient response from and to witnesses of the display," Coffman
goes on to say that, si mi l arl y, i n human bei ngs
"...an
i ndi vi dual ' s
behavi or and appearance i nforms those who wi tness hi m...about
hi s soci al i denti ty, mood, i ntent. ...
[T]hese are di spl ays that
establ i sh the terms of the contact,..for the deal i ngs that are to
ensue between the persons providingthe display and the persons
percei vi ng i t."
But, Coffman adds-and this
"but"
is the heart ofthe mafter-
"The
human use of di spl ays i s compl i cated by the human capac-
i ty for .eframi ng behavi or....
fD]i spl ays
(i n humans) are a symp-
tom, not a portrai t....l t i s not so much the character of an enti ty
that gets expressed..,.
[E]xpressi on
i n the mai n i s not i nsti ncti ve
but soci al l y l earned and soci al l y patterned....
fl ndi vi dual sl
are
learning to be objects that have a character, that express this
cha.acter, and for whom this characterological expressing is only
natural . We are soci al i zed to confi rm our own hvootheses about
our natures....
"
Turni ng then to the speci fi c subj ect of the work i n hand,
Cof f man obser ves:
" What
t he human nat ur e of mal es and
females really consists of then, is a capacity to learn to provide
and to read depi cti ons of mascul i ni ty and femi ni ty and a wi l l i ng-
ness to adhere to a schedule for presenting these pictures, and this
capacity they have by virtue of being persons, not females or
mal es."
It is around this last, wholly persuasive perception that Cendef
Adveltriementi is organized. Advertisements depict for us not
necessari l v how we actual l v behave as men and women but how
we thi nk men and women behave. Thi s depi cti on serves the
soci al purpose of convi nci nS us that thi s i s how men and women
are, or want to be, or should be, not only in relation to themselves
but in relation to each other. They orient men and women to the
idea of men and women acting in concert with each other in the
l arger pl ay or scene or arrangement that i s our soci al l i fe. That
ori entati on accompl i shes the task a soci ety has of maj ntai ni ng an
essential order, an undisturbed on-goingness, regardless of the
actual experi ence of i ts parti ci pants.
ln a crucial passage Coffman argues that in one sense the
job
of the advertiser and the
job
of a society are the same:
"Both
must
transform otherwise opaque goings-on into easily readable
fotm." Otherwise opaque goings-on! A wonderful phrase that
speaks vol umes. What exacti y are the goi ngs-on that are opaque?
They are the murky, muddled efforts of the half-conscious mind,
the confused spirit, the unresolved will to comprehend the nature
of actual experience rather than described experience, felt emo-
tion rather than cued emotion, perceived truth rather than re-
cei ved wi sdom. And the
"wi l l i ngness
to adhere to a schedul e for
presenti ng these pi ctures" i s the i ncl i nati on both of i ndi vi dual s
and ofsocieties to fall back from the conscious struggle to under-
stand ourselves; to learn about ourselves at a remove; to accept as
real an al most whol l y assumed sel f.
viil INTRODUCTIOI{
Speaki ng i n a sense to thi s hi ghl y si gni fi cant i ncl i nati on, Coff-
man remarks-wi th hi s geni us for bri l l i ant anal ogy-that i t i s not
at al l unl i kel y that a fami l y on vacati on mi ght take i ts cues for
what
"having
a good time" is from external sources and might, in
fact, contri ve to l ook and act l i ke the i deaj i zed fami l y-on-vaca-
ti on i n a Coca-Col a ad. By the same token, i t hardl y needs
stressi ng, men and women take thei r cues about,,eender be_
havi or" from the i mage of thdt behavi or thal adverti :i ne throws
back at them, and they contri ve to become the
,,peopl e,,
i n those
ads.
Reflecting on the intimate give-and-take
between how
pho-
l ographed adverl rsements are made, and whal they are made out
of, Coffman concl udes:
"l n
seei ng what pi cture makers can make
of si tuati onal materi ai s one can begi n to see what we oursel ves
mi ght be engaged i n doi ng."
The pictures that Coffman has chosen and arransed for our
perusal i n CenderAdveftl i emenl j
are, l hen, a comme-ntary on the
complicated mafter of
"what
we ourselves might be engaged in
doi n8." That commentary cl earl y demonstrates that whi l e adver-
ti sements appear to be photographi ng
mal e and femal e human
bei ngs what they are actuai l y photographi ng
i s a depi cti on of
mascul i ni ty and femi n i ni ty that i s fi tted or matched i n such a wav
as to make i t functi on soci al l y.
Nowthi s percepti on i s notori gi nal wi th Coffman (as
Coffman
hj msel f woul d be the fi rst to admi ti he i s emi nentl y fai r about
i denti fyi ng hi s sources). One ofthe mai or
poi nts
of concentrati on
i n the femi ni st strategy has been the i mage ofwomen i n adverti s-
i ng. Many femi ni sts have pai d el aborate attenti on to the fri ghten-
i ng uses to whi ch women have been
put
i n ads ei ther as creatures
of embodi ed sexual usage or as thoroughl y mi ndl ess domesti cs
thrown into ecstasy by a waxed floor or depression by an un-
bl eached shi rt. Moreovet the femi ni sts have al so poi nted out the
soci al and pol i ti cal purposes served by adverti sements rei nforc-
i ng the noti on of men as natural l y domi nant and women as
natural l y subordi nate.
What i s ori gi nal wi th Coffman i s the qual i ty of the i nsi ght he
bri ngs to bear on mal e-femal e i mages i n adverti si ng. Most obser-
vati on on thi s subj ect has been of a bl unt and fundamental nature:
ori gi nal spadework, so to speak; di ggi ng up the i ssue. What
Coffman does here
jn
Cender Advertisement5,by virtue of his
penetrati ng
eye and hi s comprehensi ve context i s to contri bute
an observati on so shrewd and subti e i t takes us farther than we
have been before. For a reader al ready fami l i ar wi th the femi ni st
angl e of vi si on trai ned on the i mage of women i n ads thi s, of
course, i s pure pl easure, an unexpected gi ft: the gi ft of renewed
sti mul ati on, thought fi red once more, mental terri tory i ncreased.
Instead of l ooki ng at cl utched detergents and hal f-naked
bodies, Coffman concentrates on hands, eyes, knees; facjal ex-
pressi ons, head postures, rel ati ve si zes; posi ti oni ng and pl aci ng,
head-eye aversi on, fi nger bi ti ng and sucki ng. He al so groups the
pi ctures
so that the bul k of them i l l ustrate i n a si ngl e seri es what
we thi nk of as a natural pose or pi ece
of behavi or for one of the
sexes, and then he has the last two or three
pictures
in the series
show the same pose of behavior with the sexes switched. Be-
tween the fineness ofdetail that receives Coffman,s attention and
the shock value of the switched-sex pictures we experience that
i nner surpri se that precedes deepened percepti on.
Under headi ngs l i ke
"The
Femi ni ne Touch,"
,,Functj on
Rank-
i ng,"
"The
Ri tual i zati on of Su bord i nati on,,,
,,Rel ati ve
Si ze.,, and
"Li censed
Wi thdrawal ," Goffman makes us see such observabl e
phenomena
i n adverti si ng as the fol l owi ng: 1) overwhel mi ngl y a
woman i s tal l er than a man onl y when the man i s her soci al
i nferi or; 2) a woman' s hands are seen
j ust
barel y touchi ng, hol d_
In8 or caresstng-never graspi ng,
mani pul ati ng, or shapi ng; 3)
when a photograph
of men and women
j l j ustrates
an i nstructi on
ot some sort the man i s al ways i nstructi ng
the woman_even i f
the men and women are actual l y chi l dren l that i s, a mal e chi l d
wi l l be i nstructi ng a femal e chi l d!1; 4) when an adverti sement
requi res someone to si t or l i e on a bed or a fl oor that someone i s
al most al ways a chi l d or a woman, hardl y ever a man; 5) when the
head or eye of a man i s averted i t i s onl y i n rel ati on to a soci al .
pol i ti cal ,
or i ntel l ectual superi or, but when the eye or head of a
woman is averted it is always in relation to whatevef man is
pi ctured
wi th her; 6) women are repeatedl y shown mental l v
dri fti ng from the scene wh i l e i n cl ose physi ca I l ouch wi th a mal e,
thei r faces l ost and dreamy,
,,as
though hi s al i veness to the sur_
roundings and his readiness to cope were enough for both of
them" 7) concomi tantl y, women, much more than men, are
pi ctured
atthe ki nd of psychol ogi cal
l oss or remove from a soci al
si tuati on that l eaves one unori ented for acti on
(e.g.,
somethi ng
terri bl e has happened and a woman i s shown wi th her hands ovei
her mouth and her eyes hel pl ess wi th horror).
.
These detai l s are absorbi ng and graphi c, underl i ni ng as they
do a sense of thi ngs that presses
on the al erted mi nd, the recepti ve
r magi ndt i on.
I hey make you know bet t er whal you have
"known"
before; they induce the vigorous nod of the head, the
murmured
"oh
yes," the surpri sed
,,1
hadn,t thousht of that!,,
But Coffman' s maj or contri buri on i n thi s bo;k of
,,depi cted
femininity" (what
Cender Advertisements is really about) is the
conti nuous, ever-deepeni ng connecti on he makes between our
i mage of women and the behavi or of chi l dren. In a shrewd
di scussi on of the chi l d-parent rel ati on he notes that a chi l d,s
behavior
often indicates that
,A
loving protector is standing by in
the wi ngs, al l owi ng not so much fordependency as a coppi ng out
of or rel i ef from, the
' real i ti es,,
that i s, the necessi ti es and con-
strai nts to whi ch adul ts i n soci al si tuati ons are subj ect.,, He then
adds poi ntedl y:
"You
wi l l note that there
j s
an obvj ous pri ce
the
chi l d must pay for bei ng saved from seri ousness.,,
Being saved from seriousnesj. Another wonderful
ohrase that
echoes endlessly. ln series after series of the photographs
shown
here Coffman leads us to the repeated usage in advertisements of
women posed as chi l dren, acti ng l i ke chi l dren, l ooki ne l i ke chi l -
dren: unerl y devoi d of the natural sobri ety whi ch one associ ates
wi th the adul t mi en. Crown women are seen standi nq wi th the
head cocked way over to the si de paral l el
to the shoul der, face_
front, eyes and mouth: smi l i ng; ot the head tucked i nto the
shoulder, face-front, eyes looking up from under lowered lids,
seducti ve-gami n
styl e; or hands twi sted behj nd the back; or the
toes of one foot standing on the toes of the other in a child,s
,Aw
gosh gee" posture;
or arms and l egs fl yi ng off i n al l di recti ons l i ke
a cl own; or hands dug deep i nto the pockets,
the faci al exoressi on
"wicked"
or
"merry";
and on every last face that damned
,,daz-
zl i ng" smi l e.
Underscori ng
these obseryati ons
of women i mased as chi l _
dren i s an extraordi nary di scussi on i n words and
pi ctures
of the
way i n whi ch we percei ve men and women weari ns cl othes i n
adverl i 5pmqnl r. In thi s di s( ussi on Coffman poi nts
oui that what_
ever a man i s weari ng i n an adverti sement he wears seri ousl y,
wnereas whatever a woman is wearing she appears to be trying
on, as though the cl othes were a costume, not the appropri ate
coveri ng of a person
bei ng seri ousl y presented.
l f a man i n an
INTRODUCTION lx
adveni sement i s weari ng a busi ness sui t and carryi ng a bri efcase
we bel i eve that he i s seri ousl y representi ng a busi nessman; i f the
same man is seen wearing shorts and carrying a racquet we
bel i eve, equal l y, that he i s representi ng the same man pl ayi ng
tennis, that we are looking at different aspects ofthe same life, the
one momentarily discarded for the other. However, when we see
a woman weari ng formal or i nformal , busi ness or sports cl othes
we Jeel we are watchi ng a model pl ay-dctj ng.
We cannot bel i eve
in the seriousness of the person
meant to be reoresented
bv the
cl othes the model i s weari ng. We feel we are wdtchi ng someone
at a perpetual
costume bal l , pl ayi nB dt tryi ng on l hi s a; that, not
someone whose cl othes i ndi cate a person seri ousl y present
j n
the
soci al si tuati on bei ng pi ctured.
Coffman's observation is powerful.
One has only to look at an
adverti sement showi ng a woman carryi ng an attache case, or
reading
'The
Wall Strcet
Journal', or wearing a white coat in a
laboratory sefting-the words
,,Forthe
woman with a mind of her
own" scrawl ed across the ad-and then consul t one,s own i n_
sti ncti ve i ncredul i t, to know the truth of what he i s poi nti ng
out.
There comes suddenly to mind the memory of old-time vaude-
villians in black-face-powerless people
,,playing,,
even more
powerl ess peopl e-and
i toccurs thatthese i mages i n adverti si ng
ofwomen pl ayi ng
at bei ng seri ous peopl e are a true mock_uo oi
l i fe: an i mage refl ecti ng an i mage refl ecl i ng an i mage; tri ck
mi rrors, i l l usory effects, traci ngs that resembl e an i dea of human
bei ngs, voi d of real i ntent, substanti ve l i fe....Or perhaps
Coffman
i s sayi ng thi s i 5 real l i fe. That i s, l hi s i s the real i ty of the l i fe we are
l i vi ng out.
The most painful
and perhaps
the most important sentence in
Cender Advertisements
is this:
,Although
the pictures
shown here
cannotbe taken as representati ve of gender behavi or i n real l i fe...
one can probabl y
make a si gni fi cant negati ve statement about
them, namely, that as pictures
they are not perceived
as
peculiar
and unnatural ."
What Erving Coffman shares with contemporarv feminists is
the fel t convi cti on thdt benedth the surfdce of ordi nary soci al
behavi or i nnumerabl e smal l murders ofthe mi nd and spi ri t take
pl ace
dai l y. l nsi de most peopl e, behi nd a soci al l y useful i mage of
the self, there is a sentient being suffocating slowly to death in a
Kafkaesque atmosphere, taken as
,,natural ,,,that
deni es not onl v
the death but the l i ve bei ng as wel l .
Cender Advertisemerts is an act of creative documentation.
Its ai m-l i ke that of a fi ne novel or a sensi ti ve anal ysi s or a l i ve
pi ece
of pol i ti cs-i s
to name and re-name and name yet agai n
"the
thing itself"; to make us see the unnatural in the natur;l in
order that we may rescue the warm Iife trapped inside the frozen
i mase.
EETIDEN DISPTAT
f
Take i t thdt the functi on of ceremony reaches i n two
I di recti ons, the affi rmati on ol basi c soci al arrangemenl s
and the
presentati on
of ul ti mate doctri nes about man and
the worl d. Typi cal l y these cel ebrati ons are performed
ei ther
by persons
acti ng to one another or acti ng i n concert before
a congregati on. So
"soci al
si tuati ons" are i nvol ved-defi ni ne
these si mpl y as physi cal
arenas anywhere wi thi n whi ci
persons present
are in perceptual
range of one another,
subi ect to mutual moni tori ng-the persons
themsel ves bei ng
defi nabl e sol el y on thi s ground
as a
"gatheri ng."
It i s i n soci al si tuati ons, then, that materi al s for cel ebra-
ti ve work must be found, materi al s whi ch can be shaped i nto
a
pal pabl e
representati on of matters not otherwi se packaged
for the eye and the ear and the moment. And found they are.
The di vi si ons and hi erarchi es of soci al structure are deDi cted
mi croecol ogi cal l y, that i s, through the use of smal l scal e
spati al metaphors. Mythi c hi stori c events are pi ayed
through
i n a condensed and i deal i zed versi on. Apparent
i unctures
or
turni ng poi nts
i n l i fe are sol emni zed, as i n chri steni ngs,
graduati on
exerci ses, marri age ceremoni es, and funeral s.
Social relationships are addressed by greetings
and farewells.
Seasonal cycl es are gi ven dramati zed boundari es, Reuni ons
are hel d. Annual vacati ons and, on a l esser scal e, outi ngs on
weekends and eveni ngs are assayed, bri ngi ng i mmersi on i n
i deal setti ngs. Di nners and parti es
are gi ven, becomi ng
occasions for the expenditure of resources at a rate that is
above one' s mundane sel f. Moments of festi vi ty are attached
to the acqui si ti on of new possessi ons.
In al l of these ways, a si tuated soci al fuss i s made over
what mi ght ordi nari l y be hi dden i n extended courses of
acti vi ty and the unformul ated experi ence of thei r
par-
ti ci pants; i n bri ef, the i ndi vi dual i s gi ven
an opportuni ty to
face di rectl y a representati on, a somewhat i coni c expressi on,
a mock-up of what he i s supposed to hol d dear, a
presentati on
of the supposed orderi ng of hi s exi stence.
A si ngl e, fi xed el ement of a ceremony can be cal l ed a
"ri tual ";
the i nterpersonal ki nd can be defi ned as
perfunc-
tory, conven ti onal i zed acts through whi ch one i ndi vi dual
portrays
his regard for another to that other.
f f
l f Dur khei m l eads us t o consi der one sense of t he t er m
I I ritualization, Darwin, in his Espression of Emotion in
Man ond Ani mal s,l eads us, coi nci dental l y, to consi der qui te
another. To paraphrase
Jul i an
Huxl ey (and the ethol ogi cal
posi ti on),
the basi c argument i s that under the pressure
of
natural sel ecti on certai n emoti onal l V moti vated behavi ors
become formal i /ed-i n the sense of becomi ng si mpl i fi ed,
exaggerated, and stereotyped-and loosened from any
speci fi c context of rel easers, and al l thi s so that, i n effect,
there wi l l be more effi ci ent si gnal l i ng, both i nter and
i ntra-speci fi cal l y.r
These behavi ors are
,,di spl ays,' ,
a speci es-
uti l i tari an noti on that i s at the heart of the ethol oei cal
concepti on of communi cati on. Instead of havi ng to pl ay out
an act, the ani mal , i n effect, provi des
a readi l y readabl e
expressi on of hi s si tuati on, speci fi cal l y hi s i ntent, thi s taki ng
the form of a
"ri tual i zati on"
of some porti on
of the act
i tsel f, and thi s i ndi cati on (whether promi se
or threat)
presumabl y
al l ows for the negoti ati on of an effi ci ent
response from, and to, wi tnesses of the di sptay. (l f
Darwi n
l eads here,
John
Dewey, and G. H. Mead are notfar behi nd.)
The ethol ogi cal concern, then, does not take us back from
a ri tual performance
to the soci al structure and ul ti mate
bel i efs i n whi ch the performer
and wi tness are embedded,
but forward i nto the unfol di ng course of soci al l y si tuated
events, Displays thus provide
evidence of the actor's olign-
ment i n a gatheri ng,
the posi ti on he seems prepared
to take
up i n what i s about to happen i n the soci al si tuati on.
Al i gnments tentati vel y or i ndi cati vel y establ i sh the terms of
the contact, the mode or styl e or formul a for the deal i ngs
that are to ensue among the i ndi vi dual s i n the si tuati on. As
suggested, ethol ogi sts tend to use the term communi cati on
here, but that mi ght be l oose tal k. Di spl ays don' t communi -
cate i n the narrow sense of the term; they don' t enunci ate
somethi ng through a l anguage of symbol s openl y establ i shed
and used sol el y for that purpose.
They provi de
evi dence of
ti e actor' s al i gnment i n the si tuati on. And di spl avs are
i mportant i nsofar as al i gnments are.
A versi on of di spl ay for humans woul d go somethi ng l i ke
thi s: Assume al l of an i ndi vi dual ' s behavi or and appearance
i nforms those who wi tness hi m, mi ni mal l y tel l i ng them
somethi ng about hi s soci al i denti ty, about hi s mood, i ntent,
and expectati ons, and about the state of hi s rel ati on to them.
In every cul ture a di sti ncti ve range of thi s i ndi cati ve behavi or
and appearance becomes speci al i zed so as to more routi nel y
and perhaps
more effecti vel y perform
thi s i nformi ng
functi on, the i nformi ng comi ng to be the control l i ng rol e of
the performance,
although often not avowedly so. One can
cal l these i ndi cati ve events di spl ays. As suggested, they
tentati vel y establ i sh the terms of the contact, the mode or
styl e or formul a for the deal i ngs that are to ensue between
the persons provi di ng
the di spl ay and the persons percei vi ng
i t.
Fi nal l y, our speci al concern: l f gender
be defi ned as the
cul tural l y establ i shed correl ates of sex (whether
i n con-
sequence of bi ol ogy or l earni ng), then gender di spl ay refers
to conventi onal i zed portrayal s
of these correl ates.
l l l
What can be sai d about t he st r uct ur e of r i t ual i i ke
I I I di sol avsl
(1) Di spl ays very often have a di al ogi c character of a
statement-repl y ki nd, wi th an expressi on on the part of one
i ndi vi dual cal l i ng forth an expressi on on the part
of another,
the l atter expressi on bei ng understood to be a response to
the first.
These statement-response pai rs can be cl assi fi ed i n an
'Philosophicol
Trcnsoctions of the Royot Society of London,
Seri es B, No. 772, Vol . 251
l Dec-
29, 1966), p. 2SO.
2 GENDERADVERTI SEMENTS
obvi ous way, There are symmetri cal and asymmetri cal pai rs:
mutual fi rst-nami ng i s a symmetri cal
pai r, fi rst-name/si r i s an
asymmetri cal one. Of asymmetri cal
pai rs,
some are dyadi cal -
l y reversi bl e, some not: the
greeti ngs between gust and host,
asymmetri cal i n themsel ves, may be reversed between these
two persons on another occasi on; fi rst-name/ti tl e, on the
other hand, ordi nari l y i s not reversi bl e. Of dyadi cal l y
i rreversi bl e
pai rs
of ri tual s, some pai r parts are excl usi ve,
some not: the ci vi l i an ti tl e a mal e may extend a femal e i s
never extended to hi m; on the other hand, the
"Si r"
a man
recei ves from a subordi nate i n exchange for fi rst-name, he
hi msel f i s l i kel y to extend to h/5 superordi nate i n exchange
for fi rst-name, an i l l ustrati on of the
great chai n of corporate
berng.
Observe that a symmetri cal di spl ay between two i ndi vi d-
ual s can i nvol ve asymmetri es accordi ng to whi ch of the two
i ni ti al l y i ntroduced the usage between them, and whi ch of
the two begi ns hi s part of the mutual di spl ay fi rst on any
occasion of use.
And symmetry (or asymmetry) i tsel f can be mi sl eadi ng.
One must consi der not onl y how two i ndi vi dual s ri tual l y
treat each other, but al so how they separatel y treat, and are
treated by, a common thi rd. Thus the
poi nt about sym-
metri cal
greeti ngs and farewel l s extended between a mal e and
a cl ose femal e fri end i s that he i s verv l i kel v to extend a
di fferent set, al bei t equal l y symmetri cal , to her husband, and
she, si mi l arl y, a
yet di fferent symmetri cal set to hi s wi fe.
Indeed, so deepl y does the mal e-femal e di fference i nform our
ceremoni al l i fe that one fi nds here a verv svstemati c
"opposi te
number" arrangement. For every courtesy,
symmetri cal or asymmetri cal , that a woman shows to al most
anyone, there wi l l be a
paral l el
one-seen to be the same,
yet
di fferent-whi ch her brother or husband shows to the same
person.
(2)
Gi ven that i ndi vi dual s have work to do i n soci al
si tuati ons, the
questi on
ari ses as to how ri tual can accom-
modate to what i s thus otherwi se occurri ng. Two basi c
patterns seem to appear, Fi rst, di spl ay seems to be con-
centrated at begi nni ngs and endi ngs of
purposeful under-
taki ngs, that i s, at
j unctures,
so that, i n effect, the acti vi ty
i tsel f i s not i nterfered wi th.
(Thus
the smal l courtesi es
someti mes
performed i n our soci ety by men to women when
the l atter must undergo what can be defi ned as a sl i ght
change i n physi cal state, as i n
getti ng up, si tti ng down,
enteri ng a room or l eavi ng i t, begi nni ng to smoke or ceasi ng
to, movi ng i ndoors or outdoors, sufferi ng i ncreased tempera-
ture or l ess, and so forth.) Here one mi ght speak of
"bracket
ri tual s." Second, some ri tual s seem desi gned to be conti nued
as a si ngl e note across a stri p of otherwi se i ntended acti vi ty
wi thout di spl aci ng that acti vi ty i tsel f. (Thus the basi c
mi l i tary courtesy of standi ng at attenti on throughout the
course of an encounter wi th a superi or-i n contrast to the
sal ute, thi s l atter cl earl y a bracket ri tual .) One can speak here
of a
"ri tual
transfi x" or
"overl ay."
Observe that by combi n-
i ng these two l ocati ons-brackets and overl ays-one has, for
any stri p of acti vi ty, a schedul e of di spl ays. Al though these
ri tual s wi l l tend to be
percei ved
as col ori ng the whol e of the
scene, i n fact, of course, they onl y occur sel ecti vel y i n i t.
(3) l t i s pl ai n
that i f an i ndi vi dual i s to gi ve and recei ve
what i s consi dered hi s ri tual due i n soci al si tuati ons, then he
must-whether by i ntent or i n effect styl e hi msel f so that
others present can i mmedi atel y know the soci al (and
someti mes the personal ) i denti ty of he who i s to be deal t
wi th; and i n turn he must be abl e to acqui re thi s i nformati on
about those he thus i nforms. Some di sol avs seem to be
speci al i zed for thi s i denti fi catory, earl y-warni ng functi on: i n
the case of gender, hai r styl e, cl othi ng, and tone of voi ce.
(Handwri ti ng si mi l arl y serves i n the si tuati on-l i ke contacts
conducted through the mai l s; name al so so serves, i n addi ti on
to servi ng i n the management of persons who are present
onl y i n reference.) l t can be argued that al though ri tual i zed
behavi or i n soci al sl tuati ons may markedl y change over ti me,
especi al l y i n connecti on wi th pol i ti ci zati on,
i denti fi catory
styl i ngs wi l l be l east subj ect to change.
(4) There i s no doubt that di spl ays can be, and are l i kel y
to be, mul ti vocal or pol ysemi c, i n the sense that more than
one
pi ece of soci al i nformati on may be encoded i n them.
(For exampl e, our terms of address typi cal l y record sex of
reci pi ent and al so properti es of the rel ati onshi p between
speaker and spoken to. So, too, i n occupati onal ti tl es
["agenti ves"].
In the pri nci pal European l anguages, typi cal l y
a mascul i ne form i s the unmarked case; the femi ni ne i s
managed wi th a suffi x whi ch, i n addi ti on, often carri es a
connotati on of i ncompetence, faceti ousness, and i nex-
peri ence.2) Al ong wi th thi s compl i cati on goes
another. Not
onl y does one fi nd that recogni ti on of di fferent statuses can
be encoded i n the same di spl ay, but al so that a hi erarchy of
consi derati ons may be found whi ch are addressed sequenti al -
l y. For exampl e, when awards are gi ven out, a mal e offi ci al
may fi rst gi ve
the medal , di pl oma,
pri ze,
or whatever, and
then shake the hand of the reci pi ent, thus shi fti ng from that
of an organi zati on' s representati ve bestowi ng an offi ci al si gn
of regard on a sol di er, col l eague, fel l ow ci ti zen, etc., to a man
showing regard for another, the shift in action associated
wi th a sharpl y al tered faci al expressi on. Thi s seems ni cel y
confi rmed when the reci Di ent i s a woman. For then the
second di spl ay can be a soci al ki ss. When Admi ral El mo R.
Zumwal t, then chi ef of U.S. naval operati ons, offi ci ated i n
the ceremony i n whi ch Al ene Duerk became the fi rst femal e
admi ral i n the U.S. Navy' s hi story (as
di rector of the Navy
Nurse Corps), he added to what was done by ki ssi ng her ful l
on the ti ps.3 So, too, a femal e harpi st after
j ust
compl eti ng
Gi nastera' s Harp Concerto, and havi ng
j ust
shaken the hand
of the conductor (as woul d a mal e sol oi st), i s free (as a mal e
i s not) to stri ke an addi ti onal note by l eani ng over and gi vi ng
the conductor a ki ss on the cheek. Si mi l arl y, the appl ause she
recei ves wi l l be her due as a musi ci an, but the fl owers that
are brought onstage a moment after speak to somethi ng that
woul d not be sooken to i n a mal e sol oi st. And the reverse
sequence i s possi bl e. I have seen a wel l -bred father rai se hi s
hat on first meeting his daughter after a two-year absence,
then bend and ki ss her.
(The
hat-rai se denoted the rel ati on-
shi p between the sexes-presumabl y
"any
l ady" woul d have
i nduced i t-the ki ss, the rel ati on between ki n.)
(5) Di spl ays vary qui te consi derabl y i n the degree of thei r
formal i zati on. Some, l i ke sal utes, are speci fi ed as to form and
occasi on of occurrence, and fai l ure to so behave can l ead to
speci fi c sancti ons; others are so much taken for granted that
i t awai ts a student of some ki nd to exDl i cate what evervone
2See
t he t horough t reat ment of
"f emi ni zers"
i n Conners (1971).
3lntenational
Hercld Tribune,
lune
3-4,1972,
knows (but not consci ousl y), and fai l ure to perform l eads to
nothi ng more than di ffuse unease and a search for speakabl e
reasons to be i l l -tempered wi th the offender.
(6)
The ki nd of di spl ays I wi l l be concerned wi th gender
di spl ays-have a rel ated featur: many appear to be opti onal .a
In the case, for exampl e, of mal e courtesi es, often a
parti cul ar di spl ay need not be i ni ti ated; i f i ni ti ated, i t need
not be accepted, but can be pol i tel y decl i ned. Fi nal l y, when
fai l ure to perform occurs, i rony, nudgi ng, and
j oki ng
compl ai nt, el c., can resul t-someti mes more as an
opportuni ty for a sal l y than as a means of soci al control .
Correl ated wi th thi s basi s of l ooseness i s another: for each
di spl ay there i s l i kel y to be a set of functi onal equi val ents
wherewi th sornethi ng of the di spl ay' s effect can be accom-
pl i shed by al ternati ve ni ceti es. At work, too, i s the very
process
of ri tual i zati on. A reci pi ent who decl i nes an
i nci pi ent
gesture of deference has wai ted unti l the i ntendi ng
gi ver has shown hi s desi re to perform i t; the more the l atter
can come to count on thi s forecl osure of hi s move, the more
hi s show of i ntent can i tsel f come to di spl ace the unfol ded
form.
(7) Ordi nari l y di spl ays do not i n fact provi de a repre-
sentati on i n the round of a speci fi c soci al rel ati onshi p but
rather of broad groupi ngs of them. For exampl e, a soci al ki ss
may be empl oyed by ki n-rel ated persons or cross-sex fri ends,
and the detai l s of the behavi or i tsel f may not i nform as to
whi ch rel atl onshi p i s bei ng cel ebrated. Si mi l arl y, precedence
through a door i s avai l abl e to mark organi zati onal rank, but
the same i ndul gence i s accorded
guests of an establ i shment,
the dependentl y
young,
the aged and i nfi rm, i ndeed, those of
unquesti onabl y strong soci al posi ti on and those (by i nversi on
courtesy) of unquesti onabl y weak posi ti on. A pi cture, then,
of the rel ati onshi p between any two persons can hardl y be
obtai ned through an exami nati on of the di spl ays they extend
each other on any one type of occasi on; one woul d have to
assembl e these ni ceti es across al l the mutual l y i denti fyi ng
types of contacts that the
pai r has.
There i s a l oose geari ng, then, between soci al structures
and what
goes
on i n parti cul ar occasi ons of ri tual expressi on.
Thi s can further be seen by exami ni ng the abstract ordi nal
format whi ch i s commonl y
generated wi thi n soci al si tuati ons.
Parti ci pants, for exampl e, are often di spl ayed i n rankabl e
order wi th respect to some vi si bl e property l ooks, hei ght,
el evati on, cl oseness to the center, el aborateness of costume,
temporal
precedence, and 50 forth and the compari sons are
somehow taken as a remi nder of di fferenti al soci al
posi ti on.
the di fferences i n soci al di stance between vari ous posi ti ons
and the speci fi c character of the posi ti ons bei ng l ost from
vi ew. Thus, the basi c forms of deference provi de a
pecul i arl y
l i mi ted versi on of the soci al uni verse, tel l i ng us more,
perhaps, about the speci al depi cti ve resources of soci al
si tuati ons than about the structures
presumabl y expressed
therebY.
(8) Peopl e, unl i ke other ani mal s, can be qui te consci ous
of the di spl ays they empl oy and are abl e to perform many of
them by desi gn i n contexts of thei r own choosi ng. Thus
i nstead of merel y
"di spl aci ng"
an act (i n l he sense descri bed
" As
Zi mmer man and Wes t ( 1977) r emi nd me, t he
j ndj v i dual
has
( and seeks) ver y l i t t l e opt i on r egar di ng i dent i f i cat i on of own sex cl ass.
Of t n, however , t her e wi l l be choi ce as t o whi ch compl ement of
di spl ays i s empl oyed t o ensur e gendr pl acement .
GENDER DISPLAY 3
by eti ol ogi sts), the human actor may wai t unti l he i s out of
the di rect l i ne of si ght of a
putati ve reci pi ent, and then
engage in a
portrayal of attitude to him that is only then safe
to perform, the
performance done for the benefit of the
performer hi msel f or thi rd
parti es. In turn, th reci pi ent of
such a display (or rather the target of it) may actively
collaborate, fostering the impression that the act has escaped
hi m even though i t hasn' t-and someti mes evi dental l y so.
(There
i s the
paradox,
then, that what i s done for reveal ment
can be parti al l y conceal ed.) More i mportant, once a di spl ay
becomes wel l establ i shed i n a parti cul ar sequence of acti ons,
a section of the sequence can be lifted out of its original
context,
parenthesi zed, and used i n a quotati ve way, a
postural resource for mi mi cry, mockery, i rony, teasi ng, and
other sporti ve i ntents, i ncl udi ng, very commonl y, the depi c-
ti on of make-bel i eve scenes i n adverti sements. Here styl i za-
tion itself becomes an obiect of attention, the actor
provi di ng a comment on thi 5 process i n the very act through
whi ch he unseri ousl y real i zes i t. What was a ri tual becomes
i tsel f ri tual i zed, a transformati on of what i s al ready a
transformati on, a
"hyper-ri tual i zati on."
Thus, the human use
of di spl ays i s compl i cated by the human capaci ty for
reframi ng behavi or.
In sum, then, how a rel ati onshi p i s portrayed through
ri tual can
provi de
an i mbal anced, even di storted, vi ew of the
rel ati onshi p i tsel f. When thi s fact i s seen i n the l i ght of
another, namel y, that di spl ays tend to be schedul ed accom-
modati vel y duri ng an acti vi ty so as not to i nterfere wi th i ts
executi on, i t becomes even more cl ear that the versi on ri tual
gi ves us of soci al real i ty i s onl y that not a pi cture of the way
thi ngs are but a passi ng exhortati ve
Sui de
to percepti on.
l \ /
Di spl ays are
part of what we thi nk of as
"erpressi ve
I Y behavi or," and as such tend to be conveyed and
recei ved as i f they were somehow natural , deri vi ng, l i ke
temperature and
pul se, from the way
peopl e are and needful ,
therefore, of no soci al or hi stori cal anal ysi s. But, of course,
ri tual i zed expressi ons are as needful of hi stori cal understand-
i ng as i s the Ford car. Gi ven the expressi ve practi ces we
empl oy, one may ask: Where do these di spl ays come from?
l f, i n
parti cul ar, there are behavi oral styl es-codi ngs that
di sti ngui sh the way men and women
parti ci pate i n soci al
si tuati ons, l hen l he
questi on shoul d be put concerni ng the
ori gi ns and sources of these styl es. The materi al s and
i ngredi ents can come di rectl y from the resources avai l abl e i n
parti cul ar soci al setti ngs, but that sti l l l eaves open the
questi on
of where the formul ati ng of these i ngredi ents, thei r
styling, comes frcm.
The most
promi nent account of the ori gi ns of our
Sender
di spl ays i s, of course, the bi ol ogi cal . Gender i s assumed to be
an extensi on of our ani mal natures, and
j ust
as ani mal s
express thei r sex, so does man: i nnate el ements are sai d to
account for the behavior in both cases. And indeed, the
means bv whi ch we i ni ti al l y establ i sh an i ndi vi dual i n one of
the two sex cl asses and confi rm thi s l ocati on i n i ts l ater
years
can be and are used as a means of pl acement
i n the manage-
ment of domesti c ani mal s. However, al though the si gns for
establ i shi ng
pl acement are expressi ve of matters bi ol ogi cal ,
why we shoul d thi nk of these matters as essenti al and central
i s a cul tural matter. More i mportant, where behavi oral
gender
4 GENDEBADVERTI SEMENTS
di spl ay does draw on ani mal l i fe, i t seems to do so not, or
not merel y, i n a di rect evol uti onary sense but as a source of
i magery-a cul tural resource, The ani mal ki ngdom-or at l east
certai n sel ect
parts of i t provi des us (l argue) wi th mi meti c
model s for gender di spl ay, not necessari l y
phyl ogeneti c ones.
Thus, i n Western soci ety, the dog has served us as an ul ti mate
model of fawni ng, of bri stl i ng, and (wi th bari ng of fangs) of
threateni ng; the horse a model , to be sure, of physi cal
strength, but of l i ttl e that i s i nterpersonal and i nteracti onal .5
Once one sees that ani mal l i fe, and l ore concerni ng that
l i fe,
provi des
a cul tural source of i magery for gender di spl ay,
the way i s open to exami ne other sources of di spl ay i magery,
but now model s for mi mi cry that are cl oser to home. Of
consi derabl e si gni fi cance, for exampl e, i s the compl ex as-
soci ated wi th European court l i fe and the doctri nes of the
gentl eman, especi al l y as these came to be i ncorporated (and
modi fi ed) i n mi l i tary eti quette. Al though the force of thi s
styl e i s perhaps decl i ni ng, i t was, I thi nk, of very real
i mportance unti l the second Worl d War, especi al l y i n Bri ti sh
i nfl uenced countri es and especi al l y, of course, i n deal i ngs
between mal es. For exampl e, the standi ng-at-attenti on pos-
ture as a means of expressi ng bei ng on cal l , the
"Si r"
response, and even the salute, became part
of the deference
styl e far beyond scenes from mi l i tary l i fe.
For our purposes, there i s a source ofdi spl ay much more
rel evant than ani mal l ore or mi l i tary tradi ti on, a source cl oser
to home, a source, i ndeed, ri ght i n the home; the parent-
chi l d r el at i onshi D.
The parent-chi l d
compl ex-taken i n
j ts
i deal mi ddl e-
cl ass versi on has some verv sDeci al features when
consi dered as a source of behavi oral i magery. Fi rst, most
persons end up havi ng been chl l dren cared for by parents
and/or el der si bs, and as parents (or el der si bs) i n the reverse
posi ti on. So both sexes experi ence both rol es a sex-free
resource.
(The person pl ayi ng the rol e opposi te the chi l d i s a
mother or ol der si ster as much or morei than a father or el der
brother. Hal f of those i n the chi l d rol d wi l l be mal e, and the
housewi fe rol e, the one we used to thi hk was i deal l y sui tabl e
for femal es, contai ns l ol s of
parental el ements.) Second,
gi ven
i nheri tance and resi dence
patterhs, parents are the onl y
authori ty i n our soci ety that can ri ghtl y be sai d to be both
temporary and exerted
"i n
the best i nterests" of those
subordi nated thereby. To speak here at l east i n our Western
soci ety-of the chi l d gi vi ng somethi ng of equi val ence i n
exchange for the reari ng that he gets i s l udi crous. There i s no
appreci abl e qui d pro quo. Bal ance l i es el sewhere. What i s
recei ved i n one
generati on
i s
gi ven i n the next. l t shoul d be
added that thi s i mportant unsel fseeki ng possi bi l i ty has been
sAn
i mport ant work here, of course, i s Darwi n' s Expressi on of
Emotions in Mon ond Animols. In this treatise a direct parallel is
drawn, in words and pictures,
between a few gestures of a few
ani mal s-gest ures expt essi ng, f or exampl e, domi nance, appeasement ,
fear-and the same expressions as portrayed by actors. This study,
recent l y and ri ght l y resurrect ed as a cl assi c i n et hol ogy (f or i ndeed, i t
i s i n t hi s book t h. t di spl ays are f i 6t st udi ed i n det ai l i n everyt hi ng but
name), i s general l y t aken as an el uci dat i on of our ani mal nat ures and
t he expressi ons we consequent l y share wi t h t hem. Now t he book i s
al so f unct i oni ng as a source i n i t s own ri ght of cul t ural bel i ef s
concerni ng t he charact er and ori gi ns of al i gnment expressi ons.
much ngl ected by students of soci ety. The establ i shed
i magery i s economi c and Hobbesi an, turni ng on the noti on of
soci al exchange, and the newer voi ces have been concerned
to show how parental authori ty can be mi s8ui ded, oppres-
si ve, and i neffecti ve.
Now I want to argue that parent-chi l d deal i ngs carry
speci al val ue as a means of ori enti ng the student to the
si gni fi cance of soci al si tuati ons as a uni t of soci al organi za-
ti on. For a
great deal of what a chi l d i s pri vi l eged to do and a
great deal of what he must suffer hi s parents doi ng on hi s
behal f pertai ns to how adul ts i n our soci ety come to manage
themsel ves i n soci al si tuati ons. Surpri si ngl y the key i ssue
becomes this: llhot mode of handling ourselves do we
employ in social situqtions os our meons of demonstrating
respectful orientotion to them
qnd
of mqintlining gulrded-
ness within them?
It mi ght be useful , then, to outl i ne schemati cal l y the i deal
mi ddl e-cl ass parent-chi l d rel ati onshi p, l i mi ti ng thi s to what
can occur when a chi l d and
parent
are
present
i n the same
soci al si tuati on.
It seems to be assumed that the chi l d comes to a soci al
si tuati on wi th al l i ts
"basi c"
needs sati sfi ed and/or
provi ded
for, and that thre i s no good reason why he hi msel f shoul d
be pl anni ng and thi nki ng very far i nto the future. l t i s as
though the chi l d were on hol i day.
There i s what mi ght be cal l ed ori entati on l i cense. The
chi l d i s tol erated i n hi s dri fti ng from the si tuati on i nto
aways, fugues, brown studi es, and the l i ke. There i s l i cense to
fl ood out, as i n di ssol vi ng i nto tears, capsi zi ng i nto l aughter,
bursti ng i nto gl ee, and the l i ke.
Rel ated to thi s l i cense i s another, namel y, the use of
patentl y i neffecti v means to effect an end, the means
expressi ng a desi re to escape, cope, etc., but not possi bl y
achi evi ng i ts end. One exampl e i s the chi l d' s hi di ng i n or
behi nd parents,
or (i n i ts more attenuated form) behi nd hi s
own hand, thereby cutti ng hi s eyes off from any threat but
not the part
of hi m that i s threatened. Another i s
"pum-
mel i ng," the ki nd of attack whi ch i s a hal f-seri ous
j oke,
a use
of consi derabl e force but agai nst an adversary that one
knows to be impervious to such an effort, so that what starts
wi th an i nstrumental effort ends up an admi ttedl y defeated
gesture. l n al l of thi s one has ni ce exampl es of ri tual i zati on i n
the cl assi cal ethol ogi cal sense. And an anal ysi s of what i t i s to
act chi l di shl y.
Next, protecti ve i ntercessi on by parents. Hi gh thi ngs,
i ntri cate thi ngs, heavy thi ngs, are obtai ned for the chi l d.
Dangerous thi ngs chemi cal , el ectri cal , mechani cal *are kept
from hi m. Breakabl e thi ngs are managed for hi m. Contacts
wi th the adul t worl d are medi ated, provi di ng a buffer
between the chi l d and surroundi ng persons. Adul ts who are
present general l y
modul ate tal k that must deal wi th harsh
thi ngs of thi s worl d: di scussi on of busi ness, money, and sex
i s censored; cursi ng i s i nhi bi ted;gossi p di l uted.
There are i ndul gence pri ori ti s: precedence through doors
and onto l i fe rafts i s
gi ven the chi l d; i f there are sweets to
di stri bute, he gets them fi rst.
There i s the noti on of the erasabi l i ty of offense. Havi ng
done somethi ng wrong, the chi l d merel y cri es and otherwi se
shows contrition, after which he can begin afresh as though
the sl ate had been washed cl ean. Hi s i mmedi ate emoti onal
response to bei ng cal l ed to task need onl y be ful l enough and
i t wi l l be taken as fi nal payment for the del i ct. He can al so
assume that l ove wi l l not be di sconti nued because of what he
has done, provi di ng
onl y that he shows how broken up he i s
because of doi ng i t.
There i s an obvi ous general i zati on behi nd al l these forms
of l i cense and pri vi l ege.
A l ovi ng protector
i s standi ng by i n
the wi ngs, al l owi ng not so much for dependency as a coppi ng
out of, or rel i ef from, the
"real i ti es,"
that i s, the necessi ti es
and constrai nts to whi ch adul ts i n soci al si tuati ons are
subj ect. In the deepest sense, then, mi ddl e-cl ass chi l dren are
not engaged i n adi usti ng to and adapti ng to soci al si tuati ons,
but i n practi ci ng,
tryi ng out, or pl ayi ng
at these efforts.
Real i ty for them i s deepl y forgi vi ng.
Note, i f a chi l d i s to be abl e to cal l upon these vari ous
rel i efs from real i ti es, then, of course, he must stay wi thi n
range of a di stress cry, or wi thi n vi ew scamper-back di s-
tance. And, of course, i n al l of thi s, parents
are provi ded
scenes i n whi ch they can act out thei r
parnthood.
You wi l l note that there i s an obvi ous ori ce that the chi l d
must pay
for bei ng saved from seri ousness.
He i s subj ected to control by physi cal
fi at and to
commands servi ng as a l i vel y remi nder thereof: forced
rescues from oncomi ng traffi c and from potenti al
fal l s;
forced care, as when hi s coat i s buttoned and mi ttens
pul l ed
on agai nst hi s protest. In general ,
the chi l d' s doi ngs are
unceremoni ousl y i nterrupted under warrant of ensuri ng that
they are executed safely.
He i s subj ected to vari ous forms of nonperson treatmenL
He i s tal ked past
and tal ked about as though absent. Gestures
of affecti on and attenti on are
performed
"di rectl y,"
wi thout
engagi ng hi m i n verbal i nteracti on through the same acts.
Teasi ng and taunti ng occur, deal i ngs whi ch start out i n-
vol vi ng the chi l d as a coparti ci pant i n tal k and end up
treati ng hi m merel y as a target of attenti on.
Hi s i nward thoughts, feel i ngs, and recol l ecti ons are not
treated as though he had i nformati onal ri ghts i n thei r
di scl osure. He can be queri ed
on contact about hi s desi res
and i ntent, hi s aches and
pai ns, hi s resentments and
grati tude, i n short, hi s subj ecti ve si tuati on, but he cannot go
vry far i n reci procati ng thi s sympatheti c curi osi ty wi thout
bei ng thought i ntrusi ve.
Fi nal l y, the chi l d' s ti me and terri tory may be seen as
expendabl e. He may be sent on errands or to fetch somethi ng
i n spi te of what he i s doi ngat the ti me; he may be caused to
give up territorial prerogatives because of the needs of adults.
Now note that an i mDortant feature of the chi l d' s
si tuati on i n l i fe i s that the way hi s parents i nteract wi th hi m
tends to be empl oyed to hi m by other adul ts al so, extendi ng
to nonparental ki nsmen, acquai nted nonki n, and even to
adul ts wi th whom he i s unacquai nted. (l t i s as though the
worl d were i n the mi l i tary uni form of one army, and al l
adul ts were i ts offi cers.) Thus a chi l d i n patent need provi des
an unacquai nted adul t a ri ght and even an obl i gati on to offer
hel p, provi di ng onl y that no other cl ose adul t seems to be i n
charge.
Gi ven thi s parent-chi l d compl ex as a common fund of
experi ence, i t seems we draw on i t i n a fundamental way i n
adul t soci al gatheri ngs. The i nvocati on through ri tual i sti c
expressi on of thi s hi erarchi cal compl ex seems to cast a spate
of face-to-face interaction in what is taken as no-contest
terms, warmed by a touch of rel atedness; i n short, beni gn
GENDER OI SPLAY 5
cont rol . The superordi nat e gi ves somet hi ng grat i s out of
support i ve i dent i f i cat i on, and t he subordi nat e responds wi t h
an out ri ght di spl ay of grat i t ude, and i f not t hat , t hen at l east
an i mpl i ed submi ssi on t o t he rel at i onshi p and t he def i ni t i on
of t he si t uat i on i t sust ai ns.
One afternoon an officer was given a call for illegal parking
in a
commercial area well off his sector. He was fairly new in the
di st ri ct , and i t t ook hi m awhi l e t o f i nd t he address. When he
affived he saw a car parked
in an obviously dangerous and illegal
manner at t he corner of a smal l st reet . He t ook out hi s t i cket book
and wrot e i t up. As he was pl aci ng
t he t i cket on t he car, a man
came out of the store on the corner. He approached and asked
whether the officer had come in ansver to his call. When the
pat rol man
sai d t hat he had, t he man repl i ed t hat t he car whi ch had
been bot heri ng hi m had al ready l ef t and he hoped t he pat rol man
was not going
to tag his car.
"Hey,
l'm sorry, pol
but it,s already
"l
expect ed Of f i cer Reno, he' s usual l y on 6515 car. I ' d
appreci at e i t , Of f i cer, i f next t i me you
woul d st op i n bef ore
you
wri t e t hem up. " The pat rol man was sl i ght l y conf used. . . .
He sai d pol i t e, y
and f rankl y,
"Mi st er,
how woul d i r l ook i f I
went into every store before I wrote up a ticket and asked if it was
al l ri ght ? What woul d peopl e
t hi nk I was doi ng?" The man
shrugged hi s shoul ders and smi l ed.
"You' re
ri ght , son, O. K. , f orget
i t , Li st en st op i n somet i me i f I can hel p you wi t h somet hi ng. " He
pat t ed
t he
pat rol man
on t he shoul der and ret urned t o hi s busi ness
I
Rubi nst ei n 197 3t 1 61
-1
62] .
Or t he subordi nat e i ni t i at es a si gn of hel pl essness and need,
and t he superordi nat e responds wi t h a vol unt eered servi ce. A
Time magazine story on female police might be cited as an
i l l ustrati on:
Those
Ipol i cewomen]
who arc there al ready have
provi ded
a
devastati ng new weapon to the pol i ce cri me-fi ghti ng arsenal , one
that has hel ped women to get thei r men for centuri es. l t worked
wel l for di mi nuti ve Patrol woman l na SheDerd after she col l ared a
muscul ar shopl i fter i n Mi ami l ast December and di scovered that
there were no other cops-or even a tel ephone-around, Unabl e to
summon hel p, she burst i nto tears.
"l f
I don' t bri ng you
i n, l ' l l
l ose my
i ob,"
she sobbed to her pri soner, who chi val rousl y
accompani ed her unti l a squad car coul d be found.d
It turns out, then, that i n our soci ety whenever a mal e has
deal i ngs wi th a femal e or a subordi nate mal e (especi al l y
a
younger one), some mi ti gati on of potenti al
di stance,
coerci on, and hosti l i ty i s qui te l i kel y to be i nduced by
appl i cati on of the parent-chi l d
compl ex. Whi ch i mpl i es that,
ri tual l y speaki ng, femal es are equi val ent to subordi nate mal es
and both are equi val ent to chi l dren. Observe that however
di stasteful and humi l i ati ng l essers may fi nd these gentl e
prerogatives
to be, they must give second thought to openly
expressi ng di spl easure, for whosoever extends beni gn concern
i s free to qui ckl y change hi s tack and show the other si de of
hi s oower.
v I fJli#.'"'J"",:":',jf J:"'"T ;ff l#;':iJil:,ffi';
for the student to take soci al si tuati ons very seri ousl y as one
natural vantage poi nt from whi ch to vi ew al l of soci al l i fe.
After al l , i t i s i n soci al si tuati ons that i ndi vi dual s can
communi cate i n the ful l est sense of the term, and i t i s onl y i n
them that i ndi vi dual s can physi cal l y
coerce one another,
assaul t one another, i nteract sexual l y, i mportune on another
6Ti me, May
1, 1972, p. 60; I l eav e unc ons i der ed t he r ot eof s uc h
tales in t/re's fashioning of stories.
l- 6 GENOERADVERTI SEMENI S
gestural l y, gi ve physi cal comfort, and so forth. l vl oreover, i t i s
i n soci al si tuati ons that most of the worl d' s work gts done.
Understandabl y, i n al l soci eti es modes of adaptati on are
found, i ncl udi ng systems of normati ve constrai nt, for
managi ng the ri sks and opportuni ti es speci fi c to soci al
si tuati ons.
Our i mmedi ate i nterest i n soci al si tuati ons was that i t i s
mai nl y i n such contexts that i ndi vi dual s can use thei r faces
and bodi es, as wel l as smal l materi al s at hand to engage i n
soci al
portrai ture, l t i s here i n these smal l , l ocal
pl aces that
they can arrange themsel ves m i croecol ogi cal l y to depi ct what
i s taken as thei r
pl ace i n the wi der soci al frame, al l owi ng
them, i n turn, to cel ebrate what has been depi cted. l t i s here,
i n soci al si tuati ons, that the i ndi vi dual can si gni fy what he
takes to be hi s soci al i denti ty and here i ndi cate hi s feel i ngs
and i ntent-al l of whi ch i nformati on the others i n the
gatheri ng wi l l need i n order to manage thei r own courses of
acti on-whi ch knowl edgeabi l i ty he i n turn must count on i n
carryi ng out hi s own dsi gns.
Now i t seems to me that any form of soci al i zati on whi ch
i n effect addresses i tsel f to soci al si tuati ons as such, that i s,
to the resources ordi nari l y avai l abl e i n any soci al si tuati on
whatsoever, wi l l have a very powerful effect upon soci al l i fe.
In any
parti cul ar socl al
gatheri ng at any parti cul ar moment,
the effect of thi s soci al i zati on may be sl i ght-no more
consequence, say, than to modi fy the styl e i n whi ch matters
at hand
proceed. (After al l , whether you l i ght your own
ci garette or have i t l i t for you, you can sti l l get l ung cancer.
And whether your
j ob
termi nati on i ntervi ew i s conducted
wi th del i cacy or abruptness,
you' ve sti l l l ost your
i ob.)
However, routi nel y the
questi on i s that of whose opi ni on i s
voi ced most frequentl y and most forci bl y, who makes the
mi nor ongoi ng deci si ons apparentl y requi red for the co-
ordi nati on of any
i oi nt
acti vi ty, and whose
passi ng concerns
are gi ven the most wei ghL And however tri vi al some of these
l i ttl e
gai ns and l osses may appear to be, by summi ng them al l
up across al l the soci al si tuati ons i n whi ch they occur, one
can see thai thei r total effect i s enormous. The expressi on of
subordi nati on and domi nati on through thi s swarm of si tua-
ti onal means i s more than a mere traci ng or symbol or
ri tual i sti c affi rmati on of the soci al hi erarchy. These expres-
si ons consi derabl y consti tute the hi erarchy; they are the
shadow ond the substance.T
And here gender styl es
qual i fy. For these behavi oral styl es
can be empl oyed i n any soci al si tuati on, and there recei ve
thei r smal l due. When mommi es and daddi es deci de on what
to teach thei r l i ttl e
Johnnys
and Marys, they make exactl y
the ri ght choi ce; they act i n effect wi th much more
soci ol ogi cal sophi sti cati on than they ought to have
assumi ng, of course, that the worl d as we have known i t i s
what thev want to rDroduce.
And behavi oral styl e i tsel f? Not very styl i sh. A means of
maki ng assumpti ons about l i fe pal pabl e i n soci ai si tuati ons.
At the same ti me, a choreography through whi ch parti ci pants
?A
recent suggest i on al ong t hi s l j ne can be f ound i n t he ef f ort t o
speci f y i n det ai l t he di f f erence bet wen col l ege men and women i n
regard t o sequenci ng i n cross-sexed conversat i on. See Zi mmerman and
West ( 1975) , Fi shman ( 1975) , and west and zi mmer man ( 1975) . The
l ast di scusses some si mi l ari t i es bet ween parent -chi l d and adul t
mal e-f emal e conversat i onal
pract i ces.
present
thei r al i gnments to si tuated acti vi ti es i n progress.
And the styl i ngs themsel ves consi st of those arrangments of
the human form and those el aborati ons of human acti on that
can be di spl ayed across many soci al setti ngs, i n each case
drawi ng on l ocal resources to tel l stori es of vry wi de appeal ,
Vl I fi::; l';;ii: il:J*T, *"r rishes ,ive in the sea
because they cannot breathe on l and, and that we l i ve on
l and because we cannot breathe i n the sea. Thi s
proxi mate,
everyday account can be spel l ed out i n ever i ncreasi ng
physi ol ogi cal detai l , and excepti onal cases and ci rcumstances
uncovered, but the
general answer wi l l ordi nari l y suffi ce,
namel y, an appeal to the nature of the beast, to the gi vens
and condi ti ons of hi s exi stence, and a gui l el ess use of the
term
"because."
Note, i n thi s happy bi t of fol k wi sdom-as
sound and sci enti fi c surel y as i t needs to be-the l and and sea
can be taken as there
pri or
to fi shes and men, and
not contrary to
genesi s-put there so that fi shes and men,
when they arri ved, woul d fi nd a sui tabl e pl ac awai ti ng them.
Thi s l esson about the men and the fi shes contai ns, I thi nk,
the essence of our most common and most basi c way of
thi nki ng about oursel ves: an accounti ng of what occurs by an
appeal to our
"natures,"
an appeal to the very condi tl ons of
our bei ng. Note, we can use thi s formul a both for categori es
of persons and for parti cul ar i ndi vi dual s.
Just
as we account
for the fact that a man wal ks upri ght by an appeal to hi s
nature, so we can account for why a parti cul ar amputee
doesn' t by an appeal to hi s parti cul ar condi ti ons of bei ng,
It i s, of course, hardl y possi bl e to i magi ne a soci ety whose
members do not routi nel y read from what i s avai l abl e to the
senses to somet[]i ng l arger, di stal , or hi dden, Survi val i s
unthi nkabl e wi thout i t. Correspondi ngl y, there i s a very deep
bel i ef i n our soci ety, as presumabl y there i s i n others, that an
obj ect produces si gns that are i nformi ng about i t. Obi ects are
thought to structure the envi ronment i mmedi atel y around
themsel ves; they cast a shadow, heat up the surround, strew
i ndi cati ons, l eave an i mpri nt; they i mpress a part pi cture of
themsel ves, a
portrai t
that i s uni ntended and not dependent
on bi ng attended,
yet, of course, i nformi ng nonethel ess to
whomsoever i s properl y pl aced, trai ned, and i ncl i ned.
Presumabl y thi s i ndi cati ng i s done i n a mal l eabl e surround of
some ki nd-a fi el d for i ndi cati ons the actual perturbati ons
i n whi ch i s the si gn. Presumabl y one deal s here wi th
"natural
i ndexi cal si gns," someti mes havi ng
"i coni c"
features. l n any
case, thi s sort of i ndi cati ng i s to be seen nei ther as physi cal
i nstrumental acti on i n the ful l esl sense, nor a5 communi ca-
ti on as such, but somethi ng el se, a ki nd of by-producti on, an
overfl owi ng, a tel l -tal e soi l i ng of the envi ronment wherever
the obj ect has been. Al though these si gns are l i kel y to be
di sti nct from, or onl y a part of, the obj ect about whi ch they
provi de i nformati on, i t i s thei r confi gurati on whi ch counts,
and the ul ti mate source of thi s, i t i s fel t, i s the obi ect i tsel f i n
some i ndependence of the
parti cul ar fi el d i n whi ch the
expressi on happens to occur. Thus we take si gn producti on
to be si tuati onal l y phrased but not si tuati onal l y determi ned.
The natural i ndexi cal si gns gi ven off by obj ects we cal l
ani mal
(i ncl udi ng,
and
pri nci pal l y, man) are often cal l ed
"expressi ons,"
but i n the sense of that trm hre i mpl i ed, our
i magery sti l l al l ows that a materi al process i s i nvol ved, not
conventi onal symbol i c communi cati on. We tend to bel i eve
that these speci al obj ects not onl y gi ve off natural si gns, but
do so more than do other obj ects. l ndeed, the emoti ons, i n
associ ati on wi th vari ous bodi l y organs through whi ch
emoti ons most markedl y appear, are consi dered veri tabl e
engi nes of expressi on. As a corol l ary, we assume that among
humans a very wi de range of attri butes are expressi bl e:
i ntent, feel i ng, rel ati onshi p, i nformati on state, heal th, soci al
cl ass, etc. Lore and advi ce concerni ng these si gns, i ncl udi ng
how to fake them and how to see behind fakeries, constitute
a ki nd of fol k sci ence. Al l of these bel i efs regardi ng man,
taken together, can be referred to as the doctrine of natural
expressi on.
It i s
general l y bel i eved that al though si gns can be read for
what i s merel y momentari l y or i nci dental l y true of the obi ect
produci ng them-as, say, when an el evated temperature
i ndi cates a fever-we routi nel y seek another ki nd of i nforma-
ti on al so, namel y, i nformati on about those of an obj ect' s
properties that are felt ta be
perduring,
overoll, and
structurolly bosic, in short, information about its character or
"essenti al
nature,"
(The same sort of i nformati on i s sought
about cl asses of obi ecs.) We do so for many reasons, and i n
so doi ng
presume that obi ecs (and cl asses of obj ects) have
natures i ndependent of the
parti cul ar
i nterest that mi ght
arouse our concern. Si gns vi ewed i n thi s l i ght, I wi l l cal l
"essenti al ,"
and the bel i ef that they exi st and can be read
and that i ndi vi dual s gi ve thm off i s
part
of the doctri ne of
natural expressi on. Note agai n, that al though some of these
attributes, such as passing mood,
particular
intent, etc., are
not themselves taken as characteristic, the tendency to
possess such states and concerns is seen as an essential
attri bute, and conveyi ng evi dence of i nternal states i n a
particular
manner can be seen as characteristic, In fact, there
seems to be no i nci dental conti ngent expressi on that can' t be
taken as evidence of an essential attribute: we need only see
that to respond i n a
parti cul ar way to parti cul ar ci rcum-
stances is what might be expected in
general
of
persons as
such or a certain kind of
person or a
particular person. Note,
any
property seen as uni que to a
parti cul ar person i s l i kel y
also to serve as a means of characterizing him, A corollary is
that the absence in him of a particular property seen as
common to the cl ass of whi ch he i s a member tends to serve
si mi l arl y.
Here l et me restate the noti on that one of the most deepl y
seated trai ts of man, i t i s fel t, i s gender; femi ni ni ty and
mascul i ni ty are i n a sense the prototypes of essenti al
expressi on-somethi ng that can be conveyed fl eeti ngl y i n any
soci al si tuati on and
yet
somethi ng that stri kes at the most
basi c characteri zati on of the i ndi vi dual .
But. of course, when one tries to use the notion that
human obj ects
gi ve
off natural i ndexi cal si gns and that some
of these expressions can inform us about the essential nature
of l hei r
producer, matters
get
compl i cated. The human
obi ects themsel ves empl oy the term
"expressi on,"
and
conduct themsel ves to fi t thei r own concepti ons of ex-
pressi vi ty; i coni ci ty especi al l y abounds, doi ng so because i t
has been made to. l nstead of our merel y obtai ni ng ex-
pressi ons
of the obj ect, the obj ect obl i gi ngl y gi ves them to
us, conveyi ng them through ri tual i zati ons and communi ca-
ti ng them through symbol s. (But then i t can be sai d that thi s
gi vi ng i tsel f has uni ntended expressi ve features: for i t does
GENDER DI SPLAY 7
not seem possi bl e for a message to be transmi tted wi thout
the transmi tter and the transmi ssi on process bl i ndl y l eavi ng
traces of themselves on whatever
gets
transmitted,)
There i s, strai ght off, the obvi ous fact that an i ndi vi dual
can fake an expressi on for what can be gai ned thereby; an
i ndi vi dual i s unl i kel y to cut off hi s l eg so as to have a nature
unsui tabl e for mi l i tary servi ce, but he mi ght i ndeed sacri fi ce
a toe or affect a l i mp. In whi ch case
"because
of" becomes
"i n
order to," But that i s real l y a mi nor matter; there are
more seri ous di ffi cul ti es. I menti on three.
Fi rst, i t i s not so much the character or overal l structure
of an enti ty that gets expressed (i f such there be), but rather
parti cul ar,
si tual i onal l y-bound features rel evant to the
vi ewer. (Someti mes, for exampl e, no more than that the
obj ect i s such a one and not another.) The noti on of essence,
character, structure, i s, one mi ght argue, soci al , si nce there
are l i kel y to be an i nfi ni te number of
properti es
of the obi ect
that coul d be sel ected out as the central ones. and.
furthermore, often an i nfi ni te number of ways of boundi ng
the obi ect from other ones. Thus, as suggested, an attri bute
whi ch al l ows us to di sti ngui sh i ts
possessor from those he i s
seen amonSst i s l i kel y to enter strongl y i n our characteri za-
t i on of hi m.
Second. exoressi on i n the mai n i s not i nsti ncti ve but
soci al l y l earned and soci al l y
patterned;i t
i s a soci al l y defi ned
category whi ch empl oys a parti cul ar expressi on, and a
soci al l y establ i shed schedul e whi ch determi nes when these
expressi ons wi l l occur. And thi s i s so even though i ndi vi dual s
come to empl oy expressi ons i n what i s sensed to be a
spontaneous and unsel fconsci ous way, that i s, uncal cul ated,
unfaked, natural . Furthermore, i ndi vi dual s do not merel v
l earn how and when to express themsel ves, for i n l earni ng
thi s they are l earni ng to be the ki nd of obi ect to whi ch the
doctri ne of natural expressi on appl i es, i f fal l i bl y; they are
learning to be objects that have a character, that express this
character, and for whom this characterological expressing is
onl y natural . We are soci al i zed to confi rm our own hypo-
theses about our natures.
Thi rd, soci al si tuati ons turn out to be more than a
convenient field of what we take to be natural expression;
these confi gurati ons are i ntri nsi cal l y, not merel y i nci dental l y,
a consequence of what can be generated i n soci al si tuati ons.
So our concern as students ought not to be i n uncoveri ng
real , natural expressi ons, whatever they mi ght be. One shoul d
not appeal to the doctri ne of natural expressi on i n an
attempt to account for nal ural expressi on, for that (as i s
sai d) woul d concl ude the anal ysi s before i t had begun. These
acts and appearances are l i kel y to be anythi ng but natural
i ndexi cal si gns, except i nsofar as they
provi de i ndi cati ons of
the actor' s i nterest i n conducti ng hi msel f effecti vel y under
condi ti ons of bei ng treated i n accordance wi th the doctri ne
of natural expression. And insofar as natural expressions of
gender are-i n the sense here empl oyed natural and expres-
si ve, what they natural l y express i s the capaci ty and
i ncl i nati on of i ndi vi dual s to portray a versi on of themsel ves
and thei r rel ati onshi ps at strategi c moments a worki ng
agreement to present each other wi th, and faci l i tate the
other' s
presentati on of,
gestural pi ctures of the cl ai med
real i tv of thei r rel ati onshi o and the cl ai med character of thei r
human nature. The competency to produce these portrai ts,
and i nterpret those produced by others, mi ght be sai d to be
8 GENDERADVEBTI SEMENTS
essenti al to our nature, but thi s competency may provi de a
very
poor picture of the overall relationship between the
sxes. And i ndeed, I thi nk i t does. What the rel ati onshi p
between the sexes obj ecti vel y i s, taken as a whol e, i s qui te
another matter, not
yet
wel l anal yzed.
What the human nature of mal es and femal es real l y
consists of, then, is a capacity to learn to provide and to read
depi cti ons of mascul i ni ty and femi ni ni ty and a wi l l i ngness to
adhere to a schedul e for presenti ng these pi ctures, and thi s
capacity they have by virtue of being persons, not females or
mal es. One mi ght
i ust
as wel l say there i s no gender i denti ty.
There is only a schedule for the portrayal of gender. There is
no relationship between the sexes that can so far be
characterized in any satisfactory fashion. There is only
evidence of the practice between the sexes of choreographing
behavi oral l y a
portrai t
of rel ati onshi p. And what these
portrai ts most di rectl y tel l us about i s not gender, or the
overal l rel ati onshi p between the sexes, but about the speci al
character and functi oni ng of portrai ture.
One can say that femal e behavi oral styl e
"expresses"
femi ni ni ty i n the sense of provi di ng an i nci dental , gratui tous
portrai t. But Durkhei m recommends that such expressi on i s a
pol i ti cal ceremony, i n thi s case affi rmi ng the pl ace that
persons
of the female sex-class have in the social structure, in
other words, hol di ng them to i t. And ethol ogi sts recommend
that femi ni ne expressi on i s an i ndi cati on of the al i gnment a
person
of the female sex class
proposes to take (or accept) in
the acti vi ty i mmedi atel y to fol l ow an al i gnment whi ch does
not merel y express subordi nati on but i n part consti tutes i t.
The fi rst poi nts
out the stabi l i zi ng i nfl uence of worshi ppi ng
one's
place
in the social scheme of things, the second, the
substanti al consequences of mi nor al l ocati ons. Both these
modes of functi oni ng are conceal ed from us by the doctri ne
of natural expression: for that doctrine teaches us that
expressi ons occur si mpl y because i t i s onl y natural for them
to do so-no other reason being required. l\4oreover, we are
l ed to accept as a
portrai t
of the whol e somethi ng that
actual l y occurs at schedul ed moments onl y, somethi ng that
provi des (i n the case under questi on) a refl ecti on not ofthe
di fferenti al nature of oersons i n the two sex cl asses but of
thei r common readi ness to subscri be to the conventi ons of
di spl ay.
Gender di spl ays, l i ke other ri tual s, can l coni cal l y refl ect
fundamental features of the soci al structure: but i ust as
easi l y, these expressi ons can counterbal ance substanti ve
arrangements and compensate for them. l f anythi ng, then,
di spl ays are a symptom, not a
portrai t. For, i n fact, whatever
the fundamental ci rcumstances of those who haDDen to be i n
the same soci al si tuati on, thei r behavi oral styl es can affi rm a
conarary
prcrure.
Of course, i t i s apparent that the ni ceti es of gender
eti quette provi de a sol uti on for vari ous organi zati onal prob"
l ems found i n soci al si tuati ons-such as who i s to make mi nor
deci si ons whi ch seem better l ost than unresol ved, who i s to
give way, who to step forward, who is to follow, who to lead,
so that turns, stops, and movi ng about can be coordi nated,
and begi nni ngs and endi ngs synchroni zed. (l n the same way,
at the substanti ve l evel , the tradi ti onal di vi si on of l abor
between the sexes
provi des
a workabl e sol uti on to the
organization of certain personal services, the ones we call
domesti c; si mi l arl y, sex-bi ased l i ngui sti c
practi ces,
such as the
use of
"he"
as the unmarked rel ati ve pronoun for
"i ndi vi d-
ual "-ampl y i l l ustrated i n thi s
paper-provi de
a basi s for
unthi nki ngl y concerted usage upon whi ch the effi ci ency of
l anguage depends.) But
j ust
why gender i nstead of some
other attri bute i s i nvoked to deal wi th these organi zati onal
probl ems,
and how wel l adapted gender i s fordoi ng so, i s an
open questi on.
In sum, gender, i n cl ose connecti on wi th age-grade, l ays
down more, perhaps,
than cl ass and other soci al di vi si ons an
understandi ng of what our ul ti mate nature ought to be and
how and where thi s nature ought to be exhi bi ted. And we
acquire a vast corpus of accounts to be used as a source of
good, self-sufficient reasons for many of our acts
(particu-
l arl y as these determi ne the al l ocati on of mi nor i ndul gences
and depri vati ons),
j ust
as others acqui re a soverei gn means of
accounti ng for our own behavi or. Observe, there i s nothi ng
superfi ci al about thi s accounti ng. Gi ven our stereotypes of
femi ni ni ty, a
parti cul ar
woman wi l l fi nd that the way has
been cleared to fall back on the situation of her entire sex to
account to hersel f for why she shoul d refrai n from vyi ng
wi th men i n matters mechani cal , fi nanci al , pol i ti cal , and so
forth.
Just
as a parti cul ar
man wi l l fi nd that hi s fai l ure to
exert priority
over women in these matters reflects on him
personal l y, gi vi ng hi m warrant for i nsi sti ng on success i n
these connecti ons. (Correspondi ngl y,
he can decl i ne domesti c
tasks on the general ground of hi s sex, whi l e i denti fyi ng any
of hi s wi fe' s di si ncl i nati on here as an expressi on of her
particular character.) Because these stereotypes begin to be
appl i ed by and to the i ndi vi dual from the earl i est
years,
the
accounti ng i t affords i s rather wel l i mpl anted.
I have here taken a functi onal i st vi ew of gender di spl ay
and have argued that what, i f anythi ng, characteri zes persons
as sex-cl ass members i s thei r competence and wi l l i ngness to
sustai n an appropri ate schedul e of di spl ays; onl y the content
of the di spl ays di sti ngui shes the cl asses. Al though thi s vi ew
can be seen as sl i ghti ng the bi ol ogi cal real i ty of sex, i t shoul d
not be taken as bel i ttl i ng the rol e of these di spl ays i n soci al
l i fe, For the faci l i tati on of these enactments runs so deepl v
i nto the organi zati on of soci ety as to deny any sl i ghti ng vi ew
of them. Cender expressi ons are by way of bei ng a mere
show; but a consi derabl e amount of the substance of soci ety
i s enrol l ed i n th stagi ng of i t.
Nor should too easy a
political
lesson be drawn by those
sympatheti c to soci al change. The anal ysi s of sexi sm can start
wi th obvi ousl y unj ust di scri mi nati ons agai nst persons
of the
femal e sex-cl ass, but anal ysi s as such cannot stop there.
Gender stereotypes run i n every di recti on, and al most as
much i nform what supporters of women' s ri ghts approve as
what they di sapprove. A pri nci pal
means men i n our soci ety
have for i ni ti ati ng or termi nati ng an everyday encounter on a
sympathel i c note i s to empl oy endeari ng terms of address
and verbal expressi ons of concern that are
(upon
exami na-
ti on) parental
i n character and profoundl y
asymmetri cal .
Si mi l arl y, an i mportant ri tual avai l abl e for di spl ayi ng af-
fecti onate concern, emphasi zi ng
j unctures
i n di scourse, and
marki ng di fferenti al conversati onal excl usi veness i s the l ayi ng
on of the hand, ordi nari l y an unreci procatabl e gesture
of
mal e to femal e or subordi nate mal e.
In al l of thi s, i nti macy certai nl y bri ngs no correcti ve. In
our soci ety i n al l cl asses the tenderest expressi on of affecti on
i nvol ves di spl ays that are pol i ti cal l y questi onabl e,
the pl ace
taken up in them by the female being differentiated from
and reciprocal to the place taken up by tie male. Cross-sex
affectional gestures choreograph protector
and
protected,
embracer and embraced, comforter and comforted, supporter
and supported, extender of affection and recipient thereof;
and i t i s defi ned as onl y natural that the mal e encompass and
the femal e be encompassed. And thi s can onl y remi nd us that
mal e domi nati on i s a very speci al ki nd, a domi nati on that can
be carried right into the gentlest, most loving moment
wi thout apparentl y causi ng strai n-i ndeed, these moments
can hardly be conceived of apart from these asymmetries.
Whereas other disadvantaged groups
can turn from the world
to a domesti c scene where sel f-determi nati on and rel i ef from
i nequal i ty are possi bl e,
the di sadvantage that persons
who are
femal e suffer precl udes
thi s; the pl aces
i denti fi ed i n our
society as ones that can be arranged to suit oneself are
nonethel ess for women thoroughl y organi zed al ong di sad-
vantageous lines.
And i ndeed, rel i ance on the chi l d-parent compl ex as a
source of di spl ay i magery i s a means of extendi ng i nti mate
comfortable practices
outward from their source to the
worl d, and i n the wake of thi s domesti cati on, thi s onl y
gentl i ng
of the worl d we seem to have, femal e subordi nati on
follows. Any scene, it appears, can be defined as an occasion
for the depiction of gender difference, and in any scene a
resource can be found for effecting this display.
As for the doctrine of expression, it raises the issue of
professi onal ,
as wel l as fol k, anal ysi s. To accept vari ous
"expressi ons"
of femi ni ni ty (or mascul i ni ty) as i ndi cati ng
somethi ng bi ol ogi cal or soci al -structural that l i es behi nd or
underneath these si gns, somethi ng to be gl i mpsed
through
GENDER DI SPLAY 9
them, is
perhaps
to accept a lay theory of signs. That a
mul ti tude of
"genderi sms"
poi nt
convergentl y i n the same
di recti on mi ght onl y tel l us how these si gns functi on soci al l y,
namel y, to support bel i ef that there i s an underl yi ng real i ty
to gender. Nothi ng di ctates that shoul d we di g and poke
behi nd these i mages we can expect to fi nd anythi ng
there-except, of course, the i nducement to entertai n thi s
exDectauon.
REFERENCES CI TED
Conners, Kathleen
197i St udi es i n Femi ni ne Agent i ves i n Sel ect ed European
Languages. Romance Phi l ol ogy 24(4): 573-598.
Fi shman, Pamel a
i 975 I nt eract i on: The Work Women Do.
paper
Dresent ed at t he
Ameri can Soci ol ogi cal Associ at i on Meet i ngs, San Franci sco,
August 25-30.
HLrxl ey,
l ul i an
1966 A Di scussi on on Ri t ual i zat i on of Behavi our i n Ani mal s and
Man. Philosophical Transactions of the Roval Societv of
London, Seri es B, No. 772, Vol . 251t 24' 7-526.
Rubi nst ei n,
l onat han
1973 Ci t y Pol i ce. New York: Farrar, St raus and Gi roux.
West , Candace, and Don H. Zi mmerman
. | 975
Women' s Pl ace i n Conversat i on: Ref l ect i ons on Adul t -Chi l d
Interaction. Paper presented
at the American Sociological
Association Meetings, San Francisco, August 25-30.
Zi mmerman, Don H. , and Candace West
1975 Sex Rol e, I nt errupt i ons ahd Si l ences i n Conversat i on. / ,
Language and Sexi Di f f erences and Domi nance. Barri e Thorne
and Nancy Henl ey, eds. Pp. 105-129. Rowl ey, MA: Newbury
House.
I 977 Doi ng cender. Paper present ed
at t he Ameri can Soci ol osi cal
Associ at i on Meet i ngs, Chi cago.
Privote
piclurei are those desiSned for display within the
i nti mate soci al ci rcl e of the
persons featured i n- them-
pi ctures taken
(wi th or wi thout recourse
to a
protssl onal
photographer) i n order to commemorate
occasi ons' rel atl on-
,t' i ot.
"u.i -ti "u"t.ntt,
and Ii fe-turni ng
poi nts, whether of a
fami l i al or organi zati onal
ki nd.
The speci al
properti es of
pri vate pi ctures as
part.or our
domesti c ceremoni al
l i fe are worth consi deri ng,
and thi s can
be done best,
perhaps, by starting with ceremony
anc
worki ng to
pi ctures.
Ri t;l and ceremoni al
i nvol ve
portrai ture, i nvol ve maki ng
".1;;;i ; ; the senses what mi ght otherwi se
remai n buri ed
I"i ""i , i n the strucl ure of soci al l i fe' The tradi ti onal
arsument
i s that these enactments
functi on to reaffi rm
basi c
i"?i"i liran*"t"no
and ultimate beliefs regarding
man and
natu re.
ni i uat una ceremoni al
are accompl i shed
through
doi ngs-
through maki ng
appearance5,
taki ng up mi croecol o8i cal
""tl i i 3"t i "r"i "i
to others,
performi nB gestures-and i n.the
' ""i rr"
"f doi ngs are soon, i f not
qui ckl y, compl eted or
Dl aved out.
(Durati on can vary anywhere
from the mi cro-
I""l ,"a i i ""' ," admi ni ster
a
rmi l e to the si x weeks requi red
for the most obdurate of festi vi ti es' )
A5 such, these acts can
be di sti ngui shed
from another cl as\ of devi ces whl ch al so
hel p
(al b-ei t i n a very smal l way) to mai ntai n us i n f-el t
tupooi t
of our soci al structure:
souveni rs,
mementoes'
gi fts'
col i memorati v"s,
and other rel i cs' These obi ects,
oftti ms
air"ltfu u
part of what it is they celebrate,
just
as often
ooorl u'
pori t"y l hese cel ebral ed
soci al arrangements'
Bul
si nce obi ects are i nvol ved, not acti ons,
thi ngs' not enact-
mnts, they can l ast a l ong ti me-i n the rel evant sense
forever. -
Conri d"| . now the
pi ctori al arts' A feature of drawi ngs'
Dai nti nr,s, scul pture,
and especi al l y
phol ographs, i s that these
l rti i i l G' .i r"*
for a combi nati on
of ri tual and rel i c The
rendi ti on of structural l y
i mportant
soci al arrangements
ano
ul ti mate bel i efs whi ch ceremony
fl eetl ngl y
provi des the
i "nr.s,
tri tt
photoBraphy can further condense'
omi tti ng
i ". oJt"i
-
t"qu. n.. i nd everyl hi ng
el se excepl stati c vi sual
arravs. And what i s caught i s fi xed i nto
permanent accessl -
bi l i tv, becomi ng somethi ng
that can be attended anywhere'
for any l ength of ti me, and at moments of one' s own
choostng.
Thus"i t i s i n modern ti mes-and as the modern contri bu-
ti on to ceremoni al
l i fe-that whenever there i s a weddi ng' an
i nvesti tur,
a bi rthday
party, a.
graduati on exercl se' .
an
extended voyage begun or termi nated,
a
pi cni c' a shop
;;;;i ;*, " uu""i i on, o, even a vi si t, snapshots
mdy wel l be
taken, devel oped, and the
pri nts kept easy to hano
-
i "r"i t' i "t
l i ke sei f-worshi p
can thus be accompl i shed
The
i Ji "i Juui i , abl e to catch hi msel f at a moment
when-for
fl i rl f' ," i t i n i deal surroundi ngs,
i n associ ati on
wi th soci al l y
ol i i ruuL ot' .t,
garbed i n a i etf-enhanci ng
wav
(whi ch' for
whi t-col l ar
men may mean rne rough and manl y
wear of
ni rl "i t"",
hunters, wrangl ers,
or machi ni sts),
poi sed for a
Dromi si nq l ake' off,
termi nati nB
an i mporl ant
engagement'
and wi th a soci al l y euphori c l ook on hi s fdce A momenl
when what i s vi si bl e about hi m attests to soci al matters about
whi ch he i s
proud' A moment, i n short, when he i s i n soci al
bl oom, ready, therefore,
to accept
hi s appearance
as a
i ""i i i .",i r" oi tri msel t
3
i hi t tom"nt he can dry-freeze
and
tl ' u' ne on ttr" wuttt of hi s house, hi s offi ce, hi s shop, hi s l ocker'
andi i s wal l et, a reference
poi nt to whi ch he can return ti me
and asai n
(and
l ong after he can no l onger l i ve the scene)as
i "ri i r?"i "f tt evi d;nce, as depi cl .i on,
of what hi s best soci al
sel f has been and, by i mpl i cati on,
must sti l l be' A modest
pact wi th the devi l : the i ndi vi dual
can shi ft the ravages ot
i i me from hi s tri umphant
appearances
to hi s current
ones'
;h;;;; ""ti bei ng to have sl i ghtl v spoi l ed
i nvol vemenl
.i n
these former scenes, these hi gh
poi nts, consequent
on tne
oottutui
t"fr.ti ng
di stracti vel y
i nduced
by ei ther the
' i rr""""t
prorp""i of bei ng snapped
or the mechani cs
of
doi ng the snappi ng
or
(wi 1h Pol droi d) a vi ewrng or Lne
vi ewi ng,
l l Pubti c oi cl ures
are l hose desi gned to catch a wi der
| | uuai "n.. an anonymous
aggregate
of i ndi vi dual s.uncon-
nected to one anol her
by soci al rel ati onshi p
and socl al
i ",.i ""ri "",
al though
fal l i ng wi thi n the same market or the
r"r"
p"i l ,i *f
i uri i di cti on,
the same outreaches
of appeal '
i ere a photographi c
pri nt i s u5ual l y nol
-the.fi ndl
form' onl y
a
prel i mi nary step i n some type ol
phol o-mecnanl cal
reproducti on
i n newspapers,
magazi nes,
books' l eafl ets' or
posters.
"
Publ i c
pi ctures themsel ves
are di verse i n functi on
and
character.
For exampl e, there are commerci al
pi ctures
PTGTUNE
FNAilESI
Pi ctures-i n the sense of sti l l
photographs-can
be di vi ded
I
Pi ct ur es- i n t he 5ense ol st l l l
pnor (
I i nto two cl asses,
pri vate and
publ i c'
l l
have benef i t ed f rom harsh cri t i ci sm and a
great number of
ur"fuf *gg".tion.
from Sol Worth; also, in a general way' from
Goodman
(1968).
2Duri ng
t he recent
European wars, mi l i t ary
personnel of al l ranks
, ""r"d Jr"l *n t o
phot ographi c
port rai t ure i n dress uni f orm-a
' . #. . ""ri i u
. r' ' t i , i ral oi i enLat i on
t hat cut across nat i ons and
i rf i r"""t ,
wf ' vl To
provi de a memori al i mage t hal mi Sht wel l t urn out
i . u" i rt " r"si oneu
(gut t hen why not i n ci wi es?) To bol st er asoci al
, i ^i i * """ru-. i "t l o
and t heref ore shaky? To mark t he occasi on of
"i "u"i i on a one' s current mi l i t ary ranl , whdl ever t hal ' hap-pened t o
be? Or i 5 t he wear i ng of a uni f or m t hat neat l y ' dent l l l es ones
sl i uat i on i n l i f e t o al l vi ewers
(at a t i me when one suddenl y f i nds
o""i "i i i " " t i l r"i i . " t hat can b; neat l v i dent i f i ed) al readv a ki nd of
". ri r"i , "i ",
-wnot "
r"p. oau"t i on
t hen moment ari l y
reest abl i shes
protraiture in its normal role?
3A
ai mi l ", argum"nt
"oncerni ng t he cont ent of home movl es may
be f or. rnd i n Chal f en
(1975195' 97)'
tL
desi gned to sel l a product for an adverti ser.
There are news photos, i nvol vi ng matters hel d to be of
current sci enti fi c, soci al , and
pol i ti cal concern.
There are i nstructi onal pi ctures, as found, say, i n medi cal
text books, the fi gures i n them i ntended to be anonymous,
servi ng onl y (apparentl y) as i l l ustrati ons of what can be
vi si ted on man. (l n fact, many i l l ustrati ons, i ncl udi ng the l i ne
drawi ngs i n di cti onari es, are al so typi fi cati ons, a vari abl e
mi xture unadmi ttedl y responsi ve to preconcepti ons concern-
i ng the average, the essenti al , and the i deal .)
There are human i nterest pi ctures, al so anonymous,
oftti mes candi d, i n whi ch otherwi se unnoteworthy i ndi vi d-
ual s conf i r m our docl r i ne of er pr essi on by el oquent l y ( and
presumabl y uni ntendedl y) choreographi ng some response,
such as fear, puzzl ement, surpri se, l ove, shyness, or some
i nner state, such as
j oy,
hopel essness, i nnocence, or how we
l ook and what we do when we thi nk no one i s
present
to
observe us. To whi ch must be added scenes that a wel l -pl aced
camera can compose i nto some sort of
"aestheti c"
desi gn or
i nto a conventi onal l v evocati ve Dortrai t of nature. Al l of
these
pi ctured scenes can hopeful l y be vi ewed as ends i n
themsel ves, ti mel ess, and arty. (l n thi s domai n, observe, the
l i ne between ori vate dnd
publ i c
can waver.a Counl l css
enthusi asts are encouraged by a mass hobby apparatus to
i nvest i n seri ous photographi c equi pment, acqui re professi on-
al techni ques, and take non-fami l y pi ctures styl ed for
hangi ng i n a
gal l ery. Al though onl y fri ends and rel ati ves of
the househol d are l i kel y to vi ew the resul ts, i n pri nci pl e they
do so
"cri ti cal l y"
i n thei r capaci ty as anonymous members of
the wi der publ i c. And shoul d a l arger stage be offered the
amateur, the occasi on i s l i kel y to be sei zed as recogni ti on,
not avoi ded as an i nvasi on of pri vacy.)
Fi nal l y, there are personal publ i ci ty pi ctures, ones
desi gned to bri ng before the publ i c a fl atteri ng portrai t of
some tumi nary, whether pol i ti cal ,s rel i gi ous, mi l i tary, sport-
i ng, theatri cal , ti terary,6 or-where a cl ass el i te sti l l functi ons
and i s pu bl i ci zed-soc i al .
Invol ved here are actual or
putati ve
l eadershi p and
symbol i zati on of some structure or hi erarchy or val ue
presentabl e as central to soci ty, Note, the publ i ci ty functi on
extends far beyond personal publ i ci ty shots, seepi ng i nto
al most every ki nd of pi cture. Commerci al pi ctures often l i nk
a
product to a cel ebri ty, sel l i nB them both. The pi ctori al
record made of i mportant publ i c ceremoni es necessari l y gi ves
aFor
t hi s and ot her suggest i ons, I am grat ef ul t o Dorot hea
Hurvi ch.
5A
def t di scussi on of ool i t i cal oort rai t s i s Rol and Bart hes'
"Phot ography
and El ect oral Appeal " (1972: 91"93).
6For
mal e novel i st s pi ct ured on t he back of t hei r dust covers,
t hi s means
(current l y)
rough, open shi rt s, t ousl ed hai r, yout hf ul , vi ri l e
appearance, and of t en a broodi ng l ook, t hi s i ast bespeaki ng t he deep
t hought s t hat are
proper t o t he i nnards of t he speci es. l vl al e poet s may
f eel obl i ged t o appear even more f eel i ng. Nonf i ct i on wri t ers al so
present pi ct ures of t hemsel ves as part of t he merchandi si ng of t hei r
product , but t hei r posi ng suggest s more t he st eady march of t hought
t han t he
psychi c cost of so di rect l y addressi ng t he human condi t i on.
I nt erest i ngl y, even t hose who publ i sh sl ashi ng anal yses of advert i si ng
f i nd reason t o al l ow t hei r pi ct ures t o appear on t he
j acket
i n a post ure
cal cul at ed t o conf i rm t hat qual i t i es of t he book are t o be seen i n
qual i t i es of t he appearance of t he wri t er, t hus promot i ng a f ol k
t heory of expressi on al ong wi t h t hei r books and t hemsel ves.
PI CTURE FRAMES 11
personal publ i ci ty to those who offi ci ate. News events are
very often presented through the words and presence of
pol i ti cal l eaders, a wri te-up of the fi rst accompani ed by a
Di cture of the second. Human i nterest shots have more
i nterest i f they i nvol ve famous subj ects. Even the cel ebri ty' s
personal l i fe ri tual s can be publ i ci zed as a means of affi rmi ng
i n everyone' s l i fe what i s bei ng affi rmed i n hi s own, so that
whatever hi s oarti cul ar domai n. he wi l l tend to become a
publ i c performer of
pri vate ceremoni es and have extra reason
on such occasi ons for taki ng
pi ctures
and ensuri ng that they
are
good ones a mutual contami nati on ofpubl i c and pri vate
whi ch comes to a head i n fan magazi nes. In the l i mi ti ng case
of a soci al el i te, mere attendance at a
parti cul ar soci al
functi on or mere vi si ti ng of a parti cul ar pl ace can qual i fy as
newsworthy, these performers bei ng empowered to
transform soci al Darti ci Dati on from routi ne i nto ri tual . A
remi ndr that every undertaki ng has a sacred el ement and
can be done i n ci rcumstances whi ch real i ze i ts hi erarchi cal
potenti al . Here, may I add, the Bri ti sh Royal Fami l y i s the
modern creati ve force, l eadl ng the ci vi l i zed worl d i n know-
how for the mass producti on of personal publ i ci ty.
Cel ebri ti es not onl y l i nk thei r own pri vate l i ves to the
publ i c domai n, but al so can l i nk the l i ves of pri vate persons
to i t. For persons i n the publ i c eye representi ng somethi ng of
val ue and concern to many persons possessi ng regi onal or
nati onal renown-seem to acqui re as one of thei r powers the
capaci ty to be a contagi ous hi gh poi nt. Pol i ti ci ans, sports
stars, entertai ners, and other notabl es qual i fy. In contrast to
pi ctures of
Jesus,
Leni n, and the Bri ti sh Royal Fami l y, those
of ordi nary cel ebri ti es are not al ways l i kel y to carry enough
ri tual i mpact to warrant a pl ace on the mantel ; nonethel ess,
cel ebri ti es need but pose for a
pi cture i n the company of a
member of thei r publ i c to manufacture a memento for hi m,
one that speaks to hi s i deal attri butes, a sort of el evati on by
photographi cal l y attestd associ ati on. Note that a personal
i nscri pti on can functi on as a weak substi tute for
i oi nt
appearance.T (l n exchange for thei r endorsemnt, then,
cel ebri ti es acqui re a smal l bi l l board, rent free.) Thus i n bars,
restaurants, drycl eani ng establ i shmnts, and offi ces, these
trophi es
j ostl e
wi th fami l y pi ctures, the l atter bei ng trophi es,
too, for they attest to the domesti c property (and domesti c
pi ety) of the establ i shment' s
propri etor, whi ch property,
i nci dental l y, has al so been
photographed i n i deal ci rcum-
Stances.
In al l of thi s, note, photographi c portrai ture represents a
rather si gni fi cant soci al i nventi on, for, even apart from i ts
rol e i n domesti c ri tual , i t has come to provi de a l ow and very
l i ttl e guarded poi nt i n the barri er that both protects and
restrai ns
persons of pri vate l i fe from passi ng over i nto publ i c
recogni ti on.
f I f
To consi der photographs-pri vate and publ i c-i l . i s
I I I necessary, apparenti y, to consi der [he
questi on of
percepti on
and real i ty, and i t i s necessary to control
' Ameri can
presi dent s have t he di st i nct i on (one of t hei r f ew) of
havi ng ci rcul at ed i nscri bed pi ct ures i n t hei r pre-el ect i on capaci t y, and
af t er el ect i on ci rcLrl at i ng ones t hat qual i f y as hangabl e wi t hout an
i nscri pt i on.
12 GENDERADVENTI SEMENTS
somehow the systemati c ambi gui ti es that characteri ze our
everdav tal k about
pi ctures.
(1)
Pi ctures compri se the cl ass of two-di mensi onal i mages
that hav been
processed i nto fi xed form, the chi ef exampl es
bei ng drawi ngs,
pai nti ngs, photographs, and, of course,
l etterpress reproducti ons of them al l . (What Narci ssus saw
was a refl ecti on, not a
photograph.) A
"real "
or
"actual "
photograph consi sts of a pi ece of sti ff, emul si fi ed
paper
contai ni ng marks and shadi ngs on one si de, a text
provi di ng
us with an image that has been
processed photographically,
not some other way. (Obvi ousl y, a
photograph does not
embody obj ects that i t pi ctures-as Sol Worth remarks, a
pi cture of fi re i s not hot-al though some mi ght want to say
that the exposed surface does embody a
perspecti val trans-
formati on of some of the rel ati onshi ps wi thi n the scene upon
whi ch the camera focused.) By thi s defi ni ti on i tfol l ows that
a
photograph that has been
"touched
up," mi scapti oned, or
even doctored i s sti l l a real one. The real ness of a photograph
woul d onl y fi gure when, say, there was a concern to prevent
i t from
getti ng crumpl ed, soi l ed or torn, or to control the
effect of the texture of a paper stock upon depth perception,
or to di scover that what appeared to be a photograph was
i ndeed a cl everl y di sSui sed real i sti c
pai nl i ng. (What i s onl y
somethi ng el se and not real l y a photograph i nvol ves a sl i ghtl y
di fferent, and certai nl y l esser, i ssue than that of what i s not
real l y somethi ng el se but onl y a
photograph. For there are
l ots of fl at, papery thi ngs that a
photograph can repl i cate-
whether or not wi th i ntent to decei ve dol l ar bi l l s, water
col ors, and cardi ograms bei ng exampl es; i ndeed, wi th
experi mental control s a photograph pasted i nto
-a
wi ndow
can be mi staken for a three di mensi onal real scene.o
)
Consi derati on of what i s a
"real "
pi cture l eads to a
consi derati on of what i s the
"same"
pi cture, and thus
to a version of the type-token issue. We speak of the
"same"
or
"i denti cal "
pi cture when referri ng to two
qui te di fferent
possi bi l i ti es: two l i ke pri nts from the
sel f-same negati ve, and two meeti ngs-up wi th the
sel f-same
pri nt. I don' t thi nk thi s
parti cul ar ambi gui ty
causes troubl e; i n any case, unl i ke the si tuati on wi th
coi ns, here termi nol ogy i s ready to hand any ti me we
, need to soeci fv,
I bel i eve that the si gni fi cant
questi on, and one that
everyday use and termi nol ogy does obscure, i s not what
a photograph i s, or what woul d count as the same
photograph, but what a particular photograph is of-a
concern, i nci dntal l y, that al l ows one to treat a
photograph and i ts pri nti ng press reproducti on as the
5ame.
Somehow we l earn to decode smal l , fl at traci ngs for l arge,
three di mensi onal scenes i n a manner somewhat cor-
respondi ng to the way we have l earned to i nterpret our vi sual
i mages of real obj ects. (Because a
photograph has nearl y
prfect geometri c perspecti v-savi ng one taken, for exampl e,
wi th a di storti ng wi de-angl e l ens-i t i s very l i ke the i mage
proiected on the retina of one eye, were the retina to be
bl ocked from i ts usual scanni ng; but reti nal i mages
themsel ves are systemati cal l y modi fi ed by constancy scal i ng
based on addi ti onal depth cues drawn i n part from stereG
scopic and
parallax-motion effects which photography must
do wi thout.)e Here the
poi nt i s not that our use of our eyes
and our
pi ctures has had to be l earned, or that thi s l earni ng
draws deepl y and fal l i bl y on
past experi ence wi th the worl d
i n al l sensory modal i ti es
(al l owi ng us to make effecti ve use of
small cues and good hypotheses as to which of a set of
possi bl e states i s to be
i udged
the actual one), but that i t
does
get
l earned
(i n
our soci ety), renderi ng the eyei ng of l i ve
scenes, and of pi ctures of scenes, effi caci ous and more or l ess
equi val ent. And note, thi s deci pheri ng competency that we
acquire with respect to live scenes, and pictures of scenes,
does not make us acute about
just
any set of perceptual
detai l s, but rather those whi ch al l ow us to make
conventi onal l y i mportant di scri mi nati ons; for i t i s about
these matters that are of general social relevance that we will
have bothered to accumutate experi ence.l 0 Perhaps, then,
the
pri mary di fference between an i nterpretati on of a l i ve
vi ew and an i nterpretati on of a
pi cture of i t i s that l i ve
vi ewi ng ordi nari l y assures that what i s seen i s as i t appears
now, whereas a
pi cture, at best, guarantees that i t was once
50.
In sum, one can say that, as a resul t of acqui red
i nterpreti v competence, thi ngs (or rather aspects of thi ngs)
in ffect are as they seem to be seen, and as they seem to be
pi ctured, notwi thstandi ng the fact that the actual i mage on
the reti na and on tl e photographi c paper i s a somewhat
di fferent matter. And one shoul d be abl e to say that a
photograph in effect can
provide us with an objective,
veri di cal versi on-an
"actual
pi cture of" soci al l y i mportant
aspects of what is in fact out there.
However, these concl usi ons drawn from the psychol ogy of
percepti on fai l to tel l us why there shoul d be so much doubt
and concern among students as to what i n fact photographs
do represent. The frame-theoreti cal i ssue of the vari ous
ol t
i s wort h not i ng t hat art hi st ori ans who compare vari ous f orms
of representation-etchings, woodcuts, drawings,
paintings, photo-
graphs-and use i l l usl rat i ons i n t hei r books t o expl i cat e t he
di f f erences, t end t o t real ! he
Sround
ot t hei r own operat i on,
letterpresi
graphics, as something to be taken for granted, samething
wi t hout const rai ni ng charact eri st i cs of i t s own, i n t hi s f ol l owi ng t he
l ay f rami ng
pract i ce of t reat i ng t he medi um i n whi ch one i s onesel f
working as limitless and featureless.
' A
cl ose i ssue here. Apart f rom t he quest i on of
permanehcy, a
camera can take an instantaneous
picture that contains vastly more
detail, shading, and breadth than the eye can capture in the same
length of time, the eye being restricted apparently to flitting about
t aki ng spot checks whi ch t he brai n t hen edi t s and composes
accordingly. Holvever, before the camera's
pictures (once developed
and
printed) can be of any final use, an eye mustview it, and that
vi ewi ng rvi l l suf f er al l t he l i mi t s of t he eye compared t o t he camera
Dl us an ext ra set , namel y, t he l i mi t at i on of havi ng t o st art wi t h a
phot ograph, not t he real t hi n8.
l oThe
f ramework of experi ence requi red i n order t o i nt erpret
some
phot ographs (such as t hose t aken of mi ssi l e si t e! , el ement ary
particle pathwaysJ minor meteors) may be so restricted that a lay
person mi ght not even be abl e t o see what he i s seei ng when i t i s
poi nt ed out . However, val i d
percept i on i s not a quest i on of vot es but
of compt ence, W. l . Thomas not wi t hst andi ng. And t hat i s not t o say
t hat vi ewers somehow read beyond t he
"si mpl e"
physi cal i mages t hat
are
"gi ven"
t hem; f or a physi cal i st i c,
"obi ect i ve, " "l i t eral "
descri pt i on
i s i t sel f , of course, i nt erpret i ve, havi ng t o be l earned, t oo-a f act qui t e
i ndependent of how common t hi s l earni ng i s. There are no naked
facts, merely various types of inferential elaboration, but lrat is not
to sav that inferences, common or otherwiser are necessalily arbitrary,
senses i n whi ch pi ctures
are sai d to be true, real , val i d,
candi d, real i sti c, expressi ve, or, contrari wi se, fal se, faked,
posed,
unfai thful , doctored, guyed,
sti l l remai ns open, and
soci al , not psychol ogi cal ,
answers must be sought. The easy
sense of the man i n the street that the meani ng of pi cl ures
i s
cl ear enough comes from an easy wi l l i ngness to avoi d
thi nki ng dbout the meani ngs of meani ng.
(2) l t i s cl ear that an arti st can execute a drawi nq or
pai nti ng from memory and i magi nati on, processsi ng
an i mage
of, say, a person
who is no more or even never was. One
mi ght say that the resul t was a pi cture
of a subj ect
(or
"fi gure"),
not meani ng to i mpl y by thi s
"oF"
thar the subi ecr
i s now, or ever was, real . Subj ects bel ong to very human
real ms of bei ng but not al ways to the curren! real worl d. A
subj ecl , note, may be a bui l di ng or a l andscape or a stag at
bay or the crossi ng of the Del aware; i t can al so be a oerson,
the chi ef concern here. (French i n thi s regard i s cl earer than
English: a special reference for the word
personnoge
desi gnates a member of the fi cti onal real m, the term
personhe
being reserved for designating a member of ours.)
Now i t happens that when somethi ng that i s not present
to hi m i s to be the subi ect of a pai nter' s
work, he may steady
hi s task of rendi ti on by empl oyi ng a stand-i n, mock-up, or
substi tute-thi ngs of thi s worl d that are materi al l y to hand
and can serve as gui des
duri ng phases
of the canvas
processi ng.
Thus, for an hi stori cal fi gure, he may use a l i vi ng
person there i n the fl esh; for a mythi cal beast wi th unnatural
appendages, a real beast wi th natural ones. A materi al gui de
i s often cal l ed a model , especi al l y when a
person
or ani mal i s
i nvol ved, and wi l l be cal l ed that here, al though other (and
confusi ngl y rel evant) meani ngs can al so be gi ven to that term
(Goffman 1974, esp. 41). Note, i nci dental l y, a
paral l el
di sti ncti on i n the theater, where i t i s ful l y understood that a
character or
protagonist
belongs to a make-believe realm of
bei ng that i s dramati zed, and the actor who takes a part and
stages its character belongs to another, namely, everyday
real i ty. Indeed, from the theater comes the term
"prop"
to
remi nd us that some arti facts have, as i t were, no l i fe of thei r
own, taki ng thei r i denti fyi ng ti tl e from the fact that thei r
crude si mi l ari ty to certai n obj ects i n the real worl d (al ong
wi th thei r cheapness and maneuverabi l i ty) al l ows them to be
used in plays as if they were these obiects, this role in
dramaturgy bei ng thei r onl y one.
l f one al l ows that a pai nter
may use a materi al obj ect as a
PI CTURE FRAMES 13
gui de (whether model , prop,
or whatever) to hel p hi m i n hi s
renderi ng, and i f thi s gui di ng functi on i s taken as central to
one' s concepti on of such obj ects, then one mi ght extend the
category to include objects which the artist uses not only as a
gui de but al so as a subj ect. After al l , to si t for a
portrai t
i s to
serve as a subiect dfd as its model, and so one is forced to say
that a stand-i n can be the real thi ng.r
t
Unl i ke what i s requi red i n drawi ng, pai nti ng,
or fi cti on,
but like the theater, a photograph
requires material
gui des-"model s"
i n the cases that i nterest us. The
pl ay
of
l i ght and shadow upon somethi ng out there i n the real worl d
is necessary, and furthermore, is necessary at the moment the
Di cture i s taken.
Observe that
just
as a photograph
can be said to be of its
subj ect, thi s bei ng our fi rst sense of
"of,"
so i t can be sai d to
be of i ts model , thi s bei ng our second sense of
"of."
The
conveni ence of usi ng one word here i nstead of two, i s, I
bel i eve, a di saster for anal ysi s, for al though bi bl i cal pai nti ngs
and the theatri cal stage provi de
no probl em
i n the di sti ncti on
betwen subi ect and model (or character and actor), photog-
raphy deepl y confounds the matter i n several ways-now
mergi ng subj ect and model , now conceal i ng a di fference, now
taki ng a di fference for granted, and i n general causi ng us to
thi nk we are concerned wi th one probl em
when we real l y are
concerned about another.
l \/
(1)
A
"caught"
or
"candi d"
photograph
may be
I Y defi ned as featuri ng model s thal have not been
arrayed to serve as such, that is, to serve as something to
photograph
on thi s occasi on. Such pi ctures
show obi ects and
events as they are in regard to some matters other than
photography.
For human model s thi s means ordi nari l y that
they are unaware that a camera is where it is, or that they are
so deepl y caught up i n other vi tal matters that they ei ther
give
no weight to the fact that they are being photographed
or modify whatever they are doing only to the extent
requi red for a di sj uncti ve moni tori ng shi ft i n response to the
sudden appearance of a camera.r
2
(All models can be angled,
i f not mani pul ated, for photographi c
effect; onl y human
ones can do thi s on thei r own behal f.) Caught pi ctures
can
provi de
val i d documents or records, al l owi ng the vi ewer to
make rel ati vel y rel i abl e i nferences as to what had l ed up to
the acti vi ty represented and what was l i kel y to have
. '
l vl at t ers can get a l i t t l e compl i cat ed here. A movj e act or may be
gi ven a st and-i n so t hat i n st agi ng a charact er he hi msel f wi l l not have
t o engage i n t edi ous or dangerous act i vi t y. Cl earl y , (and si mpl y): a
model f or a model . Novel i st s, wi t h no i nt ent t o engage i n cover!
bi ography, somet i mes pat t ern a f i (t i onal charact er upon a rei l person
i n t hei r soci al ci rcl e, subi ect and model here bei ng qui t e di st i nct , t here
bei ng an obl i gat i on t o bl ur t he copy ahd make a secret of t he i dent i t y
of t he model . Bi ography, on t he ot her hand, al l ows and requi res t hat
t he subj ect and model be one. I n bi ographi cal pl ay5,
t hen, t he
character onstage becomes a refraction both of the actor who is
taking the
part
and of the person who was the inspiration for the part.
I t i s a t art experi ence (or a sad experi ence), but not necessari l y a
conf usi ng one, t hat i s produced when t he i nspi rat i on f or a charact er
serves also as the actor of the
part,
as when the famous gunfighters of
t he West ended t hei r years by
"8oi ng
on t he road" wi t h enact ment s of
themsefves. The tricky case is the romon d clef, " here a connection
bet ween subj ect and model i s f ormal l y deni ed
(as pref at ory
admoni t i ons regardi ng t he coi nci dence of resembl ance at t est ) but
guessi ng
at t he i dent i t y of t he model i s encouraged (or at l east
t hought t o be), al ong wi t h t he bel i ef t hat t he copyi ng i s cl ose.
l 2l n
f "ct , r"t t ". . are a l i t t l e more compl i cat ed. Of t he i nf i ni t e
number of scenes
phot ographers
mi Sht cat ch, t hey manage t o (and
bot her t o) cat ch onl y a smal l number, and t hese t end t o be ones
whose cont ent make evi dent t hat t he pi ct ures coul d onl y have been
caught . So a caught pi ct ure
t urns out t o be a pat ent l y
caught one.
Also note that whereas the term
"caught"
seems to be preferentially
appl i ed t o a scene upon whi ch a camera woul d have been unl i kel y. t h
term
"candid"
seems to be
preferentially
used in reference to scenes
wherei n t he part i ci pant s
woul d ordi nari l y have been unwi l l i ng t o
cont i nue on wi t h what t hey had been doi ng had t hey but known t hat
a camera was i n act i on. Undersi andabl y, some candi d pi ct ures present
model s breaki ng f rame, not onl y t urni ng preci pi t ousl y
t o moni t or t he
camera' s i nt rusi on, but al so si mul t aneousl y at t empt i ng t o obscure t he
appearance t hey had been gi vi ng. What i s candi d about such pi ct urei
t urns out t o be coveri ng behavi or, not what t he behavi or covers,
14 GENDERADVERTI SEMENTS
fol l owed, i n the same way, i f to a l esser extent, as can an
actual vi ewer of a l i ve scene i nfer what i s goi ng on at the
moment of vi ewi ng. l t i s i n thi s way that caught pi ctures can
be used as strong evi dence concerni ng the xi stence of a state
of affai rs or of the occurrence of an event. Thus. a
pi ctured
i ndi vi dual who can be
"personal l y
i denti fi ed," that i s, a
sub,ect that provi des us wi th effecti ve evi dence of the
bi ographi cal i denti fi cati on of i ts model , can serve to demon-
strate that i ts model had been i n a certai n pl ace
doi ng a
certai n thi ng and i n associ ati on wi th certai n others, whi ch
demonstrati on courts of l aw may be i nduced to accept. For
exampl e, i nsurance cl ai ms for i nj uri es have been defeated by
photographs secretl y taken of the cl ai mant whi l e he was
engaged i n demandi ng performances, such as bowl i ng,
cl i mbi ng l adders, and the l i ke. Deni al of
"knowi ng"
someone
has si mi l arl y been defeated by pi ctures of the cl ai mant
chatti ng wi th the person he cl ai ms not to know. Bank
robbers have faced si mi l ar probl ems due to securi ty photo-
graphy. In fact, on occasi on i n courts, cl ai ms as to what
occurred may fi nd better support through photographs than
through di rect testi mony. Drawi ngs, however real i sti c, are
not used i n thi s parti cul ar way, al though they can be
empl oyed i n i denl i f i cal or y pol i ce wor k. r l
(2) Caught photographs are to be contrasted to another
cl ass, whose members share the property that i nferences as to
what was goi ng on i n the scene connot be correctl y made
from what i s Di ctured.
Fi rst, there are
photographs (often caught ones) whi ch
have been covertl y
"doctored"
or
"faked,"
as when a pi cture
of someone' s face i s superi mposed on a pi cture of someone
el se' s body, and the whol e passed off as evi dence that the
owner of the face was present i n the scene depi cted. Or a
seri ousl y mi sl eadi ng capti on i s empl oyed encouragi ng a fal se
attri buti on of model to subj ect.
Second are the ki nd of pi ctures that can be sai d to be
arranged, ri gged, or set up, i mpl yi ng that model s and sceni c
materi al s, real enough i n thei r own ri ght, were brought
together and choreographed to i nduce radi cal l y wrong
i nferences as to
"who"
had been present and/or what had
been goi ng on. The resul t i s a pi cture of a covertl y contri ved
scenej the picture is an actual one, but it is not actually of
the scene i t portrays. The cl assi c case here i s the col l usi vel y
arranged i nfi del i ty pi cture, once so popul ar i n Bri ti sh di vorce
proceedi ngs, provi di ng perfectl y val i d evi dence that a
Darti cul ar man had been i n a oarti cul ar room wi th a
parti cul ar woman not hi s wi fe, the mi sl eadi ng restri cted to
thei r doi ngs and her professi onal i denti ty. The wrong
i mpressi on the court i s i nduced to recei ve (or rather gi ves the
appearance of recei vi ng) i s much l i ke the one that the hotel
cl erk coul d have obtai ned of the actual doi ngs, al though he
mi ght gt to see the pi cture taki ng as wel l as the scene the
pi cture taker took. Observe that a doctored pi cture, whether
i ntended to mi sl ead or not, requi res no cooperati on from the
model s, the fabri cati on bei ng done after, not before, pi cture
taki ng; ri gged pi ctures, on the other hand, ordi nari l y requi re
col l aborati ve posi ng before the pi cture i s snapped, al though
admi ttedl y i f model s are caught at the ri ght moment from
the ri ght angl e, they can fi nd that they have uni ntenti onal l y
produced a pi cture
that i s ri gged i n effect,ra as they can i f
they know they are about to b photographed but the
photographer does not know they know. Observe, too, that
al though eyes and cameras can be si mi l arl y fool ed, i t i s
' "l n
hi s Art and t t t usl or, E. H. Gombri ch present s t he i nt erest i ng
at gument t hat a
pi ct urc cannot be t rue or f al se i n i t sel f , t hese
possi bi l i t i es bei ng reserved f or t he capt i on or l abel :
Logi ci ans t el l us and t hey are not peopl e
t o be easi l y
gai nsai d-t hat t he t erms
"t rue"
and
"f al se"
can onl y be appl i ed t o
st at ement s, proposi t i ons, And what ever may be t he usage of
cri t i cal pal l ance,
a pi ct ure i s never a st at ement i n t hat sense of t he
t erm. l t can no more be t rue or f al se t han a st at ement can be bl ue
or green. Much conf usi on has been caused i n aest het i cs by
di sregardj ng t hi s si mpl e f act . l t i s an underst andabl e conf usj on
because i n our cul t ure pi ct ures are usual l y l abel ed, and l abel s, or
capt i ons. can be underst ood as abbrevi at ed st at ement s, When i t i s
sai d
"t he
camera cannot l i e, " t hi s conf usi on i s apparent .
Propaganda i n wart i me of t en made use of phot ographs f al sel y
l abel ed t o accuse or excul pat e one of t he warri ng part i es. Even i n
sci ent i f i c i l l ust rat i ons i 1 i s t he capt i on whi ch det ermi nes t he t rut h
of t he pi ct ure. l n a cause cAl i bre of t he l ast cent uryr t he embryo
of a pi g, l abel ed as a human embryo t o prove a t heory of
evol ut i on, brought about t he downf al l of a great reput at i on.
Wj t hol t much ref l ect i on, we can al l expand i nt o st at ement s t he
l aconi c capt i ons we f i nd i n museums and books. When we read t he
name
"Ludwi g
Ri cht er" under a l andscape pai nt i ng,
we know we
are t hus i nf ormed t hat he pai nt ed i t and can begi n argui ng whet her
t hi s i nf ormat i on i s t rue or f al se. When we read
"Ti vol i , "
we i nf er
t he pi ct ure i s t o be t aken as a vi ew of t hat spot , and we can agai n
agree or di sagree wi t h t he l abel . How and when we agree, i n such a
case, wi l l l argel y depend on what we want t o know about t he
obi ect represent ed. The Bayeux t apest ry, f or i nst ance, t el l s us
t here was a bat t l e of Hast i ngs. l t does not t el l us what Hast i ngs
" l ooked
l i ke. "
[ ]
961 : 67- 681 .
I n sum, a capt i on f rames a pi ct ure, t el l i ng us what aspect of i t i s t o be
at t ended and i n what l i ght t hi s aspect of mat t ers i s t o be seen-e. g, ,
t he way t hi ngs once were, t he way t hey mi ght be i n t he f ut ure, t he
dream of t he art i st , a t ri but e t o t he st yl e of some peri od, and so f ort h.
But , of course, t hi s approach ent i rel y begs t he quest i on. I n a great
number of cont ext s an uncapt i oned phot ograph / 5 underst ood t o
present a cl ai m regardi ng t he propert i es and charact er of t he model ,
court s of l aw onl y bei ng t he most obvi ous. (The very f act t hat ef f ort
i s made t o doct or pi ct ures presupposes t hat ordi nari l y pi ct ures i mpl y
an avowal about real i t y and t hat t hi s avowal i s ordi nari l y val i d; t he
same assumpt i on i s not made of ot her modes of represent at i on, and
underst andabl y so. ) Any obl ect , not merel y a pi ct ure, i s subj ect t o
covert si mul at i on and vari ous f orms of overt reconst i t ut i ngs. These
t ransf ormat i ons nonet hel ess remai n
i ust
t hat , t ransf ormat i ons of an
ori gi nal . But grant ed t hat t he i nt erpret at i on a
pi ct ure
i s gi ven, t hat i s,
t he sense i n whi ch i t i s t aken, deri ves f rom t he cont ext of use, one
must see t hat t he capt i on, when t here i s one, i s but one part
of t hh
cont ext . A capt i on, t hen, can be t rue or f al se onl y i f / t i cont ext
carri es anot her capt i on, al bei t a t aci t one:
"The
st at ement 5 made here
are meant t o be t aken as avowal s of what i s. " And t he readi ng a
capt i on can cause us t o make of a pi ct ure, ot her el ement s of cont ext
can cause us t o make of t he capt i on. (The capt i on
"f ant asy"
can t el l
us how t o read a
pi ct ure
i n an art book, but what does i t t el l us about
a pi ct ure i n t he Nat i onal Lampoon?) A st at ement of f act , l aconi c or
expanded, can be present ed as a quot at i on, an exampl e of l i t erary
sl yl e, a di spl ay of
pri nt
f ormat , et c. , bei ng no l ess vul nerabl e t o
speci al readi ngs t han are pi ct ures. I n any case, a phot ograph t hat i r
f al sel y capt i oned
{whet her
t o decei ve or f or openl y pl ayf ul purposes)
can st i l l present a perf ect l y val i d represent at i on of i t s model , t he onl y
probl em bei ng t hat t he model can' t be correct l y i dent i f i ed f rom t he
capt i on. l vl ay I add t hat al t hough obvi ousl y t he angl e, l i ght , t i mi nSj
camera di st ance, l ens, f i l m devel opment , pri nt i ng,
and t he phot ol
grapher' s i nt ent can very si gni f i cant l y i nf l uence what a pi ct urc
reproduces, i n every case t he model must i nt roduce a pat t ern
of
const rai nt s as wel l .
l 4For
t hi s, and f or ot her suggest i ons i ncorporat ed wi t hout
acknowl edgment , l am grat ef ul
t o Ri chard Chal f en.
usual l y far easi er to hoodwi nk the vi ewer of a pi cture than
the vi ewer of a l i ve scene, for reasons qui te apart from, say,
the consequence of i nsuffi ci ent depth cues. For the sti l l
photographer' s practi ce
of hol di ng hi s camera to a smal l fi el d
and (necessari l y) to a si ngl e angl e can, i n the shooti ng of a
ri gged scene, protect hi s i l l usi on from anythi ng di sconfi rmi ng
that mi ght l i e
j ust
beyond the posi ng; and what has been
posed need onl y be hel d l ong enough to snap i t. A l i ve vi ewer
coul d hardl y be restri cted thi s way, and unl ess he wore
bl i nders and kept hi s head i n a vi ce, woul d have to be faced
wi th fakery that i s consi derabl y more extensi ve i f i t i s to be
effecti ve-al though admi ttdl y he i s not often i n a posi ti on
to
pore
over what he sees for fl aws, whereas the vi ewer of a
oi cture usual l v i s.
(3) Pi ctures that are covertl y doctored or covertl y ri gged
di spl ay scenes that can' t be read i n the same way that
uncontri ved ones routi nel v can. as a swarm of warrants for
drawi ng sound concl usi ons as to who had been present and
what had been goi ng on there. Such covertl y faked pi ctures
"fabri cati ons"
are to be di sti ngul shed from ones that are
al so concocted, but thi s ti me admi ttedl y, whether by
arrangi ng what i s photographed or doctori ng a photograph
al ready taken.l
s
Openl y contri ved scenes
provi de a
"keyi ng"
of
photographi c
evi dence as to who was present and what
had been goi ng on.16 The central exampl e here i s what mi ght
be cal l ed
"commerci al
real i sm," the standard transformati on
mpl oyed i n contemporary ads, i n whi ch the scene i s
concei vabl e i n al l detai l as one that coul d i n theory have
occurred as
pi ctured, provi di ng us wi th a si mul ated sl i ce of
l i fe; but al though the adverti ser does not seem i ntent on
passi ng the
pi cture off as a caught one, the understandi ng
seems to be that we will not
press him too far to account for
j ust
what sort of real i ty the scene has. (The term
"real i sti c,"
l i ke the term
"si nceri ty"
when appl i ed to a stage actor, i s
sel f-contradi ctory, meani ng somethi ng that i s prai seworthy
by vi rtue of bei ng l i ke somethi ng el se, al though not that
somethi ng el se.) Commerci al real i sm i s to be sharpl y di sti n-
gui shed from scenes posed wi th unl i kel y professi onal s and
apparentl y i ntended to be wrongl y seen as caught and from
scenes that ore caught ones but now embedded i n an
adverti sement,I
7
Observe that commerci al real i sm
provi des
l SCurrent l y
newspapers and magazi nes exerci se very wi de l i bert y
i n present i ng opnl y doct ored pi ct ures f eat uri ng bi t s of anat omy of ce-
l ebri t i es, especi al l y pol i t i cal ones, t he port rai t s compl et ed by l i ne draw-
i ngs, cart oons, ot her phot ographs, and t he l i ke. Preci sel y i n what f rame
readers i nt erpret such pi ct ures i s not cl ear, si nce what can be l egal l y de-
f ended as an evi dent f ant asy may not be so t reat ed by some vi ewers.
' "A
f ul l er t reat ment of
"keyi ng"
and
"f abri cat i on"
i s present ed i n
Gof f man (1974, esp. ch. 3, 4).
' ' There
are devi at i ons f t om commerci al real i sm t hat are more
subt l e, Thus, one f i nds t hat a pi ct ure i n an annual company report
di spl ayi ng t he company' s rest aurant equi pment wi t h t he ai d of t wo
secretaries posing as persons dininS out and another as a waitress can
convey not so much t hat t here i s a di f f erence bet ween subj ect and
model , but t hat t hese part i cul ar model s are not maki ng every ef f ort t o
conceal t hat t hey are unprof essi onal ones, t hereby posi ng as model s
posing as participants in a rcstaurant scene. A comparable frame
compl exi t y i s f ound i n t he use of si mul at ed home movi es as part of
t he scenari o of a commerci al one, or t he use i n radi o commerci al s of
"i nt ervi ews"
wi t h caref ul l y sel ect ed ordi nary consumers,
"ci t i zens, "
who have been rehearsed i nt o di spl ayi ng t he rest art s, f i l l ed pauses,
and l i t t l e f l oodi ngs t hat
presumabl y di st i ngui sh t he ef f ort s of real
interviewees from the responses performed by studio actors.
PI CTURE FRAMES 15
especi al l y ni ce exampl es of the subj ect-model i ssue. Asked
what i s i n a
parti cul ar
ad, we mi ght say,
"A
fami l y fi shi ng."
What makes us thi nk the four subi ects i n the pi cture are i n a
fami l y rel ati onshi p to one another i s exactl y what mi ght
make us i nfer such a rel ati onshi p wi th respect to strangers i n
real l i fe. 5o, too, on seei ng i mages of fi shi ng l i nes i n the
water. Asked whether we thi nk the four persons
who
modeled for the picture are reolly a family or if there are
hooks on the l i nes, the answer coul d wel l be,
"Probabl y
not,
but what does i t matter?" The poi nt
about an ad i s what i ts
composer meant us to i nfer as to what i s goi ng
on i n the
make-bel i ve pi ctured scene, not what had actual l y been
goi ng on i n the real doi ngs that were pi ctured.
The i ssue i s
subi ect. not model .
It i s thus that the constrai nts on Di cture scene Droducti on
can be properl y sorted. An ad featuri ng a nude woman
subj ect rai ses questi ons
about the modesty of the model ,
especi al l y i f she i s a wel l -known one; an ad featuri ng nuns
cl ustered i n front of a stati on wagon i n honor of Gl \4' s
ti l t-wheel steeri ng can (and di d) rai se questi ons
about the
desecrati on of subj ects the model s i n thi s case bei ng wel l
covered by unaccustomed habi t (see Li vi ngston 1976).
Adverti sements that empl ov commerci al real i sm or some
other vari ety of overtl y concocted scene can be aptl y
compared to what the stage presents. In both cases the
vi ewer i s to engage knowi ngl y i n a ki nd of make-bel i eve,
treati ng the depi cted worl d as i f i t were real l i ke but of
course not actual l y reai . The di fferences are i nteresti ng. One
i s that al though we undoubtedl y can i nvol ve oursel ves more
deepl y i n staged make-bel i eve than i n adverti sements, i t i s
probabl y the case that vi ewers more frequentl y rei fy, that i s,
"downkey,"
ads than pl ays; for we can al ways fal l i nto
thi nki ng that an ad i s l i ke a news shot or a pri vate portrai t,
i ts model ri ghtl y to be i denti fi ed wi th i ts subj ect.
(l n
any
case, the i mputati on of real ness to what a pi cture
i s of i s
unl i kel y to requi re our i mmedi ate i ntercessi on, the presented
events havi ng al ready transpi red; on the other hand, when
Othel l o attacks Desdemona, somethi ng wi l l have to be done
i mmedi atel y by the audi ence i f they have mi sframed hi m as
endangeri ng a real l i fe.) Another di fference: l t i s routi ne i n
pl ay producti on that we know the personal i denti ty of the
model s, at l east the l ead ones, and that our pl easure i n the
show deri ves i n part from watchi ng favori te actors at work,
whatever the part
they are currentl y at work i n. In the case
of ads, with very rare exception, the personal identity of the
model s i s unknown to us, and we do not seek out thi s
knowl edge. Product testi mony by cel ebri ti es, or by speci al l y
selected citizens whose actual names and addresses are
provi ded, i s qui te another matter and i s by way of bei ng a
fraud a fabri cati on, not a keyi ng. An i nteresti ng margi nal
case is the photoroman, popular
on the continent, in which
personal l y i denti fi ed model s i ndeed
"stars"
of the ci nemati c
worl d
perform
for a seri es of sti l l s i n the manner of a comi c
book, proj ecti ng themsel ves i n fi cti onal parts much as they
mi ght on the screen, and as on the screen rel yi ng on thei r
"own"
i denti ti es as a source of drawi ng power (see Van
Dormael 1974).
\/
Starti ng wi th caught scenes, the descri pl i on has been
Y compl i cated by addi ng ones l haI were fabri cated and
keyed. Now i t i s essenti al to go on to see that al l these
16 GENDERADVERTI SEMENTS
pi ctures share one i mportant feature, namel y, they are al l
scenes, that is, representations, whether candid, faked, or
frankl y si mul ated, of
"events"
happeni ng. Narrati ve-l i ke
action is to be read from what is seen, a before and after are
to be i nferred, and thi s l ocati on i n tht! ongoi ng stream of
acti vi ty
provi des the context as muqh as do the model s and
props per se. Al l such
pi ctures are to be di sti ngui shed from
another cl ass, namel y, portrai ts, these bei ng pi ctures
fabri cated, keyed, or actual l y of where acti on i s absent or
i nci dental , and i t cannot
qui te
be sai d that a scene i s i n
progress. A subiect is featured more than a stream of events.
(' l ) Consi der fi rst the matter of the personal portrai t
format itself. This format was there before the camera came
i n, has domi nated pri vate pi ctures, and i s onl y now gi vi ng
way: the model si ts or stands i n hi s fi nery, hol ds an absent,
hal f-smi l i ng expressi on on hi s face i n the di recti on he i s
i nstructed to-a constrai nt onl y fami l i ar from the mi l i tary
parade ground-and renders hi msel f up to the
i udgment
of
eterni ty, the assumpti on ri ghtl y bei ng that i n many ways the
model and the subi ect are one, a case of posi ng
as onesel f. No
doubt thi s
postural formul a refl ected the exposure needs of
eady fi l m and the styl e (and requi rements) establ i shed i n
,
pai nted portrai ture provi di ng us a central case of pi ctures
representi ng other pi ctures; i n any case, no prototype i s to be
found i n the responses i ndi vi dual s, at l east si ghted ones, have
to any other ci rcumstance i n the workaday worl d.r8
(Certai nl y responses of every ki nd can be affected and hel d
by brute force for lengthy periods, but these responses are
presented as though i n reacti on to somethi ng other than
pi cture
taki ng.) When thi s
portrai t format i s extended to
commerci al shots featuri ng a subj ect and a
product,
the
unseei ng expressi on often gi ves way to one that i s not al i en
to natural l i fe, merel y crudel y si mul ated: a frozen, sum-
moni ng l ook, as though the subj ect were maki ng eye contact,
someti mes col l usi vel v. wi th someone there i n the fl esh
behi nd the shutter, or wi th a wi der group out there i n camera
l and. Al so found i s an expressi on of defense agai nst
i ntrusi on, a subtl e means of encouragi ng the vi ewer to feel he
is an actual participant in the depicted scene. So, too,
subj ects, especi al l y femal e ones, may be shown returni ng our
apparentl y i ntrusi ve l ook wi th one that passi vel y submi ts to
our
Eaze.
More subtle still, the subject can
give the
appearance of turning away from a second figure in the
pi cture someti mes to steal a l ook at a thi rd fi gure, i n any case
al l owi ng us to catch the maneuver from a di scl osi ve angl e so
that we fi nd oursel ves more pri vy to thi s di sl oyal ty of
attenti on than i s the subi ect who has l ost i t. The si mul ati on
18l n
recent years
st yl i sh
port rai t phot ographers have broken wi t h
the traditional format. Instead of inducing frozen facial dignity in a
model , t hey t rack down expressi ons of warmt h, charm, l i vel i ness, and
so f ort h,
produci ng a sense t hat t he i ndi vi dual has been unsel f -
consci ousl y caught i n act i on. To obt ai n t hese expressaons, a
considerable varm-up period may be employed and a second camera,
so t hat t he model wi l l not
qui t e know when and f rom what preci se
angl hi s i mage wi l l be t aken. I n t hi s way, every cust omer can be
t ransf ormed i nt o a f i t t i ng obi ect f or sympat het i c, candi d
phot ography
and hi gh symbol i sm, becomi ng someone who expresss hi s charact er,
as well as his status, allowing
photographers to make a statement
every t i me t hei r camera speaks. l t i s t hrough such pract i ces t hat t hose
who make a living rproducing appearances of life can continue
further to stamp the real thing out.
of vi ewer-responsi ve faci al expressi on by subi ects somewhat
changes a portrai t i nto a scene and i s, of course, a standard
feature of Western pai nti ng.re And note the paral l el to a
phenomenon pecul i ar to the l egi ti mate stage cal l ed
"di rect
address."
(2) Earl y pri vate photographi c portrai ts empl oyed canvas
backdrops featuri ng syl van or hel l eni c scenes (deemed proper
i n thei r three di mensi onai form to the gentry),
thus taki ng
open advantage of the pri nci pl e
that the camera, somewhat
l i ke the theatri cal stage, drops from the worl d everythi ng
between the fi gures or obj ects i n central focus and what l i es
i n front, and at the same ti me tends to reduce what remai ns
of the embedding context to a bqchground, a depthless
pl ane. A recent commerci al versi on i s the hi gh fashi on
fri eze agai n somethi ng that does not mi mi c nature-whi ch
spl ays
pri sti nel y
costumed femal e fi gures fl ush agai nst exoti c
sl abs of nature where perhaps
onl y
goats
and mendi cants are
actual l y to be found, nature here servi ng as a substi tute for
canvas.
(3) In portrai ture, thi s transformati on of contextual
space i nto a
poi nt
of focus and a fl at background i s matched
by the transformation of microecological space. Self-
commemorati on by a ki n group, team, school , or associ ati on
packs fami l i ars i nto compact rank-and-fi l e cl usters, graded
for hei ght; decorati ve kneel i ng and
pyrami di ng
can al so be
empl oyed. Thi s assures that a l i keness of al l the faces wi l l
show i n the
pi cture,
al ong wi th at l east an i nferenti al vi ew of
the correspondi ng bodi es, and al l thi s as l arge as the camera
can manage. In thi s bunchi ng-up of model s i n order to take a
pi cture,
mi croecol ogy and body contact are gi ven a sys-
temati cal l y di fferent readi ng than obtai ns i n any other frame,
al though the stagi ng of choral si ngers comes cl ose. Observe, I
have been tal ki ng about real space between real peopl e-
model s. not subi ects. The current commerci al versi on of
group pi ctures presents
an even more stri ki ng reconsti tuti on
of space, for i t bri ngs i nto
j ol l y
togetherness a deep-sea di ver,
a Chi nese cook, a bal l et dancer, a bl ack nurse, a mi ddl e-age
housewi fe, and a grey-hai red banker, causi ng subj ects whom
al l of soci al l i fe conspi res to keep separate to be arm i n arm,
nul l i fyi ng the basi c metaphor i ndexi ng soci al di stance
through i nterpersonal physi cal
space. But, ofcourse, there i s
a profound difference between commemoratives and com-
merci al s. Teammates who entwi ne themsel ves for a portrai t
produce
a
pi cture of themsel ves di spl ayi ng thi s terri tori al
promi scui ty; professi onal model s who si mi l arl y pose them-
sel ves do not produce a pi cture of themsel ves but of
subi ects chosen by adverti ser, and i t i s the i ntermi ngl i ng
of subi ects i n the
pi ctured spaceJ not model s i n the studi o' s,
that i s stri ki ng. After al l , professi onal
model s, l i ke pro-
fessi onal actors, have gi ven up al most al l natural cl ai ms and
can be caused to appear i n al most any gui se and al most any
posture,
(4) An i ndi vi dual who serves as a model for a
personal
portrai t-or does anythi ng el se-i s someone wi th a uni que
bi ographi cal i ndi vi dual i ty, al l owi ng for a matchi ng between
r 9
See, for exam pfe, Rubens' HAAne Foument in o Fur Coot, ilnd
t he di scussi on i n Berger (1975: 60-61). I mi ght add t hat a whol e art
has devel oped i n radi o and TV t o i nduce perf ormers
t o
proj ect t hei r
t al k as i f t o act ual audi ences l ocat ed at some Drescri bed di st ance. and
as i f
part
of a current i nt eract i on. On t he cont i ngenci es of t rai ni ng
pol i t i cal
candi dat es i n t hese t echni ques, see Carey (1976).
subj ect and personal
i denti ty of the model , provi di ng
onl y
that the model i s known personal l y,
oratl east known o{ by
the vi ewer. (Thus the photographi c game of i denti fyi ng baby
pi ctures or hi gh school photos or of matchi ng earl y pi ctures
of cel ebri ti es agai nst thei r current i mage.) For vi ewers of a
portrai t,
thi s matchi ng possi bi l i ty i s cruci al ; ri tual use cannot
be made of
pi ctures
of
j ust
anyone, onl y pi ctures
of the
famed or of those wi thi n one' s own ci rcl e. l n the case of
commerci al
pi ctures,
thi s l i nkage i s unnecessary-except i n
regard to celebrity or
"citizen"
testimonials.
Observe that i n photographi c portrai ts,
the model i s
frankl y
"posed."
Hi s havi ng taken up a
posi ti on
before the
camera si mpl y i n order to be photographed i n no way
detracts from the pi cture bei ng thought an authenti c,
"real "
one. Moreover, what i s pi ctured i s what i s real l y goi ng on,
namel y, portrai ture,
the
gi vi ng
of the model over to the
process of bei ng rendered. We woul d not say, then, that such
a pi cture was
"merel y
posed," as though to correct anyone' s
bel i ef that i t was somethi ng el se. That the backSround may
6e a mete pi cture of scenery does not di scredi t the portrai t
ei ther, for here there i s no pretense that anythi ng but a prop
i s i nvol ved.
One i s remi nded here of the frame comol exi tv of
apparentl y nai ve photographs and the di verse real ms of bei ng
we seem abl e to easi l y amal gamate. For exampl , a photo-
graph may i nvol ve not onl y a model who i s a recl person
and
a backdrop which is a painting of trees, but also a framed
photograph or oi l portrai t, real i n i ts own sense, used as a
sceni c resourcer i ntroduci ng sti l l another pl ane of events.
l ndeed, at the turn of the century mortuary pi ctures were to
be found i n whi ch a framed photographi c portrai t of the
deceased was set ami dst wreaths and real fl owers, al l
pl aced
i n front of a cl oudy canvas sky and
photographed.
(lncidentally, what resulted v,tas a photograph of a photo-
graph, somethi ng that i s frame-di sti nct from a pri nt
off the
same negative, the rephotograph of a photograph,
and, of
course, a l etterpress reproducti on of a
photograph.) In al l of
these ways photographi c portrai ture has from the begi nni ng
i nvol ved embeddi ngs of materi al from one frame i nto
materi al s i n another,20 a
practi ce,
i nci dental l y, l ong
empl oyed i n pai nti ng.
A
"real "
photographi c portrai t
may be one that stri kes
the vi ewer as bad i n vari ous ways: i t may be unfl atteri ng or
fai l to capture the personal i ty the model i s
"known"
to have
or be badl y composed, l i ghted, pri nted, and so forth. But
these defi ci enci es do not refl ect on the genui neness or
authenti ci ty of the portrai t. A questi on
of fabri cati on and
keyi ng, a questi on of real i ty, woul d enter when we di s-
covered that the
portrai t
was
"real l y"
of someone el se,
merel y someone who l ooked l i ke the model we thought was
i nvol ved or that the
pi cture
contai ned the mere
posi ng
of a
posi ng, as when a commerci al adverti sement presents
some-
2oExampl es
may be f ound i n Lesy (1973). Post cards earl y i n t hi s
cent ury al so empl oyed embeddi ngs, t he beaut i f ul bel oved of t he
l onel y l over appeari ng i n a bal l oon above hi s head, of t t i mes
compet i ng f or f ree space l vi t h her phot ograph
or port rai t , t hi s bei ng a
t hi rd real m empl oyed, I suppose, i n case t he poi nt
was mi ssed. Not e,
t he equi val ent of a t hought bal l oon' s access t o t he heat ed brai n of a
figure wa5 a privilege
of novelists before the camera was invented,
PI CTURE FRAMES 17
thi ng meant to be seen as though a pri vate photographi c
portrai t
when i n fact a professi onal model di d the work,
posi ng
i n a way he woul d not were he posi ng for a
photograph
of hi msel f for hi s own
pri vate
use. To whi ch
must be added the fact that al most from the begi nni ng of
pri vate personal photographi c portrai ture, model s guyed the
process,
taki ng an avowedl y
"funny"
pi cture, for exampl e,
one whi ch extended the reprsented scenery i nto everythi ng
but a hol e for the model ' s real head to be
popped
through, or
one i n whi ch the model assumed a purposel y
comi c pose.
Commerci al pi ctures then added a l ami nati on, presenti ng
pi ctures of professi onal model s posed
as pri vate persons
guyi ng
a
portrai t pose.
I mi ght add that when a
genui ne
pri vate photographi c portrai t i s borrowed by a student,
transformed i nto a sl i de, and
presented
to an audi ence as an
i nstance of photographi c portrai ture, then one mi ght have to
say that al though a real portrai t i s bei ng used, i t i s not bei ng
used i n the way i ntended, and no ri tual attaches to i ts
percepti on.
Form remai ns; functi on changes.
Fi nal l y, l ook agai n at the noti on of
"posi ng."
A com-
merci al model stagi ng an ad i n whi ch he i s to appear as a
doctor i s
"posi ng,"
an acti vi ty cl earl y di fferent from
"i mposturi ng"
as a doctor (as when someone attempts to
practi ce
medi ci ne wi thout trai ni ng or a l i cense), and aki n to
"acti ng"
a medi cal rol e i n a movi e. But even more cl earl y,
someone
"posi ng"
for hi s portrai t
i s not doi ng so i n the
commerci al model ' s sense. For, as suggested, i n pri vate
portrai ts there i s ordi nari l y no effort to use sceni c cues to
provi de
the vi ewer of the pi cture
wi th an understandi ng ti at
a make-bel i eve worl d i s pi ctured
whose subi ects have a soci al
and personal
i denti ty l i ttl e matchi ng that of the model s.
Commerci al posi ng
avowedl y transforms a model i nto al most
anyone the advertiser wants to construct an imaginary scene
around; private portraiture
transforms a model into a
decorative representation of himself, the two
"ofs"
of
photography here nicely blended. Observe that the question
of primping
or posturing
for the camera is not here at issue.
Private portraiture, public portraiture
for purposes
of
publicity, caught news shots of national leaders, and even art
photography
of
"i nteresti ng
l ooki ng" faces, al l refl ect the
fundamental fact that thei r model s are not presenti ng
themsel ves i n a
personal
or soci al i denti ty not thei r
"own";
that i s what underl i es our commonsense desi gnati on of these
pictures
as
"actually
of" their subiects. All are to be
contrasted to commercial make-believe, whether fanciful or
fully realistic, for whether a model poses
as a doctor
gr
Napol eon or ti e devi l does not si gni fy herel i n al l cases
subi ect and model woul d not be the same, l eadi ng us to say
that we do not have an actual picture
ofa doctor, Napoleon,
or the devi l . (Whi ch i s not to say that a model who poses
as a
doctor will not
provide
us with an actual photogroph,
nor an
1ctual photograph of an adult, a male, a white person, a
goodl ooker,
a
professi onal
model , and so forth. Nor to deny
that an actual photograph
of a doctor is a possibility,
whereas an actual
photograph
of Napol eon or the devi l i s
not, although an actual photograph
of an actual
portrait
of
Napol eon i s, whereas of the devi l , not.)
vll,HlSf
"::::il"i,y'":?",';11'["",'J'n'iliif '?5
i udgi ng
pi cture portrai ts: of the fi rst, i s i t doctored or
18 GENDERADVERTI SEMENTS
contri ved, and i n ei ther case, covertl y or overtl y; of the
second, i s i t
"touched
up," fai thful , fl atteri ng, and the l i ke.
(Ordi nary concerns usual l y negl ect the possi bi l i ty that what
mi ght seem to be a
pri vate portrai t mi ght real l y be the
fabri cati on or keyi ng of one, thi s negl ect due, perhaps, to the
fact that a
portrai t i s al ready a keyi ng, al ready a ri tual i zati on
of the human form, al ready a departure from the si mpl e
renderi ng of an aspect of the worl d the way i t i s for us.) In
any case, the
question
can be raised as to how, apart from
portrai tur, photographs can feature subi ects i n a way that i s
systemati cal l y di fferent from the way thei r model s mi ght
depl oy themsel ves when not before a camera. Here, then, i s a
concern that does not bear on i ssues associ ated wi th the
physi ol ogy and
psychol ogy
of
percepti on. In bri ef, whatare
the systemati c di fferences between scens openl y contri ved
for
pi cturi ng and l i ve scenes whose parti ci pan ts
'
are un-
concerned about bei ng photographed; or, put the other way,
what are the systematic differences between pictures
of
openl y contri ved scenes and pi ctures of uncontri ved ones?
(1) Perhaps the most obvi ous departure from real i ty that
photography provi des i s commerci al syncreti sm. The
capaci ty to put
together a real i sti c i ooki ng scene to
photograph
is not far away from the capacity to put together
a scene whose i ndi vi dual el ements are i magi nabl e as real but
whose combi nati on of el ements the worl d i tsel f coul d not
produce or al l ow. Thus fantasti cal pi ctures
i n whi ch a subj ect
speaks to us from wi thi n a bl ock of i ce or whi l e soari ng
through the ai r, or mi ngl es soci al l y wi th fi gures from myth or
wi th notabl es l ong si nce dead but now returned i n thei r
pri me,
or seri ousl y di spl ays i neptness, braggadoci o, fear-
ful ness, and hauteur we woul d onl y expect to fi nd i n
consci ous buffoonery, or i s subj ected to our readi ng hi s
thoughts i n a bal l oon that the other fi gures i n the pi cture
can' t see. A more subtl e compl exi ty i s found i n those ads
whi ch i ntendedl y sati ri ze other ads, thus el evati ng the
make-bel i eve worl d
portrayed
i n one
pi cture
i nto real
materi al s to copy i n the make-bel i eve worl d of another,
provi di ng
thus a keyi ng of a keyi ng.
(2) Consi der now i nvol vement structure. A feature of
soci al si tuati ons i s that parti ci pants are obl i ged to sustai n
appear?nces of zspontaneous i nvol vement i n appropri ate
matters at hand, Evi dence ofan i ndi vi dual ' s i nvol vement wi l l
come from the di recti on and mobi l i ty of hi s gaze,
as wel l as
the al i gnment of hi s eyes, head, and trunk, these ordi nari l y
ori ented i n the same di recti on. Now i t seems that of al i
obl i gatory appearances, that of correct i nvol vement i s the
hardest to si mul ate, and thi s as i f by desi gn. Any attempt to
produce an appropri ate show of i nvol vement i n somethi ng
tends !o
produce i nstead an appearance of i nvol vement i n the
task of affecti ng such i nvol vement.2r Al though most
i ndi vi dual s acqui re the capaci ty to convi nci ngl y contri ve a
show of i nterest i n what another i s sayi ng or doi ng, abi l i ty
fal ters when they are requi red to si mul ate
"natural "
i nvol vement wi thi n more compl ex soci al arrangements, as
when l i steni ng to tal k that the tal ker i s hi msel f si mul ati ng, or
expressi ng to one parti ci pant a shared reacti on regardi ng
another, or mai ntai ni ng one conversati on i n very cl ose
Droxi mi tv to another. At such moments the i ndi vi dual i s
l i kel y to i nduce a sense of uneasi ness i n vi ewers, due to the
percei ved
overfi xedness of hi s gaze
and hi s fai l ure to al i gn
trunk, head, and eyes i n the manner we have come to expect.
Perhaps the most obtrusi ve exampl e i s to be seen when an
i ndi vi dual gl ances at a camera or
persons
moni tori ng hi m but
tri es to prevent hi s trunk and hi s head from fol l owi ng hi s
eyes. N4ay I add that our capaci ty to di scern mi croscopi c
di screpanci es i n anti ci pated al i gnments of eyes, head, and
trunk i s si mol v enormous.
(3) Another sort of photographi c
departure from real i ty
can be seen by contrasti ng portrai ts and scenes. l t i s cl bar
that al though an i mage of a person
or even of a group of
persons (i f i n staggered array) can be rather ful l y caught from
the front by the camera' s strai ght-on eye, the acti vi ty i n
natural soci al si tuati ons can rarel y be wel l pi ctured
from such
an angl e. Best vantage poi nt must be chosen afresh for each
confi gurati on, and thi s can i nvol ve a posi ti oni ng of the
camera that an eye and i ts person
coul d hardl y manage i n
natural soci al l i fe. /\4ore i mportant, acti vi ty may have to be
broken up and spread open, for a camera cannot peer i nsi de
the i nward-faci ng enci rcl ements often found. (After
al l ,
portrai t posi ng i s not a posture di ctated by what can go on i n
soci al si tuati ons; i t i s through and through an answer to the
speci al needs of the camera and to the character of
portrai ture.)
And such a spread-out array can be staged to
i ncorporate devi ces for di recti ng the attenti on of the vi ewer
to a central person,
whi ch devi ces do not otherwi se appear i n
nature. Thus i n pol i ti cal publ i ci ty shots, one practi ce i s to
have the l eader' s advi sors and chi l dren turn thei r faces from
l he camera and sel f-effaci ngl y l ook at the mai n fi gure,
dei cti cal l y poi nti ng wi th thei r faces and someti mes thei r
hands i n the di recti on that attenti on i s to fol l ow, even whi l e
the central
person
waves di rectl V to the camera and the crowd.
Al l of thi s i s found onl y where there i s a front-on audi ence or a
camera, and i s radi cal l y di fferent from the i nward turni ng ex-
hi bi ted i n ordi nary face-to-face i nteracti on.2
2
There are other i nstructi ve di fferences between portrai ts
and pi ctured
scenes. In both cases, the
persons
who model
for the pi ctures have uni que bi ographi cal (personal )
i denti ti es. As suggested, for the owner of a photographi c
portrai t,
the
possi bi l i ty
of maki ng thi s i denti fi cati on i s
central to the ri tual functi on the
portrai t
wi l l have. But not
so i n the case of commerci al pi ctures,
except perhaps
when
the pi cture features a
personal
testi moni al .23 Presumabl y
"Ot her
unnat ur al devi ces f or exhi bi t i ng domi nance ar e avai l abl e
t o phot ogr apher s.
For exampl e, a cl i che of adver t i sement s i s t o
pi ct ur e
one i ndi vi dual who i s i n t he cl ose company of anot her l ooki ng
at t hat ot her ador i ngl y and sel f - ef f aci ngi y, as i f t he ot her ' s use of t he
adver t i sed pr oduct
had r ender ed hi m wor t hy of such at t ent j on, Al -
t hough openl y l ovi ng l ooks at cl ose quar t er s ar e somet i mes addr essed
t o t he ver y young as par t
of t hei r easy t r ansf or mat i on i nt o nonper -
sons, t hese expr essi ons bet ween adul t s ar e not common, bei ng i ncom,
pat i bl e wi t h ot her i nt er act i on obl i gat i ons of t he ador er t o t he ador cd.
_"Por t r ai t s
t aken of anonymous model s by r enowned
phot o-
gr apher s can become pr i zed
by t he col l ect or s, and i n t hi s sense have
r i t ual val ue, but her e because t he pi ct ur e pr ovi des
a cont act wi t h t he
t aker , not t he t aken. Theae ar e, of cour se, var i ous ef f or t s t o const i t ut e
phot ogr aphs
i nt o obj ect s of scar ci t y- i nt o r el i cs and t her eby i nt o i t ems
of monet ar y val ue. Pr i nt s f r om t he or i gi nal negat i ve ar e appar ent l y dh-
t i ngui shabl e f r om r e- phot ogr aphs of t he t ext . The ski l l i nvol ved i n
devel opi ng and enl ar gi ng can i t sel f be cl ai med as i dent i f i abl e and
t her ef or e a means of di st i ngui shi ng pr oduct s,
Et c.
( For
al l of whi ch,
and f or much ot her hel p, I am gr at ef ul
t o Lee Ann Dr aud. )
2 rSee
Gof f man,
"Al i enat i on
f rom I nt eract i on"
11967
t 1 13-136).
what the adverti sement i s concerned to depi ct i s not
parti cul ar
i ndi vi dual s al ready known, but rather acti vi ty
which would be recognizable were we to see it performed in
real l i fe by persons
not known to us personal l y. (Whi ch i s not
to say that the subjects may not be depicted in a manner to
i mpl y that they woul d natural l y know each other very wel l .)
l n effect, pi ctured scenes show exampl es of categori es of
persons, not
parti cul ar persons. Now observe that al though i n
real l i fe we obtai n l ots of vi ews of
persons
whom we can
merel y pl ace i n soci al categori es, unl ess we al so know them
personal l y or have good
busi ness reasons to be deal i ng wi th
them, we are not i n a posi ti on to wi tness what we wi tness
about them i n commerci al scenes. Indeed, there are many
Di ctured scenes. such as that of husband and wi fe i n thei r
bedroom, that no busi ness or acquai ntanceshi p coul d warrant
our seei ng. Onl y a peepi ng tom of unprecedented capabi l i ti es
coul d manage the vi ew. Li ke readers of what a novel i st
suppl i es of hi s characters, the vi ewer becomes godl i ke,
unconstrai ned by any need of l egi ti mate soci al grounds for
bei ng pri vy to what i s depi cted i n the scene.2a In short, the
possi bi l i ty of arrangi ng a scene from the vi sual pi npoi nt of
vi ew of a si ngl e camera' s eye-i nto whi ch angl e and di sl ance
of vi si on vast hordes of vi ewers can be thrust-i s a soci al
l i cense as wel l as an opti cal one.
(4) A feature ofthe photographi c frame i s the possi bi l i ty of
eschewi ng the depi cti on of ordi nary l i fe for hi gh symbol i sm.
Thus, an i mage of part of a model ' s body can be made to fi l l
the whol e pi cture, arti cul ated to be read as a deep comment
on the enti re human condi ti on, not merel y an exampl e
drawn from i t, and provi di ng us wi th a pi cture whose subj ect
i s not a
person but a smal l
part
of the anatomy, such as a
fi ngerti p. A l esser versi on
qf
thi s expressi oni sm must be
consi dered, bei ng more common and probabl y more si gni fi -
can t.
In real si tuati ons, we external i ze our ci rcumstances and
intent, in effect facilitating the adaptation of others in our
surround to us. But i n a manner of speaki ng, thi s di spl ay
tends to occur as
part
of a stream of acts in the same order of
bei ng, some of whi ch acts have
i ust
occurred and others of
whi ch are l i kel y to start occurri ng. In pri vate and publ i ci ty
portrai ture, i ndi vi dual s can be gi ven a
qui te
di fferent rel ati on
to what they di spl ay. Two boxers taki ng wei ghi ng-i n
publ i ci ty shots wi l l assume a fi ghti ng
pose,
choreographi ng
an i l l ustrati on of the acti ons they wi l l engage i n. But these
actions are
"mere"
representations, totally cut off from any
actual sequence i n whi ch the orgi nal s mi ght occur. And
i ndeed, l i ttl e competence i n fi sti c arts i s requi red to evi nce
the
pose. What we obtai n are
photographi c recordi ngs of
embl ems, not acti ons. Si mi l arl y, when a renowned sci enti st
graciousfy submits to a magazine interview (in the interests
of di ssemi nati ng knowl edge), he i s l i kel y to be posed
fi ngeri ng hi s equi pment as though a sl i ce of hi s occupati onal
l i fe had been caught: he i s shown
peeri ng
i nto a mi croscope,
wri ti ng a formul a on the board, hol di ng a test tube up to the
24Cart oon
st ri ps provi de ot her t ransf ormat i ons of t he everyday.
For exampl e, t he prot agoni st s can be at a di st ance or even hi dden
yet
t hei r words can be bal l ooned i nt o t he f oreground, i n ef f ect al l owi ng
the viewer to bug distal voices. Here, and in regard to other aspects of
t he t ransf ormat i on rul es of t he cart oon f rame, see Fresnaul t -Deruel l e
(197
5a, 197 5b, 197 6).
PI CTUNE FRAMES t 9
l i ght, or arrangi ng a fossi l . Thereby he crudel y mi mes a
posture pl ucked from hi s own rol e, momentari l y trans-
formi ng l he l i vi ng tool s of hi s trade i nto dramaturgi c
equi pment and hi msel f i nto a pantomi mi st
of fi xed
expressions. And what we see is not a photographic
record of
an actual scene from the scientist's life, as would be available
were a secret camera trained on his laboratorv. nor a clever
contrivance of such a photographic
record
(this presented
ei ther as a real one or as an admi tted si mul ati on), but
sometling that is only to be found as a
posing for a picture,
having been staged in response to a conception of what
woul d make a col orful , tel l i ng photograph,
and, behi nd thi s,
a concepti on of what consti tutes the appropri ate conventi on
for
"representi ng"
the parti cul ar cal l i ng.2s Obvi ousl y i n al l
these cases what one has i s not i ntenti on.. di spl ay i n the
ethol ogi cal sense, si nce embl ems of the model ' s cal l i ng do
not tel l us what i s to happen (or
what i s threatened or
promi sed),
but rather the sort of acti vi ty the model chooses
to be i denti fi ed wi th, thi s acti vi ty bei ng symbol i zed, as i t
were, by a quotati on of one of i ts dramati cal l y tel l i ng
phases.26 What i n fact
probabl y
has happened i s that the
staff photographer
has okayed the
pose,
and what probabl y
wi l l happen i s that the sci enti st wi l l soon exchange
pl easantri es
wi th hi s departi ng guests-these events bel ongi ng
to an order of activitv radicallv different from the one
i ntendedl y portrayed i n the pi cture.
\ / l I
l , i s pl ai n, t hen, t har excepr i n r he case of caught
Y | | scenes, the arrangements of model s and sceni c
resources that the camera photographs will differ sys-
temati cal l y from the way the unposi ng worl d i s. Now one
,
should considef the contrary issue: the carryover of the way
the world is to any photograph. For the transformational
code for representing reality in
pictures-the photographic
frame-would hardly be a code were not some sort of
relationship systematically preserved between what is trans-
formed and the transformation. But in the ouestion of
carryover, some prel i mi nary
di scussi on i s requi red.
Photographs (like pencil sketches) can be used to illustrote
2sFor
t hi s l at t er poi nt , and f or ot her suggest i ons i ncorporat ed
wi t hout f urt her acknowl edgment , I am very grat ef ul
t o
l ohn
Carey.
26Sci ent i st s
are here used as an exampl e because one mi ght t hi nk
t hey woul d bal k at such nonsense. Exampl es are even easi er t o f i nd
among busi ness l eaders who appear i n nevs magazi nes and annual
company report s busy wi t h an execut i ve{i ke act i on whose posi ng
coul d onl y have t aken t hem away f rom such dut i es. I n t rut h i t seems
t hat ni gh everyone can be peEuaded by publ i ci st s
t o appear t o t he
publ i c
at l arge i n a mock-up of t hemsel ves and t hei r occupat i ons, an
amat eur t heat ri cs t o whi ch pol i t i ci ans are al so wi l l i ng t o subj ect t hei r
greet i ngs, f arewel l s, commi serat i ons, and ot her i nt i macy ri t ual s. Nor i s
t hi s readi ness t o ref rame one' s own doi ngs so t hat t he publ i c
wi l l
get
a
synopt i c vi ew of one' s rol e a pal t i cul arl y
cont emporary phenomenon.
Bourgeois society has never wanted for persons ready to see the need
f or a permanent di spl ay of t hemsel ves i n somber port rai t
oi l s,
cl ut chi ng a book, a l edger, a ri di ng crop, or a rose, f rami ng t hemsel ves
t hus i n some sort of myst i cal rel at i on t o t he equi pment of t hei r
vocat i on, a t ouchi ng encouragement t o t he worshi p t hat ot hers mi ght
be wi l l i ng t o of f er t o exempl i f i cat i ons of what i s best i n humani t y.
Perhaps one shoul d see t he readi ness f or t hi s sort of personal publ i ci t y
as entirely natulal, to the self, and a modest life a perversion forced
upon t he masses f or want of anyt hi ng l i ke an adequat e suppl y of
board rooms and marbl e f i reDl aces.
2() GENDERADVERTI SEMENTS
behavi oral
practi ces and arrangements, typi cal l y by vi rtue of
model s havi ng been posed accordi ngl y. The ki nd of practi ces
photographs
can best illustrate are those that are firmly
codi fi ed as to form and can be represented from begi nni ng to
end, i n toto, wi thi n the vi sual fi el d that can be ni cel y
encompassed by short-range camera focus.27 Of course, one
i s l i kel y to be i nterested i n photographabl e behavi oral
practi ces because they are routi nel y associ ated wi th parti cu-
l ar soci al meani ngs, and i t i s admi ttedl y the si gn vehi cl e, not
the si gni fi cati on, that i s
preci sel y i l l ustratabl e.
As I use the term
"i l l ustrati on."
no i mpl i cati on i s
i ntended about exi stence; an i l l ustrated practi ce may have
occurred, but i l l ustrati on i tsel f does not attest to such
occurrence, bel ongi ng to subj ects, not model s. l t i s, then,
perfectl y reasonabl e to expect that i l l ustrati ons may be
found across several modes of representati on, some cl earl y
i nvol vi ng make-bel i eve. For exampl e, the
"arml ock,"
the
standard adul t cross-sex ti e-si gn i n our soci ety, can be
i l l ustrated by means of what can be found i n comi cs,
cartoons, real i sti c ads, news shots of cel ebri ti es who are
"on,"
two actors taki ng the part of a coupl e on the theatfi cal
stage, caught
pi ctures from ordi nary l i fe scenes, and, of
course, l i ve scenes. More to the poi nt, across these qui te
di fferent real ms of bei ng, no systemati c rel evant di fference
seems detectabl e i n the arml ocks deDi cted: the form of thi s
display can be, and very often is,
perfectly represented in
toto in any of these frames.
Photographs can al so be used to
provi de documentati on or
an instonce-record of the sort of behavorial practice which
can be i l l ustrated pi ctori al l y. An i nstance-record i s evi dence
(whi ch a mere i l l ustrati on i s not) that an i nstance of the
pr\ctice did occur as pictured on the occasion of the picture
takiiig. Call such a picture an instontiqtion- Not that a
pi cture whi ch records an i nstance of a
practi ce,
that i s,
i nstanti ates i t, i s necessari l y a
good i l l ustrati on of i t,
somethi ng that can' t be sai d of many other ki nds of records.
And observe that pi ctures can be used not merel y to provi de
i nstance-records of practi ces al ready known, but al so to hel p
us become aware of practi ces theretofore uni denti fi ed.
Now note that i f one' s i nterest i s i n the pi cturi ng of scenes
as wel l as i n the scenes that are pi ctured, then the di fference
between i l l ustrati on and i nstanti ati on can become com-
pl i cated. For any photograph whi ch merel y i l l ustrates a
behavi oral practi ce must al so
provi de not merel y an
i nstance-record of the i l l ustrati ve practi ce, but an i nstance
i tsel f. And the same can be sai d when one
passes
bevond
illustration itself to symbolization, namely, a referencing
based on what may be a l oose, uncodi fi ed connecti on
between si gn and meani ng (or a fi xed but thoroughl y
conventi onal one), and upon an evoked si gni fi cance whi ch
may bear l i ttl e rel ati on to the facts. A credi tabl y candi d
wedding picture of the groom placing a ring on the finger of
the bri de not onl y attests rel i abl y to a weddi ng havi ng taken
pl ace, but al so suppl i es us wi th a speci al segment of the
ceremony, one that has come to serve as a symbol of the
whol e, and behi nd thi s, as a symbol of the presumabl y l ovi ng
rel ati onshi p that was sol emni zed on the occasi on. In fact,
2?For
exampl e, t ongue showi ngi Smi t h, Chase, and Li ebl i ch
1197
4).
however, the
pi ctured
event i tsel f does not provi de us wi th
evi dence of th sequence of speci fi c ri tual detai l s out of
whi ch the weddi ng i n questi on
was formul ated, or evi dence
of the qual i ty
of the rel ati onshi p thereby rati fi ed. What can
be i nstanti ated i n compl eted form (and what i s therefore
most sui tabl e to pi ctori al research) i nvol ves l esser matters,
such as the asymmetry of the tradi ti onal ri ng ri tual , the
genral styl i ng of weddi ng ri ngs, and the choi ce of fi ngers
thought proper
for the pl acement of thi s pi ece of ceremoni al
j ewel ry.
On the other hand, an
"expressi ve"
pi cture does
provi de
an actual i nstance of the use i n pi ctures of
stereotyped symbol i zati ons of wi der soci al events and
rel ati onshi ps.
The di fferences among i l l ustrati ons, i nstance records, and
symbol i zati ons as here defi ned, compl i cate the anal ysi s of
pi ctures. A further bedevi l ment i s the
"photographi c
fal l acy," namel y, the very general tendency to confuse
real ness wi th representati veness and i deographi c wi th
nomotheti c val i di ty. A caught photograph
of
persons
i n
acti on can provi de
al l the evi dence that one needs that a
parti cul ar event-such as a weddi ng-very l i kel y di d occur.
But that suffi ci ency i s for those i nterested i n the
parti cul ars
of the past,
i n a word, bi ography. l f i nstead one i s i nterested
i n soci al routi nes, i n customary behavi oral patterns,
then a
weddi ng pi cture
must di fferentl y fi gure; i t can provi de
an
instance record of, say, placement pattern with respect to the
ri ng, but very l i ttl e evi dence concerni ng the soci al character-
i sti cs of the popul ati ons
across whi ch the practi ce i s found
and the range of contexts i n whi ch i t occurs among these
peopl e i n fact, l i ttl e evi dence ti at one i s deal i ng wi th a
pattern at al l . Yet when one establ i shes that a
pi cture
of
somethi ng real l y i s of the subi ect i t
portrays,
i t i s very hard
to avoi d thi nki ng that one has establ i shed somethi ng beyond
thi s, namel y, somethi ng about the event' s currency,
typi cal i ty, commonness, di stri buti on, and so forth. The
paradox
i s that
"smal l
behavi ors" are what can be very ful l y
i nstanti ated by a si ngl e photograph, but one such pi cture
can
onl y establ i sh the feasi bi l i ty of actual occurrence. (The
pi cture
of Lee Harvey Oswal d bei ng shot provi des excel l ent
evi dence of how a revol ver was hel d on one occasi on and,
more i mportant,
l ack
Ruby' s gui l t
i n thi s conncti on; but
the pi cture provi des
l i ttl e evi dence of how hand guns are
general l y
hel d for cl ose range fi ri ng.) To whi ch one must add
that verv often the soft of event wh ose mere occurrence-not
typicolity of occurrence is of biographical or historic
i nterest i s one that cannot be photographed
i n the round
throughout i ts course, but onl y i n cross-secti on, as i t were,
thi s moment often provi di ng very i nadequate evi dence of the
occurrence and character of the event as a whol e.
\ / | | I
Turn now 10 the
questi on
of carryover. Whether a
Y l l I pi ctured
scene i s caught, faked, or, i n varyi ng
degrees real i sti cal l y mocked-up, the model wi l l bri ng el e-
ments of hi msel f to i t, affordi ng to the vi ewers somethi ng of
what he affords the eyes of actual participants
in his real
scenes.
Just
as a stage actor
(but
not an opera si nger) can
hardl y perform
a
part
i n a l anguage other than one i n whi ch
he has a real competence, so model s, professi onal
or amateur,
cannot transform themsel ves compl etel y for a
photographi c
appearance, at l east i f they are not to be encumbered wi th a
PI CTURE FRAMES 21
massi ve di sgui se. In theory at l east, personal
i denti ty wi l l be
recoverabl e, oftti mes al so the uni que setti ng i n whi ch the
photograph
occurred (i f not by us, then by model i ng
agenci es, the pol i ce,
ki nsmen of the model s. or whoever).
However, i f our i nterests are not ri tual i sti c, as when we
cheri sh a pi cture
of Aunt l \4abel because she hersel f can be
i denti fi ed i n i t, or l egal i sti c, as when we establ i sh that the
peron
a certificate authorizes is the person
who is presenting
the authori zati on, or pl ayful ,
as when we match earl y
portrails
against later ones, but rather academic, namely, to
i nqui r i nto the way the worl d i s, then i denti fi abi l i ty as such
ceases to be central.
Other matters wi l l be more i mportant. We are al l i n our
soci ety trai ned to empl oy a somewhat common i di om of
posture, posi ti on,
and gl ances,
wordl essl y choreographi ng
ourselves relative to others in social situations with the effect
that i nterpretabi l i ty of scenes i s possi bl e.
Some of thi s i di om
we automati cal l y conti nue to empl oy i n composi ng and
posing
for scenes that are to be
photographed-iumbled
up,
of course, wi th crude patches
of gross symbol i zati on for the
camera.
But that i s onl y the begi nni ng, for however posed
and
"arti fi ci al "
a pi cture
i s, i t i s l i kel y to contai n el ements that
record instances of real things. The scene pictured
on the
backdrop of a photographi c portrai t
mi ght be a pai nted
fantasy, but the chair the subject sits on is real enoush and
speaks to a real genre
of chai rs, not pi ctures. (S;dents
questi on
the sense i n whi ch a chai r can be sai d to be real , but
that sort of doubt is not here at issue, for however tiat
questi on
i s answered, the fact sti l l remai ns that a
pi cture
of a
chai r i s a radi cal l y di fferent thi ng from a chai r i tsel f.) The
cl othes worn on l he occasi on are often Sunday best,
someti mes causi ng the wearer to feel
"unnatural ,"
but, of
course, i n al l l i kel i hood there wi l l be real ceremoni al
occasi ons when the same garb
wi l l have been worn, the
l i mi ti ng case here bei ng the weddi ng gown,
si nce i t may be
worn and pi ctured
on the same and (often)
onl y occasi on.
The way a female model for a seated private portrait
manages
her l egs can be a very studi ed effect hel ped al ong someti mes
by the photographer,
but what the two here strive for in this
apparently artificial way can be exactly what she strives for
when seated at a party
facing viewers from the front; what
one i s l earni ng about, then, i s how she mi ght choreograph
herself for front views in general,
not for camera views in
particular.
The same can be said for the Western male
practi ce
of coveri ng the crotch when i n a si tti ng posi ti on.
The fact that male subjects from non-Western cultures tend
not to exhi bi t thi s protecti veness
i n portrai ts
i s not a soeci fi c
di fference between thei r pi ctures
and ours, merel y an
i nci dental one, bei ng speci fi c to the more general
i ssue of
behavi or when exposed to di rect vi ew, and
pertai ns
to
model s, not merel y subj ects. When a movi e stafl et coupl e at a
ni ghtcl ub back bench suddenl y adj ust thei r faces i nto the
styl i zed teeth gri mace
found mai nl y i n photographs,
doi ng
thi s because a cameraman has come i nto si ght, the free
di stance between thei r rumps can sti l l refl ect spaci ng
practi ces
i n uncontri ved scenes, not merel y contri ved
ones-al though admi ttedl y i n photographs
i ndexed di stances
and especi al l y depths are hard to measure. And by exami ni ng
the spacing and body orientation of the two in regard to
other subj ects i n the pi cture,
we come to take i t for granted,
probabl y qui te
correctl y, that the two consti tute a,,wi th,"
drawi ng here on preci sel y
the 5ame cues we woutd
automati cal l y
empl oy when functi oni ng as actual
parti ci Dants
of l i ve scenes.
| !Z
Gi ven that pi ctures
may be organi zed as portrai ts
or as
IA scenes (and
i f the l atter, caught, faked, or real i sti c to a
degree), and gi ven
the di sti ncti on between i l l ustrati on and
instantiation, and the contrast of both of these to evocative
symbol i zati ons provi di ng
at best a
purel y
conventi onal
rel ati on between vehi cl e and si gn, and gi ven
further that one
can be concerned about the nature of pictures
as well as the
nature of the worl d, i t i s possi bl e
to begi n to see how
heterogeneous a photograph
may be as an object of academic
tnreresL
One fi nds i n
pi ctures
not onl y rul es of scene producti on
that are excl usi ve to pi ctures,
but al so photographi c
conven-
ti ons pecul i ar
to parti cul ar
subi ect matters. For exampl e,
portrait photographers
routinely touch up negatives or prints
to i mprove the compl exi on of the subj ects appeari ng i n
them, creati ng a
peopl e
that has smooti er ski n than that
found among mort2l s. In ads brunette women tend to be
styl ed somewhat di fferentl y from bl ond women; thi s
presumabl y
a characteri sti c of pi ctures,
not l i fe.2E
The setti ngs i n whi ch members of a fami l v snao one
another are not fabricated for the purpose,
are not merely
props,
but, as wi th the real setti ngs used i n home movi es,2e
are hardl y a haphazard sel ecti on from al l the ones the fami l y
empl oys, and can onl y have the effect of produci ng
a fal se
general
impression of its habitat. The expensive backdrops
found in most commercial scenes con be found in the real
worl d but onl y i n very narrow ci rcl es. (Once
rented or
donated as background for a film or an advertisement, these
envi ronments can become merel y another el ement of the
world to which tie viewer has pictorial
access; they can
becom unreal i sti cal l y fami l i ar.) The femal es depi cted i n
commercially posed
scenes have straighter teeth and are
sl i mmer, younger,
tal l er, bl onder, and
"better"
l ooki ng than
those found in most real scenes, even most real scenes
occurri ng i n styl i sh setti ngs, but certai nl y these fi gures are
si mi l ar to the ones found i n uncontri ved, l i ve scenes that
occur i n model i ng agenci es and other real pl aces
where
mai nl y model s foregather-whi ch pl aces,
note, may not be
l uxuri ousl y furni shed. l n contrast, the fact that women i n
Ameri can adverti sements show no hai r on thei r l egs or under
their arms can be taken to reflect directly the shaving
26suggest ed
i n ^4i um
(1975: 142),
29See
Chal f en (1975: 96). Commerci at movi es can be shot i n a
st udi o cont ai ni ng hand-f ashi oned envi ronment s, or on an open st udi o
l ot , or i n a
Seographi cal
regi on rhat i s si mi l ar i n t errai n i o t he real
t hi ng but cl oser t o hand, or
"on
l ocat i on, , where t he f i ct i ve event s are
purport ed
t o occur. But ' , real , , i n t he l ast case must be used wi t h care.
Because mocked-up events are staged in these settings, often set in an
epoch before or after the actual moviemaking, and because the
ordinary traffic of people
and events must be roped off during
shooting, the realism provided
by the setting can only serve ti
hei ght en t he i l l usi on, as when a con man manages t o make use of a
real banki ng of f i ce t o hoodwi nk a mark. Rel i ance on such backdrops
to establish life-likeness gives
them a significance different from what
t hey woul d ordi nari l y have, t ransf ormi ng t hem-as f ar as f unct i on i s
concerned-i nt o quot at i ons
or symbol s of t hemsel ves.
22 GENDERADVERTI SEMENTS
Fi nal l v. another l ook at the noti on of a
"scene,"
al ong
wi th a revi ew of the concept of commerci al real i sm'
Consi der fi rst the organi zati onal
constrai nts
al l scenes i n
Dracti ce
preval ent among women throughout
Ameri ca'
(But
i tr ttui tt"tt l egs and armpi ts di spl ayed
i n French adverti se-
ments cannot similarly be taken as evidence ol appearances
beyond the camera, for i n France, Ameri can
depi l atory
rrj *i "at to far have mostl y i nfl uenced
the commerci al l y
i i ci urea
*ortO.) Fi nal ty, the
general di fference
i n hai r
i tvti ne,
faci al decorati on,
and cl othi ng
pattern that di sti n-
*Ji tt' "1
tuf" subj ects
from femal e subi ects
i n Ameri can
l Ju"rti r"t"nt
i s by and l arge true of how mal es i n al l
Westerni zed
countri es are di sti ngui shed from femal es both i n
posi ngs for adverti sements
and i n uncontri ved scnes l o
whi ch" must be added that what i s common to commerci al
scenes and rare i n l i fe may
yet be commonl y
part of the
i deal s and fantasi es of many actual
peopl e'
' -
i n rut, between commerci al l y
posed scenes and l i ve ones
there i s every ki nd of carryover and al most every ki nd of
di screpancy.
Nor are matters i n any way fi xed' As soon asa
formul ai c feature of commerci al l y
choreographed
scenes i s
uncovered and
publ i ci zed, adverti sers are i n a
posi ti on to
sel f-consci ousl y
i ni ti ate a sharpl y contrary
pol i cy or to
present guyed versi ons of the ol d. Wi thal , the art of anal ysi s
i s to U""ei n wi th a batch of
pi ctures and end up wi th
suqgesti ons
of unanti ci pated
features of unconl ri ved
scenes'
or ;i th representati ons
of themes that are hard Lo wri te
about but easy to
pi cture, or wi th i l l ustrati ons
of novel
di fferences between
pi ctures and l i fe' And throughout,
I
bel i eve, the i ssue of expl orati on shoul d be kept separate
i "rpoi rttv
from the i ssue of
proof' Arrangements
whi ch
toi i ro, tunv l i ve scenes
(or many
pi ctured ones) l i e ready
to be uncovered i n one exampl e, but not di rect evi dence
concer ni ng
t hei r ac t ual di sl r i bul i on'
whi ch a
pl aywri ght or novel i st mi ght want to set as the
eneral context of hi s acti on. A segment of an act i n a stage
pl ay (somethi ng an act may have anywhere from one to ten
of,' each offeri ng conti nuous acti on i n one pl ace) i s al so
"ui t"d u ,""n". A quarrel between rel ated
persons, conducted
i n a manner sensed to be open by onl ookers to whom the
di sputants are l ess rel ated, i s al so cal l ed a scene' And there i s
a current vernacul ar use, referri ng to somethi ng that an
i ndi vi dual
mi ght make, di g, or di sl i ke. The scenes thi s
paper
has been concerned wi th are of a di fferent order'
In dctual l i fe as we wend our way through our day we pa(s
i nto and out of i mmedi ate
percepti on range of sequnces ol
others; fl eeri ng opportuni ty
for vi ewi ng al so occurs when
they
pass us. l n metropol i tan ci rcumstances
thi s means that
we wi l l be momentary onl ookers of those whom we cannot
i denti l y bi ographi cal l y
through name or appearance, l hat i ),
that we wi l l catch
gl i mpses of courses of acti on of strangers'
Due to the warranted rputati on of vari ous behavi oral
setti ngs and to the conventi ons
of sel f-presntati on,
we wi l l
L" uti " to i nfer somethi ng about the soci al i denti ty
(age, sex,
race, cl ass, etc.) of these strangers, thei r
personal rel ati onshi p
to one anothetl thei r mood, and thei r current undertaki ngs,
these l ast, typi cal l y,
onl y broadl y cal egori /ed'
ttre totai i ty of vi ewi ngs of the courses of acti on of
strangers whi ch we obtai n throughout our days constl tutes
our
g-l i mpsed worl d. Thi s i s not
qui te an i mpersonal
worl d,
espe;i al l y for sophi sti cated
vi ewers. But i t i s a truncated one,
and one' i n whi ch al most everythi ng can be l ocated i n broad
categori es onl y. l t i s ordi nari l y
bereft of detai l s concerni ng
the iives of those who are witnessed in
passing and bereft of
thei r l ongi tudi nal
poi nt of vi ew regardi ng what they are-seen
as bei ngi nd doi ng.
(We strangers do not see
John
and l \4ary
"otpui ron
shoppi ng
for a brooch to repl ace the one that
wut i ott tust *."I atl ean' s
party, nor do we detect that thei r
apparent dal l yi ng i s due to thei r havi ng to ki l l some ti me
bei ore
goi ng on to catch the new Fel l i ni That i s what they
see. We see I
young mi ddl e-cl ass coupl e l ooki ng at thi ngs i n
a
j ewel ry store.) Observe, then, that to gl i mpse a worl d i s not
somehow to happen upon an i nti mate reveal i ng drama that
was not meanl for us. Nor i s i l 1o obtai n a somehow marred'
di storted, fragmentary vi ew of the whol e, somethi ng that can
be caused to snap back i nto i ts
proper shape by the addi ti on
of new i nformati on
or the exerci se of i nterpreti ve
ski l l ' l t i s
not as though we were cryptographers
havi ng to start wi th a
parti al l y deci phered text, abl e
to take comfort i n the
prospect of eventual success i n unl ocki ng what has al l al ong
l een there. Or cardi ol ogi sts
i nterpreti ng the sounds of a
stethescope
for the character of a pati ent' s di sease' To
gl i mpse a worl d rather i s to empl oy a set of cateSori es more
6r l ess di sti ncti ve to
gl i mpsi ng and often enti rel y adequate
for the i ob
they are desi Snd to do- Nor are these catgorl es
rough and undevel oped; i ndeed, the
persons gl i mpsed are
l i kei y to be
qui te aware of preci sel y how they can
-be
read,
and wl l l hav as
part of thei r concern to conl orm ro
anti ci pated
di spl ayi ngs of themsel ves
and to use these
behavl oral rubri cs as a cover behi nd whi ch to pursue al l
manner of unpubl i shabl e
pr oi ect s. Yet no amount of
suppl ementary
i nformati on
of the ki nd we are l i kel y to
obtai n i s l i kel y to bri ng us to the pri vate vi ew that the
obj ects of our attenti on wi l l themsel ves have of thei r own
undertaki ngs. To be sure, our
passi ng vi ews as strangers and
adverti sements
mi ght share and
presuppose, and the l i berti es
that can
(but aren' t necessari l y) taken i n thei r assembl y; i n
short, consi der the real m of bei ng of whi ch the drama i n
every i ndi vi dual ad i s but an i nstance.
It i s easy to contrast what
goes on i n ads to what
goes on
i n the real worl d and concl ude as commentators
are
wont-that adverti sements
present a dol l ed-up, affl uent
versi on of real i ty, but thi s does not tl l us about the
structure of adverti si ng' s
worl d, that i s, the way i n whi ch i t i s
Dut together. So, too, i t i ( easy to see commerci al real i sm as
const i ; r i nR
but anot her make- bel i eve
r eal m
( al ong wi t h t he
theater, cai toons, the novel , el c.) and to contrasl al l these
merel y
fi cti ve domai ns wi th real i ty; but however i nstructl ve,
thi s compari son,
I thi nk, mi sses the poi nt' For al though such
u i ontrutt ought to be made, there i s another that shoul d
precede i t. To erpl i cate commerci al real i sm one musl stdrl
wi th the nol i on of
"scene,"
whether l i ve or fi cti ve, and onl y
after sceneshave
been contrasted
to other ways of organi zi ng
under st andi ng shoul d, I t hi nk, one
go on l o conl r ast l he
commerci al l y
depi cted vari ety i n pi ctures to l i ve, uncontri ved
one5.
The term
"scene"
i s i tsel f not a parti cul arl y happy one.
An actual vi ew, or a
pi cture of a vi ew, of somethi ng that i s
r el at i vel v
unchangi ng- l i ke
a f or est or a skyl i ne i s cal l ed a
,"ana. u, i , any background or backdrop,
however bustl i nS'
the sustai ned vi ews of parti ci pants
are not usual l y contradi c-
tory, and rough correspondences coul d be worked out, but
i nevi tabl y our concerns and thei rs wi l l be consi derabl y
di fferent, as to a degree wi l l be the worl d thei r conventi onal
publ i c behavi or generates for us and the worl d they are i n
whi l e movi ng from poi nt to
poi nt
under these ensi gns.
Now al though there are reai i ndi vi dual s whose gl i mpsed
worl d i s al most thei r onl y one, most of us l i ve, and
pri nci pal l y, i n other worl ds, ones havi ng a l ongi tudi nal
character, featuri ng extended courses of i nterl i nked acti on
and uni que rel ati onshi ps to other
peopl e. Observe that a
stage
pl ay or even a comi c stri p provi des us wi th somethi ng
qui te beyond a gl i mpse of the l i ves (al bei t fi cti onal l i ves) of
i ts characters; for we are gi ven consi derabl e personal
i nformati on about the
protagoni sts
and can l i nk together
vari ous gl i mpsi ngs of them, i n consequence of whi ch we can
enter i nto l hei r courses of acti on i n more detai l and wi th
much more temporal depth than i s ordi nari l y possi bl e i n the
case of our real passing views of the lives of strangers.
Commerci al real i sm
(al ong
wi th certai n cartoons and
other drawi ngs) provi des,
then, somethi ng of the same sort of
real m as thp one a stranger to everyone around hi m real l y
l i ves i n. The real m i s ful l of meani ngful vi ewi ngs of others,
but each vi ew i s truncated and abstract i n th ways
menl toneo.
And now havi ng noted the si gni fi cant si mi l ari ty between
l i ve scenes and the ones pi ctured i n adverti semnts, one can
go on to
properly
locate the consideration already given of
di fferences. To repeat; gl i mpses
of real l i fe (l i ke
caught
photographs of i t) provi de us wi th model s who are
portrayi ng
themsel ves, whereas commerci al real i sm does
not-cartoons and other drawi ngs may not even empl oy
model s. Yet there are ways i n whi ch commerci al real i sm
provi des
us somethi ng that i s ful l er and ri cher than real
gl i mpses. Fi rst, ads (al ong wi th cartoons and other one-shot
drawi ngs) are i ntenti onal l y choreographed to be un-
ambi guous about matters that uncontri ved scenes mi ght wel l
be uni nformi ng about to strangers. Second, scenes contri ved
for photographi ng (j ust as the ones drawn i n comi cs) can be
shot from any angl e that the cameraman chooses, the
subj ects ti emsel ves spl ayed out to al l ow an unobstructed
vi ew; these are two l i berti es that a
person vi ewi ng a l i ve scene
cannot take. Fi nal l y, short of engagi ng i n voyeuri sti c acti vi ty,
a real person is very considerably restricted as to the sorts of
i i ve scenes he wi l l be al l owed to
gl i mpse from whatever angl e,
for hi s
presence
i n a pl ace al ways requi res soci al warrant. In
adverti sed worl ds, however, we can l ook i n on al most
everything. Observe that these dramaturgic advantages of
PI CTURE FRAMES 23
commerci al real i sm over real l i f e, ot her f i ct i onal real ms have
al so, al ong wi t h some advant ages t hat commerci al real i sm
lacks.
A cl osi ng comment . The magi cal abi l i t y of t he advert i ser
t o use a f ew model s and
props
t o evoke a l i f e{i ke scene of hi s
own choosi ng i s not pri mari l y
due t o t he art and t echnol ogy
of commerci al phot ography; i t i s due pri mari l y
t o t hose
i nst i t ut i onal i zed arrangement J i n soci al l i f e whi ch al l ow
strangers to glimpse the lives of persons
they
pass,
and to the
readi ness of al l of us t o swi t ch at any moment f rom deal i ng
wi t h t he real worl d t o
part i ci pat i ng
i n make-bel i eve ones-
REFERENCES CI TED
Barthes, Roland
1972 l vl yt hol ogi es. Annet t e Lavers, t rans. New York: Hi l l and
Wang.
Berger,
, ohn
i 975 Ways of Seei ng. London: Pel i can.
Carey,
John
. | 976
A l vl i cro-Frame Anal ysi s of t he On-Camera/ On-l Mi ke Para-
l i ngui st i c Behavi or of Three Presi dent i al Candi dat es. Ph. D.
di ssert at i on, Annenberg School of Communi cat i ons, Uni ve6i t y
of Pennsyl vani a.
Chai f en, Ri chard
1975 Ci n6ma Nai vet 6: A St udy of Home l vl ovi emaki ng as Vi sual
Communi cat i on, St udi es i n t he Ant hropol ogy of Vi sual
Communi cat i on 2: 87-1 03.
Fresnaul t -Deruel l e, Pi erre
1975a La coul eur et l ' espace dans l es comi cs. Document s de
Travai l #40, Seri es F. Cent ro l nt ernazi onal e di Semi ot i ca e di
Li ngui st i ca, Uni versi t i di Urbi no d' l t al i a,
1975b L' espace i nt erpersonnel dans l es comi cs. I n Semi ol ogi 6 de
l a Repr6sent at i on. And16 Hel bo, ed. Pp. 129"150. Brussel s:
Edi t i ons Compl exe.
1976 Du l i n6ai . e au t abul ai re. Communi cat i ons 24, 7-21.
Gof f man, Ervi ng
1967 l nt eract i on Ri t ual . New York: Anchor,
1974 Frame Anal ysi s. New York: Harper and Row.
Goodman, Nel son
1968 Languages of Art, New York: Bobbs"l\4errill.
Lesy, l\4ichael
1973 Wi sconsi n Deat h Tri p. New York: Pant heon.
Livingston, Victor
' 1976
Are t he Nuns i n Thi s Ad What They Appear t o Be? The
Eveni ng Bul l et i n (Phi l adel phi a), t ul arch 11.
Mi l l um, Trevor
1975 lmages of Womenr Advertising in Women's I\4agazines.
London: Chat t o and Wi ndus.
smi t h, W.
l ohn, l ul i a
Chase, and Anna Kat z Li ebl i ch
1974 Tongue Showi ng: A Faci al Di spl ay of Humans and Ot her
Primate Species. Semiotica 1 1
\3)
t201
-246.
Van Dormael . Moni que
1974 The Phot oroman Frame. Unpubl i shed paper,
Uni versi t y of
Pennsvlvania,
GEIfIIER GOTIilENGNts
I
Repr oduced i n t hi s chapt er ar e some commer ci i l st i l l
I
phot ogr aphs- ads f eat ur i ng human subj ect s. I n addi t i on,
some use i s made of news shots of
"actual "
persons, that i s,
of model s who are bei ng pi ctured i n thei r own capaci ty. l \4y
assumpti on i s that anyone whose pi cture appears i n medi a
pri nt has al most certai nl y cooperated i n the process and
therefore-l i ke a professi onal model has pl aced thi s ap-
pearance i n the publ i c domai n, foregoi ng the
protecti on from
soci al anal ysi s that persons, at l east l i vi ng ones, can strongl y
cl ai m regardi ng
pi ctures taken for home consumpti on.
The
pi ctures
reproduced were sel ected at wi l l from
newspapers and current popul ar magazi nes easy to hand-at
l east to my hand.t They were chosen to fi t i nto sets, each set
to al l ow the di spl ayi ng, del i neati ng, or mocki ng up of a
di screte theme beari ng on
gender,
especi al l y femal e gender,
and arranged wi th mal i ce wi thi n each set to the same end.
Each set of pi ctures i s accompani ed i nformal l y by some
verbal text.
I I
Some comment q f i r st concer ni ng how pi ct ur es can and
I I can' t be u:ed i n soci al anal ysi s. l \4y cl di m i 5 that the
themes that can be del i neated through pi ctures have a very
mi xed ontol ogi cal status and that any attempt to l egi sl at as
to the order of fact represented i n these themes i s l i kel y to
be opti mi sti c.
(1)
The student of commerci al pi ctures can draw a
random sampl e from a magazi ne' s parti cul ar i ssue, or from a
defi ned
peri od of i ssue, or from a speci fi ed l i st of magazi nes,
and di sci ai m characteri zi ng other i ssues,
peri ods, or
magazi nes, even more so other sources of pi ctures, such as
newspri nt, postcards, and the l i ke, not even to menti on
actual l i fe i tsel f, Speci fi abl e representati veness, then, i s a way
that a col l ecti on of pi ctures coul d qual i fyz and a way the
pi ctures about to be anal yzed do not. (Of course, fi ndi ngs
based on a systemati c sampl e very often get
thei r wi ght
from the fact that the reader can be trusted to general i ze the
fi ndi ngs beyond thei r stated uni verse, stati sti cal warrant for
whi ch woul d requi re another study, whi ch, i f done, woul d
i nduce a sti l l broader ove rgeneral i zati on, and so on, but that
i s another matter.) Observe that thi s sort of repre-
sentati veness Dertai ns to
pi ctures
as such and doesn' t tel l us
what we very often want to know, namely, what aspects of
l
And t o t hat of a f el l ow st udent , l \ 4i chi l shi da.
2
For a r ecent exampl e, see Robj nson ( 1976) .
real l i fe pi ctures provi de us a fai r i mage of, and what soci al
effect commerci al
pi cturi ng has upon the l i fe that i s
purportedl y pi ctured a l i mi tati on al so of the purposel y
sel ected pi ctures di spl ayed here.
{2) Si nce there i s l i ttl e constrai nt on what | l ect to
i denti fy as a theme (a
"genderi sm"),
or whi ch pi ctures I
bri ng together i n order to di spl ay what i s thus i denti fi ed, or
on the way I order the sti l l s wi thi n a
gi ven
seri es, i t coul d be
taken that anythi ng coul d be depi cted that I can manage to
suggest through what appears to be common to a few
pi ctures.
Success here requi res nothi ng more than a smal l
amount of
prversi ty and wi t and a l arge batch of pi ctures to
choose from. The l arger the i ni ti al col l ecti on, the more surel y
the anal yst can fi nd confi rmi ng exampl es of what he thi nks
he has found i n one pi ctur or woul d i n any case l i ke to
depi ct a case of representati veness decl i ni ng as the data base
i ncreases. So effecti ve depi cti on of a theme cannot i n i tsel f
prove anythi ng about what i s found i n pi ctures or, of course,
i n the worl d. Indeed, somethi ng l i ke the mthod I use i s
empl oyed by artful compi l ers of photographi c funny books,
camera pranksters who match gesti cul atory pi ctures of
famous ci ti zens agai nst ani mal s and pl ants apparentl y
engaged i n si mi l arl y characteri zabl e postures, or who
superi mpose bal l ooned thoughts and statements, these
formul ated to defi ne the si tuati on as i t never was i n actual
l i fe, commi tti ng the protagoni sts to responses of a wi l dl y
scurri l ous ki nd. So, too, the texts accompanyi ng the pi ctures
are cast i n the styl e of general i zati on-by-pronou nceme n t
found i n the wri ti ngs of freel ance body l i ngui sts, strayed
ethol ogi sts, and l esser
j ournal i sts.
(3)
The
parti cul ar matters I want to consi der rai se three
di sti nct and general methodol ogi cal questi ons that shoul d
not be confused: di scovery,
presentati on, and proof. Onl y
the fi rst two wi l l here be at i ssue, these two al l owi ng me to
expl oi t wi thout a maj ' or research i nvestment the very speci al
advantages of worki ng wi th photographs, whi ch advantages
arg as fol l ows:
(i i There i s a cl ass of behavi oral practi ces-what mi ght be
cal l ed
"smal l
behavi ors"-whose physi cal forms are fai rl y
wel l codi fi ed even though the soci al i mpl i cati ons or meani ng
of the acts may have vague el ements, and whi ch are real i zed
i n thei r enti rety, from begi nni ng to nd, i n a bri ef peri od of
ti me and a smal l soace. These behavi oral events can be
recorded and thei r i mage made retri evabl e by means of audi o
and vi deo tapes and camera.
(Tape
and fi l m, unl i ke a sti l l ,
provi de not onl y a recoverabl e i mage of an actual i nstance of
the acti vi ty i n questi on, but al so an appreci abl e col l ecti on of
these records, l \4ore i mportant, audi o and vi deo recordi ngs of
very smal l bhavi ors faci l i tate mi cro-functi onal study, that i s,
an exami nati on of the rol e of a bi t of behavi or i n the stream
whi ch precedes, co-occurs, and fol l ows.) The coi nci dence of
a subi ect matter and a recordi ng technol ogy pl aces the
student i n an enti rel y novel rel ati on to hi s data, formi ng the
practi cal basi s for mi croanal ysi s. Thi s speci al research
si tuati on shoul d not be confused wi th the use of recordi ng
technol ogy to document a news story, provi de a feel for a
communi ty, l i mn i n the contours of a rel ati onshi p, depi ct the
hi story of a nati on, or any other matter whose meani ng i s
not l i nked to a fi xed ohvsi cal form whi ch can be real i zed i n
the round i n a recordabl e space and ti me.
(i i ) Pi ctures from any source are now cheap and easy to
reproduce i n uni form sl i de form. A col l ecti on al l ows for easy
arrangi ng and rearrangi ng, a search and mock-up, tri al and
error
l uggl i ng,
somethi ng between cryptography and doi ng
j i gsaw puzzl es, a remarkabl e ai d both to uncoveri ng
patterns
and fi ndi ng exampl es, whether mere i l l ustrati ons or actual
i nstance records.
(i i i ) The student can expl oi t the vast soci al competency
of the eye and the i mpressi ve consensus sustai ned by vi ewers.
Behavi oral confi gurati ons whi ch he has i nsuffi ci ent l i terary
ski l l to summon up through words al one, he can
yet
unambi guousl y i ntroduce i nto consi derati on. Hi s verbal
gl osses can serve as a means to di rect the eye to what i s to be
seen, i nstead of havi ng to serve as a ful l rendi ti on of what i s
at i ssue. The noti on of a
"merel y
subj ecti ve response" can
then be academi cal l y upgraded; for cl earl y part of what one
refrai ns from studyi ng because the onl y approach i s through
verbal vagari es has a speci fi c nature and i s preci sel y
percei ved, the vagary bei ng a characteri sti c of one' s l i terary
i ncapaci ty, not one' s data.3
(i v) A set of pi ctori al exampl es (whether i l l ustrati ons or
i nstance records) of a common theme provi des more than a
devi ce for maki ng sure that the pattern i n
questi on wi l l be
cl ear to the vi ewer. Often one or two exampl es woul d suffi ce
for that. Nor does the si ze of the set rel ate to the tradi ti onal
sampl i ng noti on of showi ng how preval ent were cases of a
parti cul ar ki nd i n the sampl e and (by extensi on) i n the
sampl ed uni verse. Somethi ng el se i s i nvol ved. Di fferent
pi ctori al exampl es of a si ngl e theme bri ng di fferent con-
textual backgrounds i nto the same array, hi ghl i ghti ng untol d
di spari ti es even whi l e exhi bi ti ng the same desi gn. l t i s the
depth and breadth of these contextual di fferences whi ch
somehow provi de a sense of structure, a sense of a si ngl e
organi zati on underl yi ng mere surface di fferences, whi ch
sense i s not generated si mpl y by reference to the numeri cal
si ze of the set rel ati ve to the si ze of the sampl e. Whereas i n
tradi ti onal methods th di fferences between i tems that are to
be counted as i nstances of the same thi ng are an embarrass-
mnt, and are so i n the degree of thei r di fference, i n
pi ctori al
pattern anal ysi s the opposi te i s the case, the casti ng together
of these apparent di fferences bei ng what the anal ysi s i s al l
about. Indeed, somthi ng i s to be l earned even when an
advrti ser i n effect performs anal ysi s backwards, that i s,
starts wi th the same model s and th same sal es Di tch and
then searches out di fferent possi bl e scenes as vehi cl es for
them and i t al l thi s i n the hope of bui l di ng
product i nterest
through a mi xture of repeti ti on and novel ty. For i n
3Th"
"", ", wel l as t he eye provi des an i mpressi ve compet ency,
and here phonet i ci ans (and l at el y t hose i nt erest ed i n conversat i onal
anal ysi s) have made an exempl ary ef f ort t o f ormul at e not at i on
syst ems t hat can be pri nt ed on
paper yet avoi d t he l i mi t at i ons of
ordi nary ort hography, t hus provi di ng a bri dge bet ween sounds and
publ i cat i ons. The
probl em i s t hat al t hough t rai ned st udent s can
produce
t he same t ranscri pt i on of a gi ven spat e of sound, t he
f ormul at i on t hey produce wi l l equal l y appl y t o expressi ons whi ch
t hey woul d hear as si gnj f i cant l y di f f erent . Gi ven a recordi ng t o l i st en
t o, a l i ngui st t t ranscri pt i on can serve as a very adequat e means of
di rect i ng t he ear' s at t ent i on t o a part i cul ar sound and wi t h t hat t he
f ul l compet ency of t he ear can be academi cal l y expl oi t ed, But wri t t en
t ranscri pt i ons wi t hout recordi ngs do not sol ve t he
probl em.
{Nor,
I
bel i eve, does i t hel p much t o package a t ape i n t he
i acket of abook,
al ong wi t h encouragement of do-i t -yoursel f anal ysi s. ) The pri nt i ng of
t he anal ysi s of vi deot ape records
present s st i l l great er probl ems.
GENDER COMMERCI ALS 25
purposel y
setti ng out to ri ng changes on a set theme, the
adverti ser must nonethel ess sati sfy scne-producti on requi re-
ments such as propri ety, understandabi l i ty, and so forth,
thereby necessari l y demonstrati ng that, and how, di fferent
i ngredi ents can be choreographed to
"express"
the same
theme. Here, certai nl y, i t i s enti rel y an arti fact of how
adverti sements are assembl ed that a set of them wi l l exhi bi t a
common underl yi ng pattern, and here the student i s onl y
uncoveri ng what was purposel y i mpl anted to thi s end i n thd
fi rst pl ace. But how the adverti ser succeeds i n fi ndi ng
di fferent gui ses for hi s stereotypes sti l l i nst(ucts i n the matter
of how the materi al s of real scenes can be sel ected and
shaped to provi de a desi red readi ng.
(4) The pi ctures I have un-randoml y col l ected of gender-
rel evant behavi or can be used to
i og
one' s consi derati on of
three matters: the gender behavi oral styl eJ found i n actual
l i fe, the ways i n whi ch adverti sements mi ght present a
sl anted vi ew thereof, and the scene-producti on rul es speci fi c
to the photographi c frame. Al though my pri mary i nterest i s
actual gender behavi or, th pi cturs are accompani ed by
textual gl osses that rai se questi ons of any order that mi ght be
sti mul atd by the pi ctures. In any case, what wi l l mostl y be
shown and di scussed i s adverti srs' vi ews of how women can
be profi tabl y pi ctured. My unsubstanti ated general i zati ons
have the sl i ght savi ng grace that they mostl y refer to the way
gendr i s pi ctured, not the way i t i s actual l y
peformed.
(5) By and l arge, I di d not l ook for pi ctures
that
exhi bi ted what seemed to me to be common to the two
sexes, whether
j ust
i n
pi ctures or i n real i ty as wel l . Nor for
pi ctures that deal t wi th sex di fferences whi ch I assumed were
wi del y and wel l -understood. The vast amount of what i s-at
l east to me unremarkabl e i n adverti sements i s thus vastl y
underrepresented. (Somethi ng of the same bi as actual l y
i nforms every ethnography; i t i s di fferences from one' s own
worl d and unexpected si mi l ari ti es that get recorded.) Bat
given these limitations, once o genderism wos identified as
one worth mocking-up, olmost all sex role exceptions ond
reversols I came across were selected, lt is to be added that
al though the adverti si ng busi ness i s l ocused
(i n
rhe U.S.A.) i n
New York, and al though model s and photographers are
drawn from a very speci al
popul ati on i nded, thei r
product
i s
treated as nothi ng-out-of-the-ordi nary by vi ewers, somethi ng
"onl y
natural ." In bri ef, al though the pi ctures shown here
cannot be taken as representati ve of gender behavi or i n real
l i fe or even representati ve of adverti sements i n
general or
parti cul ar publ i cati on sources i n parti cul ar, one can
probabl y
make a si gni fi cant negati ve statement about them, namel y,
that 0s pictures they are not perceived as peculiar and
unnatural . AIso, i n the case of each sti l l , by i magi ni ng the
sexes swi tchd and i magi ni ng the appearance of what resul ts,
one can
j ar
onesel f i nto awareness of stereotypes. By keepi ng
thi s swi tchi ng task i n mi nd, the reader can
generate hi s own
gl osses and obtai n a cue to the possi bl e meri t of mi n.
(6)
A further caveat. Adverti sements overwhel mi ngl y and
candi dl y present make-bel i eve scenes, the subi ects or fi gures
depi cted bei ng qui te di fferent from the professi onal model s
who pose the acti on. Obvi ousl y, then, a statement about,
say, how nurses are presented i n ads i s to be taken as a
shorthand way of sayi ng how model s dressed l i ke nurses and
set i n a mock-up of a medi cal scene are pi ctured. (A fee
coul d
persuade
a real nurse to pose i n an ad about nursi ng or
26 GENDERADVERTI SEMENTS
al l ow a
"caught"
photograph of her i n acti on to be used, but
ordi nari l y adverti si ng agenci es fi nd that a real nurse i n a real
hospi t dl unsat i 5f act or i l y l ypi f i es her ki nd. ) I wi l l on occa: i on
empl oy thi s si mpl i fi cati on, speaki ng of the subj ects of a
pi cture
as though they were i nstanti ati ons, namel y, recorded
i mages of the real thi ng. The compl i cati on i s that posi ng for
an ad al most i nvari abl y i nvol ves a carryover of sex, femal e
model s appeari ng as femal e fi gures, and mal e model s as
mal es.
(So, too, there i s a carryover of broad ranges of
age-grade.) l t fol l ows that any di scussi on of the treatment of
gender i n ads happens to stri ke where a sense i s to be found
i n whi ch model and subj ect ar e one. I n st al ement s about
sex-stereotypi ng, then, there i s speci al warrant for fal l i ng
back upon si mpl i fi ed reference. An adverti ser' s contri ved
scene featuri ng a
"nurse"
does not present us wi th a
photographi c record of a nurse, that i s, an actual
pi cture of a
real nurse, but nonethel ess
presents us wi th one of a real
woman, at l east i n the common sense meani ng of
"real .""
After the studi o sessi on i s overJ the model does not
go on
bei ng a
"nurse,"
but she does conti nue to be a
"woman."
(7) Fi nal l y, a word about the arrangement of pi ctures i n
each seri es and other detai l s. In general , subj ect matter
proceeds from chi l dren to adutts and from actual pi ctures to
overtl y contri ved commerci al ones. (An i mpl i cati on i s thus
i mpl anted that ri tual i zed behavi oral
practi ces found i n a
vari ety of contexts i n real Ii fe come to be empl oyed i n a
"hvoe
r-ri tuati zed
"
form i n ads featuri ng women.) Depi cti ons
di sconfi rmi ng the arrangements argued here, i .e., depi cti ons
of sex rol e reversal s, are
pl aced at the very ends of the seri es
to whi ch they bel ong and are marked off wi th a speci al
border. l t shoul d al so be noted that throughout femal es i n a
"femi ni ne"
stance wi l l be seen to take up thi s
posi ti on
relative to another womanr not merely relative to a man,
strongl y :uggesti ng l hat
Sender
stercol ypes at l ed(l photo-
graphi c ones i nvol ve a two' sl ot format, the i mportant i ssue
bei ng to fi l l the sl ots wi th rol e di fferenti ated subj ects, not
necessari l y wi th subj ects of opposi ng sexual i denti ty.
The pi ctures themsel ves have al l been reproduced i n bl ack
and whi te for reasons of cost. Al though i t woul d have been
somewhat more accurate to reproduce the col or ones i n
col or, I feel that not much has been l ost. Each pi cture has
been number ed, and t he number s cot r espond l o t ho: e
appeari ng before the rl evant verbal text; the text i tsel f
i mmedi at el v
pr ecedes
t he ser i es of i l l ust r at i ons t o whi ch i t
refers. Pi ctures as wel l as text have been footnoted, and
pi Ll ur e\ as wel l a\ t exl appear i n i oot nol es. I he phol ogr aph\
have been arranged to be
"read"
from top to bottom,
col umn t o col umn, acr oss t he
Page.
| | |
Havi ng consi der ed r ea5on5 why my sel ect i on oI
l l l commer ci al
pi ct ur es need not be t dken ser i ousl y, I
want to consi der some reasons why they shoul d.
The task of the adverti ser i s to favorabl y di spose vi ewers
to hi s
product, hi s means, by and l arge, to show a sparkl i ng
versi on of that
product i n th context of gl amorous events.
The i mpl i cati on i s that i f you buy the one,
you are on the
way to real i zi ng the other and
you shoul d want to.
Interesti ngl yJ a cl assy
young l ady i s l i kel y to be i n the pi cture
addi ng her approval of the
product and hersel f to i ts
ambi ence, whether the
product be fl oor mops, i nscti ci des,
orthopedi c chai rs, roofi ng materi al s, credi t cards, vacuum
pumps, or Lear
j ets.
But al l of thi s i s onl y adverti si ng and has
l i ttl e to do wi th actual l i fe. So goes the cri ti cal vi ew of these
expl oi ti ve arts. Whi ch vi ew i s i tsel f nai ve, fai l i ng to appreci ate
what actual l i fe has to do wi th.
Whatever Doi nt a Dri nt adverti ser wants to make about hi s
oroduct. he must suffer the constrai nts of hi s medi um i n
maki ng i t. He must
present somethi ng that wi l l be
meani ngful , easi l y so, yet al l he has space to work wi th wi l l
be type and one or two sti l l photographs, typi cal l y
contai ni ng protagoni sts whose words (i f any seem to be
spoken) are unavai l abl e. And al though textual materi al
outsi de of the
pi cture brackets wi l l
provi de a readi ng of
"what
i s happeni ng," thi s i s commonl y a somewhat
dupl i cated versi on; the
pi cture i tsel f i s desi gned to tel l i ts
l i ttl e story wi thout much textual assastance.
How can sti l l s
present the worl d when i n the worl d
persons are engaged i n courses of acti on, i n doi nSs through
ti me (not frozen posturi ngs), where sound i s al most as
i mportant as si ght, and smel l and touch fi gure as wel l ?
Moreover, i n the worl d, we can know the i ndi vi dual s before
us
personal l y, somethi ng unl i kel y of pi ctures used i n
adverti si ng,
Some of the sol uti ons to thi s
probl em
are obvi ous. A
scene can be si mul ated i n whi ch fi gures are captured i n those
acts whi ch stereotypi cal l y epi tomi ze the sequence from
whi ch they are taken-presumabl y because these acts are
i denti fi ed as happeni ng onl y i n the course of, and
momentari l y duri ng, an extended acti on. Thus vi ewers are
l ed to read backward and forward i n sequence ti me from the
moment of vi si on.5 Another sol uti on i s to draw on scenes
that are thmsel ves si l ent and stati c i n real l i fe: sl eepi ng,
pensi ve poses, wi ndow shoppi ng, and, i mportantl y, the
off-angl e fi xed l ooks through whi ch we are taken to convey
our overal l al i gnment to what another person one not
l ooki ng at us di rectl y-i s sayi ng or doi ng. Anothr sol uti on i s
to posi ti on the characters i n the
pi cture m i croecol og i cal l y so
that thei r
pl acement rel ati ve to one another wi l l provi de an
i ndex of mappi ng of thei r
presumed socl al
posi ti on rel ati ve
to one another. And, of course, there i s the use of scenes and
characters whi ch have come to be sterotypi cal l y i denti fi ed
wi th a
parti cul ar ki nd of acti vi ty by the wi dest range of
vi ewrs, thus ensuri ng i nstantaneous recogni zabi l i ty. In-
ci dental l y, adverti sers overwhel mi ngl y sel ect
posi ti ve,
approved typi fi cati ons
(perhaps so thei r
product wi l l be
associ ated wi th a good worl d as opposed to bei ng di ssoci ated
from a bad one). so that what we see are i deal i zed characters
usi ng i deal faci l i ti es to real i ze i deal ends-whi l e, of course,
mi croecol ogi cal l y arranged to i ndex i deal rel ati onshi ps.
Fi nal l y, adverti sers can use cel ebri ti es as model s, for al though
these
personages are not known personal l y they ar known
about.
4Qual i f i cal i ons
regardi ng t he
phrase
"real
woman" are present ed
i n cof f man
\ 191
4: 284-285),
5A
poi nt suggest ed t o me some years ago by Davi d Sudnow (see
Sudnow 1972) .
l nteresti ngl y, i t i s not merel y commerci al adverti sers who
have recourse to these Di ctori al methods. Governments and
nonprofi t organi zati ons empl oy the same devi ces i n order to
convey a message through pages, posters,
and bi l l boards; so
do radi cal groups
and so do pri vate persons wi th
photography as a hobby or a cal l i ng. (l t i s rather wrong, al as,
to say that onl y adverti sers adverti se. Indeed, even those
concerned to opDose commerci al versi ons of the worl d must
pi ctori al i ze
thei r arguments through i mages whi ch are
sel ected accordi ng to much the same
pri nci pl es
as those
empl oyed by the enemy.)
I want to argue now that the
i ob
the adverti ser has of
dramal i zi ng the val ue of hi s product i s not unl i ke the
i ob
a
soci ety has of i nfusi ng i ts soci al si tuati ons wi th ceremoni al
and wi th ri tual si gns faci l i tati ng the ori entati on of par-
ti ci pants to one another. Both must use the l i mi ted
"vi sual "
resources avai l abl e i n soci al si tuati ons to tel l a storv: both
must transform otherwi se opaque goi ngs-on
i nto easi l y
readabl e form. And both rel y on the same basi c devi ces:
i ntenti on di spl ays, mi croecol ogi cal mappi ng of soci al struc-
ture, approved typi fi cati ons, and the gestural external i zati on
of what can be taken to be i nner response. (Thus,
j ust
as a
Coca-Col a ad mi ght feature a wel l dressed, happy l ooki ng
fami l y at a posh beach resort, so a real fami l y of modest
means and
pl ai n
dress mi ght step up thei r l evel of spendi ng
duri ng ten days of summer vacati on, i ndeed, confi rmi ng that
a sel f-real i zi ng di spl ay i s i nvol ved by maki ng sure to
photograph
themsel ves onstage as a wel l -dressed fami l y at a
posh summer resort.) Thi s i s not to deny, of course, that the
di spl ays prsented i n sti l l s are not a speci al sel ecti on from
di spl ays i n
general . Adverti sers, by and l arge, must l i mi t
themsel ves to soundl ess, scentl ess appearances and one-shot
moments of ti me, whereas actual ri tual need not be restri cted
i n these Darti cul ar wavs.
Whi ch rai ses the i ssue of
"soci al
si tuati ons," defi ni ng these
as arrangements i n whi ch persons are physi cal l y present to
one another. Sti l l s may, and often do, contai n a sol i tary
fi gure, ostensi bl y not i n a soci al si tuati on at al l . But i f the
scene i s to be read by the vi ewer, then the subi ect must gi ve
appearances and engage i n doi ngs that are i nformati ve, and
these i nformi ngs are
j ust
what we empl oy i n actual soci al
si tuati ons i n order to establ i sh our own stori es and l earn
about the stori es establ i shed by others. Sol i tary or not,
fi gures i n sti l l s i mpl i ci tl y address themsel ves to us, the
vi ewers, l ocati ng us cl ose at hand through our bei ng al l owed
to see what we can see of them, thus generati ng a soci al
si tuati on i n effect. And i ndeed, the photographer
often
cl i nches matters by requi ri ng sol i tary subj ects to si mul ate a
GENDER COMMERCI ALS 27
gestural response to a
phantom hoveri ng near the camera, a
forci bl e remi nder of the pl ace we the vi ewers are supposed to
i nhabi t. Observe, the sol i tary subj ect not onl y
"external i zes"
i nformati on that wi l l gi ve us an understandi ng of what i t i s
that can be taken to be goi ng on, but al so qui te
systemati cal l y fai l s to exhi bi t taboo and unfl atteri ng sel f-
i nvol vi ng behavi or, even though these are
j ust
the sort of acts
that are l i kel y to occur when the actor i s assured he i s al one.
(So perhaps
a byproduct of commerci at real i sm wi l l be the
rei nforcement of censored versi ons of sol i tarv conduct.)
When one l ooks, then, at the presentati on of gender
i n
adverti sements, attenti on shoul d be di rected not merel y to
uncoveri ng adverti sers' stereotypes concerni ng the di f-
ferences between the sexes si gni fi cant as these stereotypes
mi ght be. Nor onl y exami ne these stereotypes for what they
mi ght tel l us about th gender patterns preval ent
i n our soci ety
at l arge. Rather one shoul d, at l east i n part, attend to how
those who compose (and pose for) pi ctures can choreograph
the materi al s avai l abl e i n soci al si tuati ons i n order to achi eve
thei r end, namel y, the presentati on of a scene that i s
meani ngful , whose meani ng can be read at a fl ash. For
behi nd these artful efforts one may be abl e to di scern how
mutual l y present bodi es, al ong wi th nonhuman materi al s, can
b shaped i nto expressi on. And i n seei ng what pi cture-makers
can make of si tuati onal materi al s, one can begi n to see what
we oursel ves mi ght be engagi ng i n doi ng. Behi nd i nfi ni tel y
vari ed sceni c confi gurati ons, one mi ght be abl e to di scern a
si ngl e ri tual i di om; behi nd a mul ti tude of surface di fferences,
a smal l number of structural forms.
Let me admi t that these arguments about the rel ati on of
ri tual to commerci al pi ctures mi ght seem to be a way of
maki ng the best of a bad thi ng, namel y, usi ng easi l y avai l abl e
ads to tal k about actual gender behavi or. But I am not
i nterested here i n behavi or i n general , onl y i n the di spl ays
that i ndi vi dual s manage to i nj ect i nto soci al si tuati ons, and
surel y thi s i s
part
of what adverti sers try to i ni ect i nto the
scenes they compose around the
product
and then
photograph. Commerci al pi ctures
are i n the mai n enti rel y
posed,
"mere
pi ctures," at best
"real i sti c."
But, of course,
the real i ty they presumabl y refl ect di stortedl y i s i tsel f, i n
i mportant ways, arti fi ci al . For the actual i ty here at i ssue i s
how soci al si tuati ons are empl oyed as the sceni c resource for
constructi ng vi sual l y accessi bl e, i nstantaneous portrai ts of
our cl ai med human nature. Posed pi ctures can therefore turn
out to be more substanti al than one mi ght have thought,
bei ng for students of a communi ty' s ri tual i di om somethi ng
l i ke what a wri tten text i s for students of i ts spoken
l anguage.
28 GENDERADVERTI SEMENTS
Relative Size
1- 4 One way i n whi ch \ oci al wei Shl
power , aul hor i l v, r ank, of f i ce, r enown i s
echoed expr essi vel y i n \ oci al
( i t udl i on\
i 5
through rel ati ve si ze, espci al l y hei ght.
Thi s congruence i s somewhat faci l i tated
among mal es through occupati onal sel ec-
ti on favori ng si ze a form of ci rcul ari ty,
si nce sel ecti on often occurs i n soci al
si tuati ons where si ze can be an i nfl uence.
In the case of i nteracti on between
parents
and t hei r
young chi l dr en, bi ol ogy i t sel f
assures that soci al wei ght wi l l be i ndexed
by t he
physi cal ki nd.
l n soci al i nteracti on between the
sexes, bi ol ogi cal di mor phi sm under l i es
t he
pr obabi l i t y t hat t he mal e' s usual
superi ori ty of status over the femal e wi l l
be expressi bl e i n hi s
greater gi rth and
hei ght. Sel ecti ve mati ng then enters to
ensure that very nearl y every coupl e wi l l
e\ hi bi t a hei ghl di f f er ence i n l he e\ pecl -
ed di recti on, transformi ng what woul d
otherwi se be a stati sti cal tendency i nto a
near certi tude. Even i n the case of mere
cl usters of persons mai ntai ni ng tal k, vart-
ous f or ms of occupat i onal , associ at i onal ,
and 5i l u, r r i onal sel ect i on mar ( edl y i n-
cr e, r ( e r he bi ol ogi cal l v gr ounded po' si -
bi l i t y t hat ever y mal e
par t i ci pant wi l l be
bi gger than every femal e parti ci panl .
Now i t seems that what bi ol ogy and
) oci dl \ el ect i on f aci l i l , l t e, pi cl ur e po\ i ng
ri gorousl y compl etes:
l ndeed, so thoroughl y i s i t assi rmed that
di fferences i n si ze wi l l correl ate wi th
di fferences i n soci al wei ght that rel ati ve
si ze can be routi nel y used as a means of
ensur i ng t hat t he pi ct ur e' s st or y wi l l be
under st andabl e at a gl ance:
i l e sai d:
Wc sai]:
Hc s.r i.l:
. , ai ur
Sr r t hi : r :
Wc sai.l:
w. rlblifi(
5-7 And here excepti ons seem
prove the rul e. For on the very
occasi ons when women ar e pi ct ur ed
than men, the men seem al most al ways
be not onl y subordi nated i n soci al cl
status, but al so thoroughl y costumed
craft-bound servi tors who i t m
appear can be safel y treated total l y
the ci rcumscri bed terms of thei r
t r ade:
The theme of rel ati ve si ze i s
for sym-
pi cture
a si ngl e
empl oyed as a basi s
that i s, desi gni ng a
every detai l speaks to
10
THE FEMI NI NE
TOUCH 29
The Feminine
Toucho
12-26
Women, more than men, are
pi ctured
usi ng thei r fi ngers and hands to
trace the outl i nes of an obj ect or to
cradl e i t or to caress i ts surface (the
l atter
someti mes under the gui se
of gui di ng
i t),
or to effect a
"j ust
barel y touchi ng,' of
the ki nd that mi ght be si gni fi canr be_
tween two el ectri cal l y
charged bodi es.
Thi s ri tuai i sti c
touchi ng i s to be di sti n-
gui shed
from the uti l i tari an ki nd that
grasps,
man i pul ates, or hol ds:
6
Her e and el sewher e i n connect i on wt t h t he
r ol e of l i nger s ( see pj cr ur ej
295 J201. r or aw
di r ec t l y on obs er v ar i ons
made by l r 4i c h; l s hi da,
t o whom i gi ve
t hanks. ( cont i nued)
30 GENDERADVERTI SEMENTS
,.\
ANDIIIA inv,
WASH' NWI
* *"*.-"'
;*,1;;;,
il;;;l;i::l',
_
iit sr*h!, nonn{ Is1 . \ nh,,llr nxn\h
' Uc
nnI ! .riol ,n' lj dtr r lilrnd hb.
ri J"- ! i Ll n nrN k, . di r! | . i n{r \ l l )nl \ , nnl r
17
Because nothi ng very prehensi l e
touchi ngs, i n these ri tual i sti c
face can be used i nstead of a hand:
SE| \&r!{]t.
,_1:i
cl sofr. t&
THE FEMI NI NE TOUCH 31
29-36 Sel f-touchi ng can al so be i n-
vbl ved, readabl e as conveyi ng a sense of
one' s body bei ng a del i cat e and pr eci ous
t hi ng;
. : '
:;
J
I
, r ,
,|,
...t
. , .
I
i : : , *
. 1' l l
: : : 1
32 GENDERADVERTI SEMENTS
Function f,anldng
In our soci ety when a man and a woman
collaborate face-to-face in an under-
taki ng, the man-i t woul d seem i s l i kel y
to
perform the executi ve rol e, provi di ng
onl y that one can be fashi oned. Thi s
arrangement seems wi del y represented i n
adverti sements, i n
part, no doubt, to
faci l i tate i nterpretabi l i ty at a
gl ance.
37-44 Thi s hi erarchy of functi ons i s
pi ctured wi thi n an occupati onal frame:?
?The
i r ony has been not ed t hat an appr e-
ci abl e amount of t he adver t i si ng ai med at
sel l i ng 5uppl i es f or women' s hol sehol d wor k
empl oys mal es i n t he depi ct ed r ol e of i nst r ucf -
i ng pr of essi onal s or empl oys a mal e cel ebr i t y t o
t out t he ef f i cacy of t he pr oduct ( see Komi sar
1912t 3o71.
I t i s al so pi ct ur ed
i onal speci al i zat i on:
The Faces of Virginia
outsi de of
" Chal f en
( 1975: 94) r epor t s t hat i n hi s
Amer j can sampl e:
"The
mal e had of house-
hol d used t he camer a most of t he t i me. l n a f ew
cases, a t eenage son, who was l ear ni ng about
camer as and f i l r nmaki ng, t oak over t hj s r espon-
s i bi l i t y . "
FUNCTI ON RANKI NG 33
ffi
( cont i nued)
34 GENDER ADVERTI SEMENTS
59-60 Functi on ranki ng i s al so
pi c-
tured among chi l dren, al bei t apparentl y
wi th the understandi ng that al though the
l i l e dct or s ar e t hemsel ves per l ect l y
ser i -
ous, thei r acti vi ty i tsel f i s not, bei ng
rather somethi ng that touchi ngl y stri kes
an anti ci patory note. In bri ef,
"cuteness"
i s i nvol ved.e
' A
usef ul st udy of gender
st er eot ypes i n t he
i i l ust r at i ons of chi l dr en' s books i s pr ovi ded
by
Wei t zman et ol .
\ 1972) ,
f or whi ch I am mer hod-
ol ogi cal l y gr at ef ul .
61 Al l i nstructi on seems to
some sort of subordi nati on of
structed and deference for the
These expressi ve features of the
si tuati on are rei nforced by the l i n
l earni ng to age-grade
i ng career. In our soci ety, one
throughout most of the i ndi vi dual ' s
l earni ng seems especi al l y associ ated
ch i l d st at us, t he
" ki naest het i c"
i nvol vi ng a mol di ng physi cal
tween i nstructor and i nstructed,
seem to be pi ctured
i nstructi ng
thi s way more than the reverse:
r oThe
not i on of ki naest het i c
der i ves f r om Bat eson and l \ 4ead ( 194
Thi s book b. i l l i ant l y
pi oneer ed
i n t he
pi ct ur es f or st udy of what can be
pi ct ur ed. The wof k st i mul at ed a whol e
at i on of ant hr opol ogi st s t o t ake pi ct ur es.
ever , vr y l i t t l e anai ysi s was- and per haps
be made of what t hese si udeni s
Somehow a conf usi on occur r ed bet ween
i nt er est and t he anal yt i cal ki nd. Dandy
and st i l l s wer e br ought home of
peopl e
and f asci nat i ng event s, but t o l i t t l e
Much r espect and af f ect i on was shown
n" t i \ es ano l i t t l e of ei t her f or r he dndl ) t r c al
t hat can be made of pi ct ur es.
FUNCTI ON RANKI NG 35
,
t he r esul t i ng act i on i s l i kel y t o
col l aborati on of hands. The re,
gui des
the acti on and/or takes
hi s coat . ) I n t hi s way, pr esumabl y,
rcci pi ent' s sense of autonomy
j s
Whenever an adu l t recei ves
hel p or servi ce from
It i s al so preserved,
of course,
It appears that women are more common-
l y pi ct ur ed
r ecei vi ng t hi s ki nd of hel p
from men than gi vi ng i t to them, and are
not depi cted markedl y guyi ng thei r
reSponSe:
at i t s t er mi nal phases. ( Exampl es:
t he sal t or hel pi ng someone on
acqu i ri ng those ski l l s through
he can effi ci entl y tend to hi s own
needs. I nf ant s and chi l dr en, how-
whi l e an adul t get s on wi t h t he
j ob
ng af t er t hem. " l t i s under st and,
then, that when adul ts are pi ctured
scenes bei ng spodn-fed, they are
guyi ng
the acti on i n some way,
so the sel f proi ected
by the
x.:i,
must suffer thei r hands bei ng by-
: , !
bei ng fed wi l l not be taken as a
of the real one.
\ \ ' i l L i n - . r , 1 I l r l . i l l I . : . ! , t ,
j -
Admi t t edl y t her e i s t he popul ar not i on
member s of t he ar i st ocr at i cal l y i ncl i ned
t r adi t i onal l y engaged per sonal ser vant s
body - c onnec r ed c ar e t hat member s of
cl asses woul d want t o pr ovi de f or
ashamdness hr e bei ng a suppor t
. Of cour se, ( or r el at ed w r h per -
was t he non- per son t r eat ment of
1t.
k ho pr o! i ded i t .
36 GENDERADVERTI SEMENTS
68-71 Whi ch rai ses the questi ons of
how mal es are
pi ctured when i n the
domai ns of the tradi ti onal authori ty and
competence of femal es the ki tchen, the
nursery, and the l i vi ng room when i t i s
bei ng cl eaned. One answer, borrowed
f r om l i f e and possi bl ) under r epr e) enl ed.
i s to pi cture the mal e en8aged i n no
cont r i but i ng r ol e at al l , i n t hi s way
avoi di ng ei ther subordi nati on or contami '
nati on wi th a
"femal e"
task:
5{
71
72-AO Another answer, I thi nk, i s to
pr esent t he man as l udi cr ous or chi l dl i ke,
unr eal i st i cal l y so, as i f per haps i n maki ng
hi m car ' : di dl v unr eal t he compet ency i mdge
of r eal mal es coul d be pr eser ved.
: [ r
81-3n
the ma
unor I
wh
I 2
Corre
engal
may (
'lg
a
the
tie esse
ter of th
on
lk t nofllD to it,
l;J ll
'* "
*
!
?:#firn
81-3n A <ubl l er
techni que i s to al l ow
mal e to pursue
the al i en acti vi ty
t he doer or l he wat cher al l esl i ng t o
essenti al l y u nseri ous essayed charac,
of the undertaki ng.r
2
who can do t he deed pr oper l y,
as
the doi ng were i tsel f by way of
a l ark or a dare, a smi l e on the face
r r Cor r es pondi nSl v ,
when f emal es dr e pi r -
the di rect apprai si ng scruti ny of
engaged i n a t r adi t i onal l y mal e t ask, a
may ( as i t wer e) par ent hesi ze
t he act i vi t y,
on appr ai si ngl y, condescendi ngl y, or
The Family
The nucl ear f ami l y as a basi c uni t of
soci al organi zati on i s wel l adapted to the
requi rements of pi ctori al
representati on.
Ai l of the members of al most any actual
fami l y can be contai ned easi l y wi thi n the
same cl ose pi cl ur e.
dnd, pr opcr l y posi -
ti oned, a vi sual representati on of the
members can ni cel y serve as a symbol i za-
ti on of the fami l y' s soci al structure.
THE FAMI LY
37
85-8 Turni ng to mocked-up fami l i es
i n adverti sements, one fi nds that the
al l ocati on of at l east one gi rl
and at l east
one boy ensures that a symbol i zati on of
the ful l set of i ntrafami l y rel ati ons can be
effected. For exampl e, devi ces are em-
pl oyed
to exhi bi t the presumed
speci al
bond between the gi rl
and th mother
dnd l he bov and t he f at her , somet i me\ i n
the same pi cture:
86
(conti nued)
38 GENDERADVERTI SEMENTS
89-99 Al though i n commerci al scenes
a uni ty i s symbol i zed between fathers and
sons and between mothers and daughtrs,
there i s a suggesti on that di fferent types
of uni t y mi ght be i nvol ved. I n a wor d,
there i s a tendency for womn to be
pi ctured as more aki n to thei r daughtrs
(and to themsel ves i n younger years) than
i s the case wi th men. BoYs, as i t wre,
have to
push thei r way i nto manhood,
and
probl emati c effort i s i nvol ved:
Gi rts merel y have to unfol d:
t - * . .
- , . i . : .
( cont i nued
)
THE FAMI LY 39
100-14n Often the father (or
i n hi s
absence, a sonJ st ands a l i t t l e out si de t he
physi cal
ci rcl e 6f the other members of
the fami l y, as i f to express a rel ati onshi p
whose protecti veness
i s l i nked wi th, per-
haps even requi res, di stance:
104
105
99
103 ( con t i nu ed)
40 GENDER ADVERTI SEMENTS
r ! Lt
r E r Br 9t af
I t t al l l i i '
o rtop going up?"
The Ritualization ol
Subordination
115-24 A cl assi c stereotype of defer-
ence i s that of l oweri ng onesel f physi cal l y
i n some form or other of prostrati on.
Cor r espondi ngl y, hol di ng t he body er ect
and the head hi gh i s stereotypi cal l y a
mark of unashamedness, superi ori ty, and
di sdai n. Adverti sers draw on (and en-
dorse) the cl ai med uni versal i ty of the
t heme:
112n
( cont i nued
)
I r An
i nt er est i ng cont r ast i s t o be f ound i n
t ur n- of - t he- cent ur y
por t r ai t poses of coupl es,
wher ei n t he ef f ect was of t en achi eved of
di spl ayi ng t he man as t he cenl r al f i gur e and t he
woman as backup suppor t , somewhat i n t he
manner of a chi ef l i eut enant . I ci t e f r om Lesy
\ 197
3) :
Per haps t he cont r ast bet ween
past
c ur r enl por t r ai t s bet ok enr i c hr nge
i n under l l i ng r oc i dl o' Sani z dl i on t han
c onv ent i ons of ex pr es s i on wi t hi n t he
f or mat .
108
13
110n
1 1 1 n
:.
THE RI TUALI ZATI ON
OF SUBORDI NATI ON
41
125-39 Beds and fl oors provi de pl aces
i n socj al si t uat i ons wher e i ncumbent per
sons wi l l be l ower t han anyone si t t i ng on
a chai r or standj ng. Fl oors al so are assoct,
dl ed wi l h t he l ess cl ean, l es5 pur e, I ess
e\ al l ed pdr t r
of a r oom l or exampl e, t he
pl ace
to keep dogs, baskets of soi l ed
cl othes, street footwear, and the l i ke.
And a recumbent posi ti on
i s one from
whi ch physi cal
defense of onesel f can
l east wel l be i ni ti ated and therefore one
whi ch r ender s one ver y dependent on t he
beni gnness of the surround. (Of course,
l yi ng on the fl oor or on a sofa or oeo
seems al so to be a conven ti onal i zed ex-
pr essi on
of sexual avai l abi l i t y. ) The poi nt
here i s that i t appears that chi l dren and
women are pi cttl red
on fl oors and oeos
more than are men.
lflX,
"z
( cont i nued)
GENDER ADVERTI SEMENTS
14
el e
ati ,
syr
roc
5Ce
l oc
el er
res(
t t ol
mel
i n r
to
wh;
Ihe Gid Who fk6 E\erylhing Ptus
' 133
risht's I I ove....,\nd ....Itate
fuels
goe^lonyr
, . , n
Ai though l ess so than i n some,
seems to be empl oyed i ndi c-
i n our soci ety, hi gh physi cal pl ace
i zi ng hi gh soci al pl ace. (Court-
provi de
an exampl e.) In contri ved
i n adverti sements,
men tend to be
i gher than women, thus al l owi ng
:i on to be expl oi ted as a del i neati ve
rce.ta A certai n amount of contor-
may be r equi r ed. Not e, t hi s ar r ange-
i s supported by the understandi ng
our soci ety that courtesy obl i ges men
favor women wi th fi rst cl ai m on
i s avai l abl e by way of a seat .
t al n
s uc h pi c t ur es
as I hav e of ac t uai s c nv s ,
same t endency hol ds.
, t
t ,
E'
THE RI TUALI ZATI ON
OF SUBORDI NATI ON
43
To have
and to hold...
in sickness
and in health...
&* *
&5*
.,
rr
&);;
_. .
. , i , l &r 1
w
( con t i nued)
44 GENDERADVERTI SEMENTS
151
(conti nued)
THE RI TUALI ZATI ON OF SUBORDI NATI ON 45
168-72n Women frequentl y, men very
i nfrequentl y, are posed
i n a di spl ay of the
" ba) hf ul
knee bend. " Whal ever el se, t he
knee bend can be read as a foregoi ng of
ful l effort to be prepared
and on the
ready i n the current soci al si tuati on, for
the posi ti on
adds a moment to any effort
to fi ght or fl ee. Once agai n one fi nos a
posture
that seems to presuppose
the
goodwi l l
of anyone i n the surround who
coul d offer harm. Observe as wi l l be seen
throughout-that a sex-typed subj ect i s
not so much i nvol ved as a format for
constructi ng a pi cture.
One femal e In a
pi cture
may perform
the gesture
and
another serve as the support that al l ows
the performance.
So a two-rol formul a i s
at rssue, not necessari l y two sexes:
(conti nued)
z16
GENDERADVERTI SEMENTS
; l :
t 5
Cont r ast a di f f er ent ki nd of knee bend:
172n
173-86 Havi ng somewhat the same
di stri buti on i n ads as the knee bend are
canti ng postures.
Al though a di sti nctron
can be made between body cant and head
cant, the consequences
seem to be much
the same. The l evel of the head i s l owereo
rel ati ve to that of others, i ncl udi ng, rn-
di rectl y, the vi ewer of the pi cture.
The
resul ti ng confi gurati ons can be read as an
acceptance of subordi nati on,
an expres-
si on of i ngrati ati on, submi ssi veness, and
appeasement.
173-A Body cant:
173'
6
16
Fr om Dar wi n ( 1872: 53, f i g. 6) .
THE RI TUALI ZATI ON OF SUBORDI NATI ON
Head cant:
w
183
4A GENDERADVERTISEMENTS
147-91 Smi l es, i t can be argued, often
functi on as ri tual i sti c mol l i fi ers, si gnal i ng
that nothi ng agoni sti c i s i ntended or
i nvi ted, that the.meani ng of the other' s
act has been understood and found ac-
ceptabl e, that, i ndeed, the other i s ap-
proved
and appreci ated. Those who war i -
l y keep an eye on the movements of a
potenti al
aggressor may fi nd themsel ves
automati cal l y smi l i ng shoul d thei r gaze
be
"caught"
by i ts obj ect, who i n turn may
fi nd l i ttl e cause to smi l e back. l n addi -
ti on, a respondi ng smi l e (even more so an
appreci ati ve l augh) fol l owi ng very rapi dl y
on the heel s of a speaker' s sal l y can i mpl y
that the respondent bel ongs, by knowl -
edgeabi l i ty, at l east, to the speaker' s
ci rcl e. Al l of these smi l es, then, seem
more the offeri ng of an i nferi or than a
superi or. In any case, i t appears that i n
cross-sered encounl ers i n Ameri l an soci -
ety, women smi l e more, and more expan-
si vel y, than men,17 whi ch arrangement
appears to be carri ed over i nto adverti se-
ment s, per haps wi r h l i l t l e consci ous
i ntent.
r TSee
t he commenl s i n Wei sst ei n
11913:49).
192-206 Gi ven the subordi ndl eu
i ndul ged posi ti on
of chi l dren i n regard
adul ts, i t woul d appear that to
onesel f i n pucki sh
styl i ng i s to
the correspondi ng treatment. How
of thi s gui se
i s found i n real l i fe i s
open questi on;
but found i t i s i n
ti sements.
(conti nued)
rl
THE BI TUALI ZATI ON OF SUBORDI NATI ON
w
{.1
196
JatEutaory'.
a
tl
. ,
, ,
,
',t
* t r
x i :
:,
.&..
r
'{l
t
,r.
x-?
x, ,
xrt
50 GENDERADVERTI SEMENTS
2O7-16 fhe note of unseri ousness
struck by a chi l dl i ke gui se
i s struck by
another styl i ng of the sel f, thi s one
perhaps enti rel y restri cted to adverti se-
ments, namel y, the use of the enti re body
as a pl ayful gesti cul ati ve devi ce, a sort of
body cl owni ng:
217
sugS
soci i
man
irrev
here
gui s(
d iffe
men
unar
ano
busi r
i t se
vi dui
thes(
hi m
and
wear
the
(
mal e
that
woul
5eem
thei r
wtl n
mal ,
whi cl
from
may l
see \
a ser
occas
for i c
argue
acter
l ocatr
soci al
senter
way a
exten
need
comn
212
more
pi ng
I
anceS
consi (
oepre
bv. B
part I
over
(
neces:
i denti
arSun
styl es
men' 5
**,
f : ,
,.:,
217-23 fhe speci al unseri ousness i n,
vol ved i n chi l dl i ke gui ses
and cl owni ng
suggests d re"l di ne(s l o be presenf i n a
soci al si tuatj on garbed and styl ed i n a
manner to whi ch one i sn' t deepl y or
i rrevocabl y commi tted. Perhaps refl ected
her e i s a r eadi nesc t o l r y out var i ous
Sui ses
and to appear at vari ous ti mes i n
di fferent ones. l n any case, i n adverti se-
mentsJ at l east, there seems to be an
unanti ci pated di fference between men
and women. l \4en are di spl ayed i n formal ,
busi ness, and i nformal gear,
and al though
i t seems understood that the same i ndi -
vi dual wi l l at di fferent ti mes appear i n al l
these
gui ses, each gui se
seems to afford
hi m somethi ng he i s total l y seri ous about,
and deepl y i denti fi ed wi th, as though
wear i ng a \ ki n, not a cost ume. Lven i n
the case of the cowboy garb
that urban
mal es affect recreati onal l y, l i ttl e sense
that one' s whol e appearance i s a l ark
woul d seem to be present. Women i n ads
seem to have a di fferent rel ati onshi p to
thei r cl othi ng and to the gestures worn
wi th i t. Wi thi n each broad category (for-
mal , busi ness, i nf or mal ) t her e ar e choi ces
whi ch are consi derabl y di fferent one
from another, and the sense i s that one
may as wel l try out vari ous possi bi l i ti es
to
see what comes of i t-as though l i fe were
a seri es of costume bal l s. Thus, one can
occasi onal l y mock one' s own appearance,
for
j denti fi cati on
i s not deep. l t mi ght be
argued, then, that the costume-l i ke char-
acter of femal e garb i n adverti sements
l ocates women as l ess seri ousl y present
i n
soci al si tuati ons than men, the sei f pre-
sented through get-ups bei ng
j tsel l
i n a
way an unseri ous thi ng. Observe that the
extensi on of thi s argument to real l i fe
need not i nvol ve a paradox.
l t rs a
common vi ew that women spend much
mor e of t hei r t i me and concer n i n shop-
pi ng
for cl othes and prepari ng for appear-
ances than do men, and that women set
consi derabl e store on the appreci ati ve or
depreci ati ve response they produce
there-
by. But, of course) so does an actor i n a
part he wi l l never pl ay agai n. A concern
over carryi ng an appearance off does not
necessari l y i mpl y a deep and abi di ng
i denti fi cati on wi th that appearance. (Thi s
argument fi ts wi th the fact that women' s
styl es change much more rapi dl y than do
men' s. )
THE RI TUALI ZATI ON OF SUBORDI NATI ON
!'gnglEi I rnI(5 Amen(u
,g[u l{ru mu{,n tor lrgtn
emffi
mdffim
;r.'
: ,
214
52 GENDERADVERTISEMENTS
224-43 Adul ts
pl ay mock assaul t
games wi th chi l dren,
games such as
chase-and-capture and
grab' and-squeeze
The chi i d i s
pl ayful l y treated l i ke a
prey
under attack by a predator. Certai n ma-
teri al s
(pi l l ows, sprays of water, l i ght
beach bal l s)
provi de mi ssi l es that can
st r i ke but not hur t . Ot her mat er i al s
pr o-
vi de a medi um i nto whi ch the captured
body can be thrown safel y-beds, snow
banks,
pool s, arms. Now i t turns out that
men
pl ay these
games wi th women, the
l atter col l aborati ng through a di spl ay of
attempts to escape and through cri es of
al ar m, l ear , and appeasement .
( l - i gur e-
danci ng
provi des occasi on for an i nsti tu-
ti onal i zed exampl e, the
partners who are
swung off thei r feet never bei ng men.) Of
course, underneath thi s show a man may
be engaged i n a deeper one, the sugges"
l i on of whal he coul d do i f he got set i ou.
about i t. In
part because mock assaul t i s
" f un"
and mor e l i kel y i n hol i day scenes
than i n work scenes, i t i s much represent-
ed i n adverti sements:
,,"-l
, t
.
:l,,
231
t
226
( cont i nued
)
THE RI TUALI ZATI ON
OF SUAORDI NATI ON
53
*;
238
54 GENDERADVERTISEMENTS
244-6 A mal e pj ctured wi th a femal e
someti mes appears to empl oy an extend-
ed arm, i n ffect marki ng the boundary
of hi s soci al
property and guardi ng i t
agai nst encroachment, A suggsti on i s that
thi s mi ni ature border
patrol i s especi al l y
found when the femal e at the same ti me
i s engaged i n a pursui t whi ch accords her
authori ty.
247-69 There seem to be four mai n
behavi oral arrangemenl s of pai rs of per-
sons whi ch
provi de what i s taken to be a
physi cal expressi on that the two are a
"wi th"-that
i s, together as a soci al uni t
wi t h r especr r o t he soci al si t ual i on i n
whi ch they are l ocated. (l n al l four cases,
note, the work these dyadi c ti e-si gns do
i n defi ni ng the rel ati onshi p between fi g-
ures i n a
pi cture woul d seem to be much
the same as the work they do i n real
soci al si tuati ons.)
247- 9 l i r sr , a mat t er of mi cr o-
ecol ogy: si tti ng or standi ng cl ose and
al ongsi de, wi th or wi thout touchi ng. Thi s
arrangement i s symmetri cal i n physi cal
character and soci al i mpl i cati on, no
di fferenti ati on of rol e or rdnL bei ng i n
i tsel f conveyed:
B! eod, u s. ^ . soryd M(cohb. r/ !
250-3 The
"arm
l ock" i s the
ti e-si gn i n Western soci eti es for
custody of the accompanyi ng man
t hough most commonl y sust ai ned
tween husband and wi fe, no sexual
l egal Ii nk i s necessari l y adverti sed
i t: father and grown daughrer, man
best fri end' s wi fe may al so empl oy i t
si gn i s asymmetri c both i n term< of
physi cal
confi gurati on and what i t
that a woman i s under the
cates. However nomi nal l y, the
shows hersel f to b recei vi ng support,
both the man' s hands are free for
ever i nstrumental tasks may ari se:
( cont i nued)
THE RI TUALI ZATI ON OF SUBOBDI NATI ON 55
254-60 The
"shoul der
hol d" rs an
asymmetri cal confi gurati on more or l ess
requi ri ng that the
person
hol di ng be tal l er
than the person
hel d, and that the hel d
person
accept di recti on and constrai nt.
Typi cal l y the arrangement seems ro be
dyadi cal l y i rreversi bl e. When empl oyed
by a cross-sexed adult pair,
the sign seems
to be taken to i ndi cate sexual l y-poten ti al
propri etaryshi p.
255
257
"
i l
'
' -' ".t;-r'
i i r:1 i ^ ri ..:-i +l
56 GENDERAOVERTISEMENTS
261-9 Fi nal l y, hand-hol di ng. When
empl oyed between adul t mal e and fe-
mal e, hand-hol di ng appears to be taken to
i ndi cate a sexual l y potenti al , excl usi ve
rel ati onshi p.l 8 A rel ati vel y symmetri cal
ti e-si gn
prsumabl y expressi ng rel ati ve
equal i ty. Physi cal asymmetry i s to be
detected i n the tendency for the mal e to
hol d the femal e hand, thi s al l owi ng th
i ndi cati on that he i s presumabl y free to
l et
go qui ckl y
shoul d an emergency ari se
and free to gui de and di rect. The physi cal
fact that the back of hi s hand i s l i kel y to
be faci ng what i s upcomi ng can fai ntl y
symbol i ze
protecti veness:
t 3Ti e- si gns
i n
gener al
par t i cul ar ar e consi der ed
188-231).
and hand- hol di ng i n
i n Gof f man ( 1971:
The di recti ng potenti al
of hand,hol di ng
can be made apparent i n ads:
So al so another theme,
provi di ng
a safe tether:
that of the
bei nl
qui r r
arou
empl
t h e '
real I
270-
) : : :
: : .
:ol
)"wW##,
a
- -rf-----.-_::_
265
LI CENSED WI THDRAWAL 57
ticensed Withdrawal
Women more than men, i t seems, are
pi tured engaged i n i nvol vements whi ch
remove them
psychol ogi cal l y from the
soci al si tuati on at l arge, l eavi ng them
unori ented i n i t and to i t, and
presum-
abl y, therefore, dependent on the protec-
ti veness and
g$odwi l l of others who are
(or mi ght come to be) present.
270-94 When emoti onal response
causes an i ndi vi dual to l ose control of hi s
faci al posture, that i s, to
"fl ood
out", he
can par l l y conceal l he l , t p5e by l ur ni ng
away from the others present or by
coveri ng hi s face, especi al l y hi s mouth,
wi th hi s hands. Ri tual i zati on of the ki nd
associ ated wi th the young i s i nvol ved, for
the act cannot conceal that somethi ng l s
bei ng conceal ed, and furthermore re-
qui res momentary bl i ndness to everythi ng
around onesel f thi s bei ng a
parti cul arl y
mpty and mal adapti ve response when
the wi thdrawal i s i tsel f a response to a
real threat.
270-5 Remorse:
:
i,:',
-,.
,
ffiKffi:I
2rtfa
i!&i::
D,
274
58 GENDERADVERTI SEMENTS
276-A2 Fear:
283-8 Shyness:
( cont i nued
)
rrue \.,ontesspns
of anOlivettigirl.
!,' ;l :.
i l ::j
%u'v? com a lo.s .r
.;"
LI CENSED WI THDRAWAL 59
289-94 Laughter:
EADYI , Al Mr T{: E HEF'
81
lWhot
So ond n"hot
60 GENDERAOVERTISEMENTS
295-309
Just
as coveri ng the mouth
wi th the hand can be an attenuati on of
coveri ng the face, so a fi nger brought to
the mouth can be an attenuati on of
cover i ng i t wi t h t he hand. But her e
anot her r i t ual i zat i on seems mor e com-
mon: t he at t enuat i on of sucki ng or bi t i ng
t he f i nger . The i mpr essi on i s gi ven t hat
somehow a stream of anxi ety, rumi na-
ti on, or whatever, has been spl i t off from
t he mai n cour se of at t ent i on and i s bei ng
sust ai ned i n a di ssoci at ed, unt hi nki ng
fashi on. l n any case, the face i s partl y
cover ed as t hough one coul d see but not
be seen and were therefore free to engage
hand and face outsi de the stream of
face-to-face address:
l
ti
-
297
ta
I
R /
f i r
Ea
pe
i s
N(
U I
ne
ea
vi l
296
303
-::!
300
( cont i nued)
306
308
LI CENSED WI THDRAWAL 61
310-20 Fi nger-to-fi nger posi ti on ap-
pears to carry the same di ssoci ated sel f-
communi cati on as i s expressed i n fi nger-
t o- mout h gest ur es but i n a st i l l mor e
attenuated form. Di spl acement from
mout h i s a t hi nkabl e possi bi l i t y.
310
( cont i nued
)
316
62 GENDER ADVERTI SEMENTS
s
320
3 l g r e
319
321-2 Turni ng one' s gaze away from
another' s can be seen as havi ng the
consequence of wi thdrawi ng from the
cur r ent t hr ust of communi cat i on, al l ow-
i ng one' s feel i ngs to settl e back i nto
control whi l e one i s somewhat protected
f r om di r ect scr ut i ny. Si nce f l i ght i s not
exhi bi ted i n thi s gaze-aversi ve behavi or,
some sor t of submi ssi on t o and t r ust i n
t he sour ce of st i mul us seems t o be i m-
ol i ed. 2
o
321
"..69
illlrrmW[r
322
I e
Not e t he combi nat i on of f i nger - t o- f i nger
wi t h body cant and knee bend i n t hi s and t he
next t wo
pi ct ur es.
2oThe
pr ocess r ecei ves i t s canoni cal l i t er ar y
expr essi on on a page i n
Joyce' s
Por t r oi t of on
Ar t i st os o Young Mon, her e ci t ed i n f ul l as a
r emi nder t hat t he novel i st i c sexi sm at t r i but ed
t o Mai l er can r un gent l y and deep:
A gi r l st ood bef or e hi m i n mi dst r eam:
al one and st i l l , gazi ng out t o sea. She
seemed l i ke one whom magi c had changed
i nt o t he l i keness of a st r ange and beaut i f ul
seabi r d. Her l ong sl ender bar e l egs wer e
del i cat e as a cr ane' s and
pur e
save wher e an
emer al d t r ai l of seaweed had f ashi oned i t sel f
as a si gn upon t he f l esh. Her t hi ghs, f ul l er
anci sof t hued as i vor y, wer e bar ed al most t o
t he hi ps wher e t he whi t e f r i nges of her
dr awer s wer e l i ke f eat her i ng of sof t whi t e
down. Her sl at e- bl ue ski r t s wer e ki l t ed
bol dl y about her wai st and dovet ai l ed be-
hi nd her . Her bosom was as a bi r d' s, sof t
and sl i ght , sl i ght and sof t as t he br east of
some dar k- pl umaged dove. But her l ong f ai r
hai r was gi r l i sh: and gi r l i sh, and t ouched
wi t h t he wonder of mor t al beaut y, her f ace.
She was al one and st i l l , gazi ng out t o sea;
and when she f el t hi s pr esence and t he
wor shi p of hi s eyes her eyes t ur ned t o hi m
i n qui et suf f r ance of hi s gaze, wi t hout
shame or want onness. Long, l ong she suf f er '
ed hi s gaze and t hen qui et l y wi t hdr ew her
eyes f r om hi s and bent t hem t owar ds t he
st r eam, gent l y st i r r i ng t he wat er wi t h her
f oot hi t her and t hi t her . The f i r st f ai nt noi se
of gent l y movi ng wat er br oke t he si l ence,
l ow and f ai nt and whi sper i ng, f ai nt as t he
bel l s of sl eep; hi t her and t hi t her , hi t her and
t hi t her : and a f ai nt f l ame t r embl ed on her
ch ee k.
- Heavenl y
God! cr i ed St ephen' s soul , i n
an out bur st of pr of ane j oY. -
The et hol ogi cal sour ce i s Chance ( 1 962) .
LI CENSED WI THDRAWAL 63
323-38 Head/eye aversi on. The l ower-
i ng of t he head pr esumabl y wi t hdr aws
attenti on from the scene at hand, depen-
dency ent ai l ed and i ndi cat ed t her eby.
The gai n i s t hat one' s f eel i ngs wi l l be
moment ar i l y conceal ed- al t hough, of
course, not the fact that one i s attempt-
i ng such conceal ment . ( As i n head cant -
i ng, hei ght i s r educed, cont r i but i ng t o a
symbol i zat i on of submi ssi veness. ) Mer e
aversi on of the eyes can apparentl y serve
si mi l ar l y:
324
t3erarr riller L0ngt'.
326 330
( cont i nued)
64 GENDERADVERTI SEMENTS
339-47 In real soci al si tuati ons and i n
pi ct ur ed ones, t he i ndi vi dual can wi t h-
draw hi s gaze from the scene at l arge
(wi th the dependency and trust that thi s
i mpl i es) and l ock i t i n such a way as to
gi ve t he i mpr essi on of havi ng onl y mi nor
di ssoci ated concern wi th what i s thus
seen, even as hi s mi nd has wandered from
everythi ng i n the si tuati on; psychol ogi -
cal l y, he i s
" away. "
( Doodl i ng and mi ddl e
di stance l ooks are exampl es, al though i t
shoul d be kept i n mi nd t hat t hese t wo
practi ces can al so fi gure i n another ar-
rangement, the one i n whi ch the i ndi -
vi dual aur al l y at t ends t o what i s bei ng
sai d by anot her whi l e maki ng i t appar ent
that nothi ng he can see i s competi ng for
attenti on.)
343
An i nteresti ng obj ect on whi ch to l ock an
away l ook i s t he hands, f or . t hi s f ocus not
onl y can convey some sort of sel f-
encl osur e, but al so can r equi r e a down-
war d t ur ni ng of t he head, submi ssi veness
bei ng a possi bl e consequent i nterpreta-
t i on:
g5
LI | - ENSt sD WI THDRAWAL
348-72 l n adverti sements women are
shown mental l y dri fti ng from the physi -
cal scene around them (that i s, goi ng
" away" )
whi l e i n cl ose physi cal t ouch
wi t h a mal e, as t hough hi s al i veness t o t he
sur r ound and hi s r eadi ness t o cope wi t h
anyt hi ng t hat mi ght pr esent i t sel f wer e
enough for both of them. (At the same
ti me, the mal e may wel l wear a wary,
moni t or i ng l ook. ) Thus,
" anchor ed
dr i f t s" . Var i ous
poi nt s
of vi sual f ocus ar e
fou nd.
348- 61 Mi ddl edi st ance:
( cont i nued)
GENDER ADVERTI SEMENTS
; rYed:- .,
: f
'
td a mi l rl .r l nnnrp.l
" . 8
360
362-7 Smal l obj ects:
,(rLr-r\Al uI{aL} w}tlsl
367 (see
also 3351
LI CENSED WI THDRAWAL 67
368-72 A twi stabl e part
of the mal e,s
cl ot h i ng:
68 GENDERADVERTI SEMENTS
373- 5 Mai nt ai ni ng a t el ephone con-
versati on necessari l y means some wi th-
drawal of attenti on from the i mmedi ate
scene at hand, wi th attendant l ack of
ori entati on to, and readi ness for, events
t hat mi ght occur t her ei n. Thi s can be
cont r ol l ed by l i mi t i ng t he l engt h of cal l s
and one' s i nvol vement i n what i s t al ked
about. In adverti sements women are
somet i mes shown l uxur i at i ng i n a cal l ,
i mmer si ng t hemsel ves i n a dr eamy and
pr esumabl y pr ol onged way.
373
376-8 In adverti sements, women are
not onl y posed l yi ng on t he f l oor or i n a
bed, but al so at t he same t i me bendi ng
thei r l egs as though that part of the body
were bei ng empl oyed i n a di ssoci ated
way, as i n doodl i ng, except her e t he
di ssoci ated behavi or i s l arge scal e, as mi ght
therefore be the attenti on i t wi thdraws
from the scene at l arge:
iwill Slilli:
'1
la! 13 !r.a. ist$ d gd . hd rir f8!a h irt 3 ds-
MN *l dtj.e did tu m, I sd !t! hhj.ss t$ lr* r tw din&r .r!i
lry l* I dryd kl l%" ld{ rt rd{ ,t{,, ftlr dy brilt ,$ ?'tor Fi
i0r $d rMt Y' for 6rX S&t-$!i tud
pry e$ ry m.t d{bbn re, e8.
xs. rr ,ha b dhr ,rd sfrisi ndr t
&r, !.ry d{ kddibl! ld. I's ikrhl.',
376
377
378
379-95 l t has al ready been remarked
t hat i n ads women, mor e t han men,
appear to wi thdraw themsel ves from the
soci al si t uat i on at hand t hr ough i nvol ve-
ment s, i ncl udi ng emot i onal r esponse.
Si gni fi cant here are the responses of
pl easure, del i ght, l aughter, and gl ee-states
of bei ng transported by happi ness. Perhaps
t he i mpl i cat i on i s t hat a woman- l i ke a
chi l d wi th an i ce cream cone-can fi nd
some sortof fi nal sati sfacti on i n goal s that
can be f ul l y r eal i zed i n t he pr esent . 2l l n
consequence, a consumatory
"fl oodi ng
ou t " :
2 r
A si mi l ar ar gument i s suggest ed by
Kom i sar ( 1 97 2 | 306- 301
|
|
l f t el evi si on commer ci al s ar e t o be be'
l i eved, most Amer i can women go i nt o un'
cont r ol l abl e ecst asi es at t he si ght and smel l
of t abl es and cabi net s t hat have been l ovi ng'
l y car essed wi t h l ong- l ast i ng, sat i n- f i ni sh,
l emon- scent ed, spr ay- on f ur ni t ur e pol i sh. Ot
t hey gl ow wi t h r apt ur e at t he bl i ndi ng
whi t eness of t hei r wash- and t he gr een- eyed
envy of t hei r nei ghbor s. The housewi f e i n
t he Johnson' s
Wax commer ci al hugs t he
di ni ng r oom t abl e because t he shi ne i s so
wonder f ul ; t hen she pol i shes her sel f i nt o a
cor ner and has t o i ump over t he f ur ni t ur e t o
get out . Bol d det er gent shows one woman i n
deeo deor essi on because her wash i s not as
br i ght as her nei ghbor ' s.
Obser ve t hat i n adver t i sement s, i nst ead of our
bei ng shown a woman' s f l ood of pl easur e upon
r ecei pt of a pr esent f r om a man, we may be
shown t he scene t hat mi ght have
i ust
pr eceded
t hat one, namel y, t he
" Guess
what ?" scene,
wher ei n t he man hol ds somet hi ng beyond t he
vi si on of t he woman ( somet i mes by obl i gi ng her
t o cover her eyes) and t easi ngl y i nvi t es her t o
guess what her l i f e i s about t o be enr i ched by,
t he pr ospect of whi ch i s seen t o t hr ow her i nt o
a st at e of i oyous t or ment . Anot her ver si on has
t he gi ver spr i ng t he sur pr i se wi t hout war ni ng, i n
consequence of whi ch t he r eci pi ent moment ar i -
l y l oses al l sel f - cont r ol , br eaki ng i nt o a f l ut t er
of pl easur e. These t easi ng uses of i ndul gence
ar e, of cour se, commonl y empl oyed by par ent s
i n connect i on wi t h t hei r chi l dr en, and ar e t o be
consi der ed al ongsi de anot her pl ayf ul t hr eat t o
equi l i br i um, one al r eady t ouched on, namel y,
mock assaul t .
( cont i nued
)
LICENSED WITHDRAWAL 69
A cor ol l ar y i s t hat when a mal e and
femal e are pi ctured
i n a euphori c state,
t he f emal e i s l i kel y t o be exhi bi t i ng a
more expansi ve expressi on than i s the
mal e, whi ch i n turn fi ts wi th the argu-
ment al ready made and i l l ustrated that i n
our soci ety women smi l e more than
men-both i n real scenes and i n commer-
ci al l y cont r i ved ones:
"ry
( cont i nued)
70 GENDERADVERTI SEMENTS
. a :
w
M
392
ry
:.::",:3
l :i i 3US
'",
.i1-
'
ffi
393
396-437 l t i s possi bl e to l ook i n on a
soci al si tuati on from a di stance or from
behi nd a one-way panel -a
"parti ci pati on
shi el d" - and be l i t t l e seen onesel f , i n
whi ch case one can, i n effect, partake of
the events but not be exposed to scruti ny
or addr ess. A spl i t t i ng up t hus r esul t s
between some of the gai ns and some of
the costs of face-to-face i nteracti on. I
mi ght note that when one' s parti ci pati on
i s t hus shi el ded, si mul t aneous mai n-
tenance of di ssoci ated si de i nvol vements
woul d seem to be faci l i tated, si nce these
coul d har dl y i nt r ude bet ween onesel f and
one' s avai l abi l i t y t o t he ot her s i n t he
si t uat i on- one not bei ng avai l abl e at al l .
A r i t ual i zat i on of par t i ci pat i on shi el di ng
occur s when one
pr esent s onesel f as i f on
the edge of the si tuati on or otherwi se
shi el ded f r om i t physi cal l y, when i n f act
one i s qui te accessi bl e to those i n i t. Sti l l
f ur t her r i t ual i zat i on i s f ound i n commer -
ci al posi ngs.
?*u
396
397-400n At the edge:
22Cont r ast
t hi s pi ct ur e of hedged par t i ci pa-
t i on wi t h one t hat i s f or mal l y si mi l ar but
suggest i ng no pr ot ect i ve par t i ci pat i on:
LI CENSED WI THDRAWAL 71
401- 5 Fr om behi nd obi ect s:
72 GENDERADVERTI SEMENTS
406- 8 Fr om behi nd ani mal s:
406
407
408
409-37 From behi nd a person (wi th
the consequent opportuni ty to overl ay
di stance wi th a di fferenti ati ng expressi on,
i n t he ext r eme, col l usi ve bet r ayal of one' s
shi el d) :
: &,;U-'
W
. r :
-' """, . -
l : , . .
' : :
t : : ' ;
f!.o:
BL tonr a.d Dance Man
l l , r ' " , r l l ' - , : ,
412
\
' d-
s
410
414
-aF
l )i aur l l i gg aurl l l rl ar' l nru {i rrrf l , rr
415
( cont i nued
)
LI CENSED WI THDRAWAL 73
\ r ' \ i l ( ! { l r . r r \ t h f l r \ t c r t . g n n r i r q
I i g l r t \ \ h i r l l i r . \ r r l i r e .
t0l& sr$
rl
H
ffi
' q\q
:'r !
.
,t.l
416
( cont i nued
)
74 GENDER ADVERTI SEMENTS
428,
432 436
429
437
430
434
431
43523
2 3l t
shoul d not be assumed t hat mer e
physi cal pl acement i s i nvol ved her e. Men ar e
r out i nel y
pi ct ur ed i n a r ear posi t i on i n a
manner i mpl yi ng anyt hi ng but coyness and
dependence ( see, f or exampl e, pi ct ur es
100- 14n and 244- 61. As t ypi cal i n t hese
mat t er s, t he same ver bal descr i pt i on of r el at i ve
" physi cal "
posi t i on coul d be equal l y appl i ed t o
cover radi cal l y di fferent effects. For the effec'
t i ve r eadi ng of hi s t ext , t he- wr i t er depends
upon ef f ect i ve vi ewi ng by hi s r eader s- wor ds
her e ser vi ng t o
Poi nt ,
not sPeci f Y.
LI CENSED WI THDRAWAL 75
438-78 Snuggl i ng: among pri mates
the very young turn, or are turned, i nto
thei r mothers' bodi es for comfort and
protecti on, someti mes further cut off
from the surroundi ng si tuati on by en-
cl osur e wi t hi n her ar ms. Per haps t he
suckl i ng posi ti on i s the prototype, al -
though for a chi l d any adul t i n a parental
rol e seems qual i fi ed as somethi ng to
snuggl e i nto.2a As the chi l d grows up, the
i nsul at i on t hi s pr act i ce obj ect i vel y pr o-
vi des from the surroundi ng scene de-
creases progressi vel y; eventual l y the wi th-
drawal achi eved thi s way can onl y be
ri tual i sti c. Whatever the bi ol ogi cal roots
of thi s snuggl i ng practi ce, i t i s a resource
i n the formul ati ng of commerci al
pi ctu res.
438-44 Chi l dren:
' aAn
et hol ogi cal posi t i on on t hese post ur es
i s pr esent ed
i n E i bl - E i besf el dt ( 1 97 2: 1 20- 1 241.
I am ver y gr at ef ul t o Pr of essor Ei bl - Ei besf el dt
f or per mi ssi on t o r epr i nt t hr ee pi ct ur es ( 192,
283 and 284) from Love ond Hote,
76 GENOERADVERTI SEMENTS
445-8 Adul t s, l yi ng: 449-62 Sitting:
( cont i nued)
l-- - A--.t
LI CENSED WI THDRAWAL
One si t t i ng, one st andi ng:
tlJooLllteot llie.
( cont i nued)
7A GENDERADVERTI SEMENTS
469-78 Standi ng:
g
E
c
s
473
&ie ile obrt m ssleil du Psrlu
sr,Ne,,ta-!$1rl
r*&ded:&st tS
I
sr nr y k* r 0a* s
, ai * v( &s&!
t T&1*alrdenrsr,zt
( cont i nued
)
liluc slrirtisrrt
nlurtituscd tolrc.
LI CENSED WI THDRAWAL 79
479-86 Nuzzl i ng-apparentl y an atten-
uated form of snuggl i ng-i nvol ves em-
pl oyment of the face and especi al l y the
nose as a sort of surrogate or substi tute
f or t ucki ng i n t he whol e body. Nuzzl i ng,
then, woul d seem to consti tute a form of
parti al wi thdrawal from ful l avai l abi l i ty
to the si tuati on at l arge. What one fi nds,
i n pi ctures at l east, i s that women nuzzl e
chi l dr en but men appar ent l y do not .
l ndeed, women are someti mes pi ctured
nuzzl i ng obj ects. And, of course, women
ar e pi ct ur ed nuzzl i ng men.
483
480
inside
,i..tflt:
ii ri rl
80 GENDERADVERTI SEMENTS
487-96 The process whereby an i ndi -
vi dual snuggl es i nto another seems any-
t hi ng but i mper sonal , and yet i s ( l f eel )
rel ated to somethi ng that has an i mper-
sonal cast, namel y, the use of another' s
body as i f i t were somethi ng that coul d
be used at wi l l , wi thout apparent refer-
ence to i ts possessor, as an obj ect to l ean
on or rest one' s l i mbs on, i n short, as a
physi cal resource, not a soci al l y respon-
si ve one. In many cases, note, such
l eani ng use of another seems to be an
attenuated, very ritualized, form of snug-
gl i ng. Not e al so t hat a non- sexual i mpl i -
cati on i s present i n the contact, and that,
i n adver t i sement s at l east , women ( much
as do chi l dr en wi t h r espect t o adul t s)
apparentl y have l i cense to use more of a
man' s body i n t hi s ut i l i t ar i an way t han
the reverse. The assumpti on seems to be
that a woman i s l ess l i kel v to have sexual
i ntent than a man, and that her use of hi s
body i s therefore l ess suspect than hi s of
hers. (Of course, an added factor i s the
under st andi ng t hat he wi l l be abl e t o be4r
her wei ght much mor e easi l y t han she hi s.
)
Note, the confi gurati ons here consi dered
i nvol ve i ndi vi dual s i n a per sonal r el at i on-
shi p, t ypi cal l y a sexual l y pot ent i al one.
Among the l ess cl ose, the l i cense to touch
fol l ows a di fferent pattern. Men can
punctuate thei r verbal i nteracti on wi th
women by showi ng support, protecti ve-
ness, good wi l l , and parent-l i ke affecti on,
through the l ayi ng on of the hand, a
l i cense apparentl y l ess avai l abl e to women
( and ot her subor di nat es) i n t hei r deal i ngs
r vi t h men ( see Henl ey 1973) .
488
487
( cont i nued)
'/.ni:
7;4 >t:,""..:
* ' - -
494
493
LI CENSED WI THDRAWAL 81
497-500 A very standardi zed two-
person asymmetri cal confi gurati on ob-
servabl e i n real l i fe and often i n
pi ctures
i s t he
" gr i ef
embr ace. " Al l combi nat i ons
of sex are found i n the two rol es, except,
apparentl y, that women are not pi ctured
pr ovi di ng t hi s sor t of comf or t t o men. 25
Whet her i n l i f e or i n pi ct ur es, one i s
pr ovi ded her e wi t h a ni ce exampl e of
f or mal i zat i on- t he r educt i on of mul t i pl e
confi gurati ons to a rather set ri tual i sti c
manoeuvr e:
498
( cont i nued
)
' 5Thi s
di st r i but i on i s not . I t hi nk, t he basi c
one i n our soci et y. For t her e ar e many r i t ual
pr act i ces of a suppor t i ve, bondi ng ki nd t hat
women can ext end t o women or men, t hat men
can ext end t o women, but t hat men can' t
ext end t o men. Ki ssi ng and t er ms of endear ment
such as
"honey", "dear ", "l ove"
ar e exampl es.
I ndeed, a wi de r ange of suppor t i ve pr act i ces
may have a common, nat ur al soci al hi st or y,
begi nni ng as somet hi ng adul t s ext end t o chi l -
dr en and t hen movi ng on t hr ough t he f ol l owi ng
sequence of accr et i ons: women- t o- women,
women- t o- men, men- t o- women, men- t o- men.
82 GENDERADVERTI SEMENTS
^:\
501-8 The
gri ef embrace appears to
mani fest i tsel f i n an attenuated, hyper-
r i t ual i zed f or m, namel y, ar m suppor t
gi ven as evi dence of some sort of com-
mendat i on or mor al appr oval . Agai n, i n
commerci al
pi ctures, women do not seem
t o be shown gi vi ng t hi s suppor t t o men.
But
yqr'vetold
him
denty.
( cont i nued)
LICENSED WITHDRAWAL 83
A4 GENDERADVERTI SEMENTS
Gonclusion
Under di spl ay have been
" nat ur al "
expr essi ons of gender
i nsofar as these can be represented i n commerci al adverti si ng
through vi sual l y accessi bl e behavi oral styl e. I bel i eve that
upon exami nati on these expressi ons turn out to be i l l ustra-
ti ons of ri tual -l i ke bi ts of behavi or whi ch portray an i deal
concepti on of the two sexes and thei r structural rel ati onshi p
1o each other, accompl i shi ng thi s i n part by i ndi cati ng, agai n
i deal l y, t he al i gnment of t he act or i n t he soci al si t uat i on.
Commerci al
photographs, of course, i nvol ve careful l y
performed poses presented i n the styl e of bei ng
"onl y
natural ." But i t i s argued that actual gender expressi ons are
artful poses, too.
From the perspecti ve of ri tual , then, what i s the di ffer-
encel between the scenes depi cted i n adverti sements and
scenbs from actual l i fe? One answer mi ght be
"hyper' ri tual -
i zati i on." The standardi zati on, exaggerati on, and si mpl i fi -
cation that characterize rituals in general are in commercial
posi ngs found to an extended degree, often rekeyed as
babyi shness, mockery, and other forms of unseri ousness.
Another answer i s found i n the process of edi ti ng. A
commerci al
photograph i s a ri tual i zati on of soci al i deal s wi th
al l the occasi ons and senses i n whi ch the i deal i s not
exhi bi ted havi ng been cut away, edi ted out of what i s made
avai l abl e. In ordi nary l i fe we conspi re to provi de the same
ki nd of
" nat ur al "
expr essi ons, but we can onl y do t hi s by
means of behavi oral styl e or at parti cul ar j unctures
i n our
course of acti vi ty-moments of ceremony, occasi ons for
gi vi ng sympathy, sudden access to fri ends, and si mi l ar
j unct ur es
i n t he dai l y r ound, as det er mi ned by a schedul e we
know l i ttl e about as yet. So both i n adverti sements and l i fe
we are i nterested i n col orful poses, i n external i zati on; but i n
l i f e we ar e, i n addi t i on, st uck wi t h a consi der abl e amount of
dul l footage. Nonethel ess, whether we pose for a pi cture or
execute an actual ri tual acti on, what we are presenti ng i s a
commerci al , an i deal representati on under the auspi ces of i ts
characterizing the way things really are. When a man in real
l i fe l i ghts a ci garette for a woman, the presupposi ti on i s that
femal es are worthy obj ects, physi cal l y l i mi ted i n some way,
and t hat t hey shoul d be hel ped out i n al l t hei r t r ansi t i ons.
But thi s
"natural "
expressi on of the rel ati on between the
sexes, thi s l i ttl e i nterpersonal ri tual , may be no more an
actual refl ecti on of the rel ati onshi p between the sexes than i s
the cou' pl e pi ctured i n the ci garette ad a representati ve
coupl e. Natural expressi ons are commerci al s performed to
sel l a ver si on of t he wor l d under condi t i ons no l ess
questi onabl e and treacherous than the ones that adverti sers
face.
By and l arge, adverti sers do not create the ri tual i zed
expressi ons they empl oy; they seem to draw upon the same
corpus of di spl ays, the same ri tual i di om, that i s the resource
of al l of us who parti ci pate i n soci al si tuati ons, and to the
same end: t he r ender i ng of gl i mpsed act i on r eadabl e. l f
anyt hi ng, adver t i ser s convent i onal i ze our convent i ons, st yl i ze
what i s al r eady a st yl i zat i on, make f r i vol ous use of what i s
al r eady somet hi ng consi der abl y cut of f f r om cont ext ual
cont r ol s. Thei r hype i s hyper - r i t ual i zat i on.
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