Twilight Zones: The Hidden Life of Cultural Images from Plato to O. J.

by Susan Bordo
Review by: Todd Gitlin
Contemporary Sociology, Vol. 28, No. 4 (Jul., 1999), pp. 436-437
Published by: American Sociological Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2655316 .
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436 Ideology and Cultural Production

beendistinguished fortheirempirical andtheo- anotherchapter.The cruxof the book,though,

reticalacumen,theyarethestuffof convention- is aboutthe workers(Brown,a workerhimself,
al sociology.Here, Brownprovidesa deeply callsthem"mountain rats")whopopulated this
poignant,personalnarrative abouthis own life scene.Rangingfromthe kitchenprofessionals,
growingup in the CatskillMountains.The suchas the chefsandmaitred's,to the "bim-
Catskills,madefamousby the comedianswho mies"(the mostlygentile laborerswho were
begantheircareersin the "BorschtBelt"and exploitedby the hotel owners),to the young
then memorialized in such movies as Dirty peoplewhoworkedaswaitersandbusboys, these
Dancing,wereat theirpeakof popularity when itinerantemployees comprised a culturealltheir
Brownwasa youngster in the 1950s.Hisparents own.We see howthe workers, juxtaposed with
owneda smallhotelthere,andthenlater,after the demanding andkvetchingguests,adaptedto
theysoldit, workedin variouscapacitiesin the the arduous tasks,almostmagnetically drawnto
resortsthatremained. the lifestyle.
Withpartautobiography, partethnography, Morethan anythingelse, CatskillCultureis
Browntakesusback,nostalgically, to the halcy- the sociologyof AmericanJewryduringthe
on daysof this resortcommunity. Remarkably, postwaryears.As the Jewishcommunityhas
he depictsthe areawithsuchvividillustrations becomeassimilatedand declinedin numbers
that he bringsalivethe emotions,sentiments, throughoutthe last decadesof the twentieth
and good will for which the Catskillswere century,so too do we witnessthe demiseof the
known.A laborof love, the book not only Catskills. Replacedbymoreposhresortssuchas
allowedBrownto returnto hisbirthplace, buthe the Hamptons andCapeCod,the Catskillspar-
rediscovered hishalf-sister,andultimately creat- allel changesin the demography of the Jewish
ed an Instituteandannualconferencedevoted communitytoday. Decayed and sometimes
to maintaining the memories of the Catskills. abandoned, thehotelsof Brown's youthstandas
Whileyoudon'thaveto be Jewishto appre- a reminder of days when the ethnicity of white
ciatethisbook,it helps.Havingourselves grown Euro-Americansplayed a greater role in
up amongthe New YorkCity denizenswho Americanculture.Beautifullypackagedwith
escapedto the summercamps,weekendtrips, photographs, old menus,maps,andnewsclip-
vacations,andlifein the bungalow colonies,we pings, this book remindsus that sociologycan
canpalpably summonthesedaysthroughBrown not only inform, but moveusaswell.MazelTov,
andhis respondents. To test the verisimilitude Phil!
of the book,we even loanedit to someof our
olderrelatives,the typeof peoplewhofrequent-
ed the Catskillsin theirheyday.In each case, TwilightZones:TheHiddenLifeof CulturalImages
Browncameoutwitha ringingendorsement, as fromPlatoto 0. J., bySusan Bordo. Berkeley:
thesepeopleconcurred withhis assessment and Universityof CaliforniaPress,1997. 279 pp.
description ofthescene.Colloquially called"the $27.50cloth.ISBN:0-520-21101-4.
Mountains," thiswasthe placeto be duringthe TODDGITLIN
longhot summer daysof ouryouth. New York University
Sociologically,this is one of the few insider todd.gitlin@9nyu.edu
accountswehaveaboutthe operation of hotels.
Distinctentities,resortsmustcaterto a seasonal SusanBordo's centralpointin thislooselybast-
crowd,one thatmakesthe financesandstaffing edcollectionof essaysis thatthe imageoffemale
particularlydifficultto manage. As mucha study slenderness in popularcultureis monotonously
of thedeclineof a community asanethnography oppressive. She underscores it by exposinggen-
of the innerworkings of theseparticular organi- derassumptions in advertising,centeringon the
zations,CatskillCultureshowswhyit is hardto shriveled imageofwomen.Shediscusses popular
runanycompanythat is so dependenton sea- movies,alongwithpersonal commentaries anda
sonal clientele.As with the new immigrant critiqueof KathyDavis'sReshapingthe Female
groupstodaywhoworkin the restaurant indus- Body,an argument in behalfof the "empower-
try,the lifebloodof the Catskillresortswasthe ing"qualitiesof plasticsurgery.Her chapters
family,each memberworkingin myriadposi- include"Braveheart,Babe, and the Contem-
tionsin the hotel.Entertainment, whichmade porary Body,""P.C., O.J.andTruth," "Bringing
the Catskillsfamous,is the centerpieceof Bodyto Truth,"and"TheFeministasOther."
 Ideology and Cultural Productiota 437

That the imageof womenin advertising is viewer-from-nowhere mightmakeherreturnare

role-bound, underscoring difference, isnota rev- leftmysterious.
elation,andBordoaddslittleto the discussion. In "TheFeministas Other,"Bordolaments
The demandsideof advertising's imagery inter- thatfeminism's critiquetakesplace"atthe mar-
estsherlittle.So doesconsumer toleranceof, or ginsof culture"(p. 192),reducedto something
ambivalence toward,thisimagery. She deplores "specialized . . . self-limiting, andof insufficient
theretreatof "Generation X"frompublicaffairs, generalconsequence to amountto a newknowl-
butfailsto givedueweightto the seductions of edgeof 'thewaycultureoperates"' (p. 193).She
popularculture,even for women who feel wants "feminist philosophy . . . readas cultural
degraded and insultedby the currentfetishof critique" (p. 209). Butshe doesnot specifythe
slenderness. "Weareallculturemakers aswellas generalconsequence or newknowledge she has
cultureconsumers" (p. 50), she writes,yet she in mind. To long for a general critique is not to
failsto integratethispointintoherlargerview. arriveat one, or even to indicate thegeneral ter-
Lackinga largersocialmap,or a senseof how ritorywhere it might someday be found. Bordo is
politicalchangSes havebeenblocked,sheaccepts hoping for arguments to bolster positions she
uncritically the notionthatthe properarenaof already supports.
feministpoliticsis popular culture. The last chapteris a collaboration written
Skeptical of some multiculturalpieties, with her two sisters, in which, autobiographical-
Bordo, a professorof philosophy at the ly,theyexploretheirrelationsto theirfamily,its
Universityof Kentuckyandholderof the Otis fessional bodiesand"spaces." "Istilldo not careforcon-
writingwhenit is doneforthe sakeof
A. Singletary Chairin the Humanities, deplores personaldisclosure or narcissistic pleasure," she
the knee-jerk relativism thatflowsthroughthe writesearlyin the book(p. 26), proceeding to
academytoday.She arguesagainstthe anodyne defendthe processof writingas a therapeutic
clichesof "diversity," andon behalfof a more exercise.Yetherdefenseofthischapteris a ther-
staunchlycriticaldispositiontowardcultural apeuticone. In the introduction, Bordowrites
texts.Soonerthansampling the smorgasbord of that she wants"to rehabilitate the conceptof
"difference," shewantsstudentsto "learnto ana- 'truth'forourtime"(p.22),butshecannotresist
lyze,interpret, critique,andevaluateone thing the scarequotesor the qualification "forour
(a classicaltext, a currentevent, a popular time."Sentimental politicsdefeatshersometime
move)in all its complexity includingissuesof aspiration to overcomeidentity-based thinking.
race,gender,history,and power"(p. 81). But Unwillingto confrontthe tensionsbetweenher
here'stherub,andit is a matterof logic:Despite desires,shehasproduced a repetitivecollection
Bordo'sdistastefor the present-day levelingof ofcommentaries thatillustrates thedead-ended-
judgment,her indifference to aestheticvalues nessof muchcontemporary writingon popular
makesherasuncritical of marketplace valuesas culture.
the mostforthright laissez-faire
defender of con-
sumersovereignty. To propose"turning a critical
lighton popular culture" (p. 14) is scarcelynov- GenderandDiscourse,editedbyRuth Wodak.
el advicein an age whencriticismof popular London& Thousand Oaks,CA:Sage,1997.303
cultureis itselfa fixtureof popular culture. pp. NPL cloth. ISBN:0-7619-5098-2.$27.95
Bordofollowsherunoriginal probesintopop- paper.ISBN:0-7619-5099-0.
ularimagerywith a rathermoretrenchantdis- SANDRA E. GODWIN
cussion of sexual harassment,making the North Carolina State University
valuablepointthatharassment is bullying.She god win @Oserver. sasw. ncsu. ed u
thenmovesto a critiqueof philosophers forfail-
ing to recognizethe embeddedness of the mind Whetherwritinga theoreticalor empirical
in the body.Now that postmodernists have chapter,eachauthorin thisanthologyadoptsa
deposedtheCartesian disembodied mind,Bordo "context-specific" approachto understanding
findsherself"dazed andconfusedby someslith- the relationship betweengenderand discourse
ery,postmodern conversation," sometimes wish- (i.e.,the "useof languagein speechorwriting")(p.
ing "thatthe Cartesian overseerwouldmakea 6). Goingbeyondsimplydocumenting thesexof
returnappearance" (p. 182).Butwishingis not the speaker, eachthusaddsto currentlinguistic
close reasoning,and the termson which the theoryandresearch on gender,whichtoo often