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GEIITIER ATNENTISEIIEIIT$

GETIDER ATIUERTISEIIEIIT
ErvingGollman

( HARPER TORCHBOOKS Harper& Row,Publishers, New York Cambridge, Philadelphia, Francisco, San Washington London,Mexico City,Sio Paulo, Singapore, Sydney

Coffman lntroducCopyriSht ADVERTTsEMENTs. O 1976by rvin8 cENDER Inc O tion copyright 1979 by Harperand Row Publishers, All riShts ofAmerica Nopartofthisbookmay in States Printed the United reserved. withoutwrittenpermisbe usedor reproducedin any mannerwhatsoever and embodiedin criticalarticles sionexceptin the caseof briefquotations lnc., l0 East Harper& Row,Publishers, reviews.For informationaddress N.Y.10022. NewYork, 5lrd Street,

1987 editionpublished roRcHBooKs First HARPER (pbk.) rsBNr 0-06-132076-5

93 94 95

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GOIITEIITS
Acknowledgements Introduction VivianGornick by CenderDisplay Picture Frames Cender Commercials Relative Size The Feminine Touch Function Ranking The Family The Ritual ization Subordination of Licensed Withdrawal Conclusion vii t 10 24 2A 29 32 37 40 84

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AGIIII0WIEIIGEiIEIITS
this monographfirst appearedas Apart from a few changes, vol. 3, no. 2 (F all 1976) of Studies in the Anthropology of Visuol Communicotion, a publication of the Society for the | Anthropologyof Visual Communicalion- am very grateful in out its theneditor,the late SolWorth,for support working to the originaledition and for permission useits platesand to glossies. am also gratefulto ElsaVorwerk,managing editor I for a great Association, of the American Anthropological from which deal of help with the originallayout. The slides donefrom the were madewerethemselves the reproductions by originals John Careyand LeeAnn Draud.

For Coffman, social situationsare settingsfor ceremonies whosefunction is "to affirm socialarrangements announce and ultimate doctrine."In the socialor public situation the most minute behaviorhas meaning.Cesture,expression, posturereveal not only how we feelaboutourselves add up, aswell, to but an entirearrangement-a scene-that embodies culturalvalues. Within these scenes, Goffmanposits, humanbehaviors_can be seenas "displays." Explaining that in animalsa displayis an "emotionally motivated behavior lthat] becomesformalized, provides readily a readable expression [theanimal's] of situation, specifically intent, his for [and]this...allows thenegotiation an of efficientresponse from and to witnesses the display,"Coffman of "...anindividual's goes to saythat,similarly, human on in beings Thecontemporary feminist movement, with all itsclamorabout behavior appearance and informs those who witness him...about his social identity,mood, intent.... [T]hese themeaning the littledetails dailylife,hasacted a kindof in as of are displays that prodto the thought manysocial givingnew electric of scientists, establish termsof the contact,..for dealings the the that are to impetus direction theirwork,the verysubstance which ensue providingthedisplayandthe persons and to of between persons the perceiving istheobservation concrete of detailin sociallife.Because the of it." feminists most ordinary verbal exchangebetweenmen and But,Coffmanadds-and this "but" is the heartofthe mafterthe "Thehuman of displays complicated the human use women now reverberates with new meaning;the most simple is by capac(in gesture, ity for .eframing familiar ritual, taken-for-granted form of addresshas behavior.... are fD]isplays humans) a sympbecomea sourceof new understanding with regardto relations tom, not a portrait....lt not so muchthe character an entity is of betweenthe sexesand the social forces at work behind those thatgets expressed..,. in [E]xpression the main is not instinctive relations. that originates with one's but sociallylearned Operating of "a politics out and sociallypatterned.... are flndividualsl own hurtfeelings," feminists the havemadevividwhatthesocial learningto be objects that have a character, that expressthis scientists always have known:lt is in thedetails dailyexchange cha.acter, for whom thischaracterological of and expressing only is We that the discrepancybetweenactual experienceand apparent natural. aresocialized confirmour own hvootheses to about " exDerience to be found. is our natures.... Turningthen to the specificsubjectof the work in hand, Erving Coffman a brilliant is social scientist hasspent life his C o f f m a no b s e r v e s":W h a t t h e h u m a nn a t u r eo f m a l e sa n d who observing social behaviorthe way a fine literarycritic reads femalesreally consists then, is a capacityto learnto provide of literature. does not sacrificethe text to theory,he knowsone He andto read depictions masculinity feminity a willingof and and ness adhereto a schedule presenting pictures, this readsoutofit ratherthaninto it, he neverforgets that boththe text to for these and capacitythey have by virtue of being persons,not femalesor andsociety alive. are males." At the sametime, Coffman'sreading the text is informedby of It isaroundthislast,wholly persuasive perception Cendef a piece systematic thought aboutsocial behavior hasbeen that of that gathering He Adveltriementi is organized.Advertisements shape andforceovera greatmanyyears. knowsthat depict for us not necessarilv we actuallv how thedetails social behavior svmptomatic are revelations how of behave menandwomenbut how as of we think men and women behave. This depiction a sense selfis established reinforced, that thatsense of and and of serves the purpose convincinS thatthisis how menandwomen and the upon social of us self,in turn, both reflects cements socialinstitutions are,or want to be,or shouldbe, not only in relationto themselves hierarchical structure. the reallyfine Like whichrests culture's a but in relationto eachother.Theyorientmen and women to the teacherhe is, Coffman is alwaysworkinSto demonstrate that if idea of men and women actingin concertwith eachother in the life oneexamines details social with a highly the of conscious eye play or scene arrangement is our sociallife. That or that o n e l e a r n - d e e p l y - w h o a n d w h a t o n e i s i n t h e s o c i a l l y larger s orientation accomplishes taska society of majntaining the has organized world. an Coffman essential regardless the In this wonderfullydenseand lively monograph order,an undisturbed on-goingness, of actual experience its participants. turnshis aftention, specifically, the ways in which men and to of (those ln a crucial passage in Coffmanargues that in one sense job the women-mainly women-are pictured advertisements from highlymanipulated representations of recognizable scenes of theadvertiser the job of a societyarethe same:"Both must and "reallife"), richlyon whatthose tell usabout transform otherwise opaque goings-on into easily readable ads and speculates fotm." Otherwiseopaquegoings-on!A wonderful phrasethat fashioned imageand soourselves; whatthe interplayis between volumes. Whatexactiy thegoings-on areopaque? are that called naturalbehavior;the de8reeto which advertisements speaks yet Theyarethe murky,muddledeffortsof the half-conscious mind, embodyan artificialposereflecting perhaps anotherartifion theconfused spirit,the unresolved to comprehend nature will the cialpose-that is,theprocess whichwe cometo thinkof what by ratherthandescribed felt of actualexperience experience, emowe call our natural selves. Thisouestion menand women in advertisements interest- tion ratherthan cued emotion, perceivedtruth ratherthan reis of ceived wisdom. And the "willingness adhere a schedule to to for ing and important,Coffman says,because"So deeply doesthe presenting pictures" the inclination life these is both of individuals male-female difference informour ceremonial thatonefinds 'oppositenumber'arrangement," that andofsocieties fall backfrom the conscious to struggle underto herea very systematic one profitably ourselves; learnaboutourselves a remove;to acceptas to at allowsusto think aboutthe way in which self-defini- stand realan almost whollyassumed self. tion is guided and externally determined.

IIUTROTTUGTIOT byVivian Gornick

viil INTRODUCTIOI{

Speaking a sense thishighlysignificant in to inclination, Coffmanremarks-withhisgenius brilliant for analogy-thatit is not at all unlikely thata familyon vacation mighttake its cuesfor what "havinga goodtime" is from externalsources might, in and fact,contrive lookand act likethe ideajized to family-on-vacation in a Coca-Cola By the sametoken, it hardly needs ad. stressing, and women take their cuesabout,,eender men be_ havior"fromthe image thdt behavior of thal adverti:ine throws backat them,andtheycontrive become ,,people,, those to the in ads. Reflecting the intimategive-and-take on betweenhow pholographed adverlrsements made, are andwhal theyaremadeout "ln of,Coffman concludes: seeing whatpicture makers make can of situational materiais can beginto seewhat we ourselves one mightbe engaged doing." in The picturesthat Coffman has chosen and arransedfor our perusal CenderAdveftliemenlj lhen,a comme-ntary the in are, on complicated mafterof "what we ourselves might be engagedin doin8." Thatcommentary clearly demonstrates whileadverthat tisements appear be photographing to maleand femalehuman beings what they are actuailyphotographing a depiction is of masculinity femin and initythatis fitted matched sucha wav or in asto makeit function socially. Nowthisperception notoriginal is (as with Coffman Coffman hjmself would be the firstto admiti he is eminently about fair identifying sources). ofthe maiorpoints concentration his One of in thefeminist strategy beenthe image has ofwomenin advertising.Manyfeminists havepaidelaborate attention thefrightento inguses whichwomenhavebeenput in adseither creatures to as of embodied sexual usage asthoroughly or mindless domestics thrown into ecstasyby a waxed floor or depression an unby bleached shirt. Moreovetthefeminists havealsopointed the out social purposes and political served advertisements by reinforcing the notion of men as naturally dominantand women as naturally subordinate. Whatis original with Coffmanis the qualityof the insight he brings bear male-female to on images advertising. obserin Most vation thissubject been a bluntandfundamental on has of nature: originalspadework, to speak;diggingup the issue. so What Coffmandoes here jn CenderAdvertisement5,by virtue of his penetrating andhiscomprehensive eye context isto contribute an observation shrewdand subtieit takesusfarther so thanwe havebeenbefore. a reader For already familiar with the feminist angle visiontrainedon the imageof women in adsthis,of of course, purepleasure, unexpected the giftof renewed is an gift: stimulation, thought firedoncemore,mental territory increased. Instead looking at clutcheddetergents of and half-naked bodies,Coffmanconcentrates hands,eyes,knees;facjal exon pressions, postures, head relative positioning placing, sizes; and head-eye aversion, fingerbitingand sucking. alsogroups He the pictures thatthe bulk of themillustrate a single so in series what we thinkof asa natural poseor pieceof behavior one of the for sexes, then he hasthe lasttwo or threepicturesin the series and show the samepose of behaviorwith the sexesswitched. Betweenthefineness ofdetail that receives Coffman,s attentionand the shockvalueof the switched-sex pictureswe experience that innersurprise precedes that perception. deepened ,,Functjon Underheadings "TheFeminine like Touch," Rank,,Relative ing," "TheRitualization Su of bord ination,,, Size.,, and "Licensed Withdrawal," Goffman makes seesuchobservable us

phenomena advertising thefollowing: overwhelmingly in as 1) a woman is tallerthan a man only when the man is her social inferior; a woman's 2) justbarely hands seen are touching, hold_ In8 or caresstng-never grasping, manipulating, shaping; or 3) whena photograph menand womenjljustrates instruction of an ot somesortthe man is alwaysinstructing woman_even if the the men and womenare actually childrenlthatis, a male child will be instructing femalechild!1; when an advertisement a 4) requires someone sit or lie on a bedor a floorthatsomeone to is almost always childor a woman, a hardly evera man;5)whenthe heador eyeof a man is averted is only in relation a social. it to political, intellectual or superior, when the eyeor headof a but woman is avertedit is always in relation to whatevef man is picturedwith her; 6) women are repeatedly shown mentallv drifting fromthescene ile in closephysicalouchwith a male, wh I ,,as theirfaceslostand dreamy, thoughhis aliveness the sur_ to roundingsand his readiness cope were enough for both of to them" 7) concomitantly, women, much more than men, are pictured atthekindof psychological or remove loss froma social situation that leaves one unoriented action(e.g., for something terrible happened a womanisshown has and with herhands ovei her mouthand hereyeshelpless with horror). These details absorbing graphic, are and underlining they as . do a sense things presses thealerted of that on mind,thereceptive r m a g i n d t i o n I h e y m a k e y o u k n o w b e t t e rw h a l y o u h a v e . "known" before; they inducethe vigorousnod of the head,the "oh ,,1 murmured yes,"the surprised hadn,t thousht that!,, of But Coffman's majorcontriburion this bo;k of ,,depicted in femininity" (what CenderAdvertisements really about) is the is continuous, ever-deepening connection makes he between our imageof women and the behaviorof children.In a shrewd discussion the child-parent of relationhe notesthat a child,s behavioroftenindicates that ,A lovingprotectoris standing in by thewings, allowing somuchfordependency a copping not as out of or relieffrom,the 'realities,, is, the necessities conthat and straints which adults social to in situations subject.,, then are He "Youwill notethat addspointedly: pricethe therejs an obvjous child mustpayfor beingsaved from seriousness.,, Beingsavedfrom seriousnesj. Anotherwonderfulohrase that echoes endlessly. series ln afterseriesof the photographs shown hereCoffmanleadsusto the repeated usage advertisements in of womenposed children, as actinglikechildren, lookine likechildren:unerly devoidof the natural sobriety which one associates with the adultmien.Crown womenare seenstandinq with the headcocked way overto the sideparallel theshoulder, to face_ front, eyesand mouth:smiling; ot the head tucked into the shoulder,face-front,eyes looking up from under lowered lids, seductive-gamin or hands style; twisted behjndthe back;or the toesof one foot standing the toesof the other in a child,s ,Aw on gosh gee"posture; arms or and legs flyingoff in all directions like a clown;or hands deepintothepockets, facial dug the exoression "wicked" "merry"; or and on every lastface that damned,,dazzling" mile. s Underscoring theseobseryations women imasedas chil_ of drenis an extraordinary discussion wordsand pictures the in of way in which we perceive men and womenwearins clothes in adverli5pmqnlr.thisdis(ussion In Coffman points thatwhat_ oui evera man is wearingin an advertisement wearsseriously, he wnereas whatevera woman is wearingsheappears be trying to on, as thoughthe clothes were a costume, the appropriate not covering a person of beingseriously presented. a man in an lf

INTRODUCTION lx

advenisementwearing business andcarrying briefcase is a suit a we believe he is seriously that representingbusinessman; a if the sameman is seen wearing shortsand carrying a racquet we believe, equally, that he is representing sameman playing the tennis, we are lookingat differentaspects that ofthe samelife,the onemomentarily discarded the other.However,when we see for a womanwearing formalor informal, business sports or clothes weJeel arewatching modelplay-dctjng. cannot we a We believe in the seriousness the personmeantto be reoresented the of bv clothes modelis wearing. feelwe arewdtching the We someone ata perpetual costume ball,playinB trying lhisa; that,not dt on someone whose jn clothes indicate person a present the seriously social situation beingpictured. Coffman's observation powerful.One hasonly to look at an is advertisement showinga woman carrying attache an case,or 'The Wall reading Strcet Journal',or wearing a white coat in a laboratory sefting-the words,,Forthe womanwith a mind of her own" scrawled across ad-and then consult the one,s own in_ stinctive incredulit,to know thetruthof whathe is pointing out. Therecomessuddenlyto mind the memoryof old-time vaudevillians in black-face-powerless people ,,playing,, even more powerless people-and itoccurs thatthese images advertising in ofwomenplaying beingserious at people a truemock_uo are oi life: an image reflecting image reflecling image;trick an an mirrors, illusory effects, tracings resemble ideaof human that an beings, of realintent, void perhaps substantive life....Or Coffman issaying i5 reallife.Thatis,lhisis the reality thelifewe are this of living out. The most painful and perhapsthe most importantsentencein CenderAdvertisementsthis: ,Althoughthe pictures is shownhere cannotbe taken representative as of gender behavior reallife... in onecan probablymakea significant negative statement about them,namely,that aspicturesthey are not perceived peculiar as andunnatural." What ErvingCoffman shares with contemporarv feministsis the felt convictionthdt benedth the surfdce ordinarysocial of behavior innumerable smallmurders ofthe mind and spirittake place daily. lnside mostpeople, behind socially a useful image of theself,there is a sentientbeing suffocating slowly to death in a Kafkaesque atmosphere, takenas ,,natural,,,that denies onlv not thedeathbut the live beingas well. Cender Advertisemerts an act of creativedocumentation. is Itsaim-like thatof a fine novelor a sensitive analysis a live or piece politics-is to nameand re-name of and nameyet again "thething itself"; to make us seethe unnaturalin the natur;l in orderthatwe may rescue warm Iife trappedinsidethe frozen the imase.

exaggerated, and stereotyped-and loosened from any specificcontext of releasers, all this so that, in effect, and there will be more efficient signalling,both inter and intra-specifically.r Thesebehaviors ,,displays,', speciesare a utilitarian notion that is at the heart of the etholoeical conception communication. of Instead havingto play out of an act, the animal, in effect, providesa readily readable expression his situation, of specifically intent, this taking his the form of a "ritualization" of some portion of the act itself, and this indication (whether promise or threat) presumably allows for the negotiation of an efficient response from, and to, witnesses the disptay. Darwin (lf of leadshere,John Dewey,and G. H. Meadarenotfar behind.) The ethological concern, then,doesnot takeus backfrom Take it thdt the function of ceremonyreaches two a ritual performance the social structureand ultimate in to f I directions,the affirmation ol basic socialarrangemenls beliefs in which the performerand witness are embedded, and the presentation ultimate doctrinesabout man and but forward into the unfoldingcourseof sociallysituated of the world. Typically thesecelebrations performedeither are events, Displays thus provide evidenceof the actor's olignby persons actingto one anotheror actingin concertbefore ment in a gathering, positionhe seems prepared take the to a congregation. "socialsituations"are involved-definine up in what is about to happen in the social situation. So these simply as physical arenasanywhere within whici Alignmentstentativelyor indicatively establish termsof the persons present are in perceptual range of one another, the contact, the mode or style or formula for the dealings subiectto mutual monitoring-the persons themselves being that are to ensueamongthe individuals the situation. in As definable solelyon this groundasa "gathering." suggested, ethologists tend to use the term communication It is in socialsituations, then, that materials celebra- here,but that might be loosetalk. Displays for don't communitive work must be found, materials which can be shaped into cate in the narrow sense the term; they don't enunciate of a palpable representation mattersnot otherwise of packaged something througha language symbols of openlyestablished for the eye and the ear and the moment.And found they are. and used solely for that purpose. They provideevidence of The divisions and hierarchies socialstructure deDicted tie actor's alignment in the situation. And displavsare of are microecologically, that is, through the use of smallscale importantinsofar alignments as are. spatial metaphors. Mythic historiceventsarepiayedthrough A versionof displayfor humanswould go something like in a condensed and idealized version. Apparentiunctures or this: Assumeall of an individual's behavior and appearance turning points in life are solemnized, in christenings, informs those who witness him, minimally telling them as graduation exercises,marriageceremonies, and funerals. something about his socialidentity, about his mood, intent, Social relationshipsare addressed greetingsand farewells. by and expectations, about the stateof his relationto them. and Seasonal cyclesare given dramatizedboundaries, Reunions In everyculturea distinctive range this indicative of behavior are held. Annual vacations and, on a lesser scale, outingson and appearance becomes specialized as to more routinely so weekends and evenings are assayed, bringingimmersionin and perhaps more effectively perform this informing ideal settings. Dinners and parties are given, becoming function, the informingcomingto be the controllingrole of occasions for the expenditure of resourcesat a rate that is the performance,although often not avowedly so. One can above one'smundaneself. Momentsof festivityareattached call these indicative events displays.As suggested, they to the acquisition new possessions. of tentativelyestablish the terms of the contact,the mode or In all of theseways, a situatedsocialfuss is madeover style or formula for the dealings that are to ensuebetween what might ordinarily be hidden in extendedcoursesof providingthe displayand the persons the persons perceiving activity and the unformulated experienceof their parit. ticipants;in brief, the individualis givenan opportunityto Finally, our specialconcern: lf genderbe definedas the facedirectly a representation,somewhat a iconicexpression, culturally established correlatesof sex (whether in cona mock-up of what he is supposed to hold dear, a sequence biology or learning), of then genderdisplayrefers presentation the supposed of orderingof his existence. portrayals these to conventionalized of correlates. A single,fixed element of a ceremonycan be calleda "ritual"; the interpersonal kind can be definedas perfuncW h a t c a n b e s a i da b o u t t h e s t r u c t u r e f r i t u a l i i k e o lll tory, conven tionalized acts through which one individual I I I d i s o l a v s l portrayshis regardfor another to that other. (1) Displaysvery often have a dialogiccharacterof a statement-reply kind, with an expression the part of one on l u r o individual callingforth an expression the part of another, f f l f D u r k h e i m e a d s s t o c o n s i d eo n e s e n s e f t h e t e r m on I I ritualization, Darwin, in his Espressionof Emotion in the latter expression being understood be a response to to Man ond Animals,leads coincidentally, consider the first. us, quite to pairs can be classified an another.To paraphrase These statement-response in Julian Huxley (and the ethological position),the basicargumentis that under the pressure of 'Philosophicol natural selectioncertain emotionallVmotivated behaviors Trcnsoctionsof the Royot Society of London, becomeformali/ed-in the senseof becomingsimplified, Series No. 772, Vol. 251 lDec-29, 1966), 2SO. B, p.

EETIDEN DISPTAT

GENDERADVERTISEMENTS

pairs: and asymmetrical obviousway, There are symmetrical pair,first-name/sir an is is mutual first-naming a symmetrical pairs,somearedyadicalasymmetrical one. Of asymmetrical gust between and host, ly reversible, somenot: the greetings betweenthese may be reversed asymmetrical themselves, in on two personson another occasion;first-name/title, the Of dyadically other hand, ordinarily is not reversible. pairs of rituals, some pair parts are exclusive, irreversible some not: the civilian title a male may extend a femaleis "Sir" man a neverextendedto him; on the other hand,the for he from a subordinate exchange first-name, in receives in himself is likely to extend to h/5 superordinate exchange for first-name, illustrationof the greatchainof corporate an berng. displaybetweentwo individObserve that a symmetrical ualscan involveasymmetries according which of the two to initially introducedthe usagebetweenthem, and which of the two beginshis part of the mutual displayfirst on any occasionof use. And symmetry (or asymmetry)itself can be misleading. ritually One must considernot only how two individuals treat,and are treat eachother, but also how they separately treated by, a common third. Thus the point about symgreetings farewells and extended between maleand a metrical a close female friend is that he is verv likelv to extend a and different set,albeitequallysymmetrical, her husband, to set she, similarly, a yet different symmetrical to his wife. inform our difference Indeed, deeplydoesthe male-female so ceremonial life that one finds here a verv svstematic "opposite number" arrangement. For every courtesy, that a womanshowsto almost symmetrical asymmetrical, or yet one-seento be the same, anyone,there will be a parallel showsto the same different-which her brother or husband person. (2) Given that individualshave work to do in social as situations, the questionarises to how ritual can accommodate to what is thus otherwise occurring.Two basic patternsseem to appear,First, display seemsto be conand endingsof purposefulundercentratedat beginnings takings,that is, at junctures,so that, in effect, the activity itself is not interfered with. (Thus the small courtesies performedin our societyby men to womenwhen sometimes the latter must undergo what can be defined as a slight changein physical state, as in getting up, sitting down, it, to a entering room or leaving beginning smokeor ceasing suffering increased temperato, movingindoorsor outdoors, "bracket of and so forth.) Hereone might speak ture or less, designed be continued to someritualsseem rituals."Second, a intendedactivity as a singlenote across strip of otherwise without displacing that activity itself. (Thus the basic military courtesyof standingat attention throughoutthe courseof an encounterwith a superior-in contrastto the here salute, this latterclearlya bracketritual.)One canspeak "overlay."Observe that by combinof a "ritual transfix" or has,for and ing thesetwo locations-brackets overlays-one of Although these any strip of activity,a schedule displays. as ritualswill tend to be perceived coloringthe wholeof the in they only occurselectively it. scene, fact, of course, in (3) lt is plain that if an individualis to giveand receive what is considered ritual due in socialsituations, his then he must-whether by intent or in effect style himself so that

others present can immediately know the social (and sometimes the personal) identity of he who is to be dealt with; and in turn he must be ableto acquirethis information about those he thus informs. Some disolavsseem to be specialized this identificatory, for early-warning function: in the caseof gender,hair style, clothing, and tone of voice. (Handwritingsimilarly servesin the situation-like contacts conducted throughthe mails;namealsoso serves, addition in to servingin the management persons of who are present lt only in reference.) can be arguedthat althoughritualized behavior socialsltuations in may markedlychange overtime, especiallyin connectionwith politicization,identificatory stylings will be leastsubjectto change. (4) There is no doubt that displays can be,and are likely to be, multivocalor polysemic, the sense in that more than one piece of socialinformationmay be encodedin them. (For example,our terms of address typically recordsex of recipient and also propertiesof the relationshipbetween speaker and spoken to. So, too, in occupationaltitles languages, typically ["agentives"].In the principalEuropean a masculineform is the unmarked case;the feminine is managed with a suffix which, in addition, often carriesa connotation of incompetence,facetiousness, and inexperience.2) goesanother.Not Along with this complication only doesone find that recognition differentstatuses of can be encodedin the samedisplay,but also that a hierarchy of considerations may be found which are addressed sequentially. For example, when awards givenout, a male official are may first give the medal,diploma, prize, or whatever, and then shakethe hand of the recipient, thus shiftingfrom that of an organization's representative bestowing official sign an on fellow citizen,etc.,to a man of regard a soldier, colleague, showing regard for another, the shift in action associated with a sharply alteredfacial expression. This seems nicely confirmed when the reciDientis a woman. For then the seconddisplaycan be a socialkiss.WhenAdmiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, then chief of U.S. naval operations, officiatedin the ceremonyin which Alene Duerk became first female the admiral in the U.S. Navy's history (asdirectorof the Navy NurseCorps),he addedto what was done by kissing full her on the tips.3So, too, a femaleharpistafter just completing Harp Concerto, Ginastera's and havingjust shakenthe hand of the conductor(aswould a male soloist), free (asa male is is not) to strikean additionalnote by leaning overand giving the conductora kisson the cheek.Similarly,the applause she will be her due as a musician, but the flowers that receives are broughtonstage moment after speakto something a that would not be sookento in a male soloist.And the reverse sequence possible. haveseena well-bred is I father raisehis hat on first meeting his daughter after a two-year absence, then bend and kissher. (The hat-raise denotedthe relation"any lady" would ship betweenthe sexes-presumably have inducedit-the kiss,the relationbetween kin.) (5) Displays vary quite considerably the degree their in of formalization. Some,like salutes, specified to form and are as occasion occurrence, failure to so behave of and can leadto specific sanctions; othersare so much takenfor grantedthat it awaitsa studentof somekind to exDlicate what evervone
2Seethe thoroughtreatment "feminizers" Conners (1971). of in 3lntenational Hercld Tribune, lune 3-4,1972,

GENDER DISPLAY

knows(but not consciously), failureto performleads and to for and a search speakable nothingmore than diffuseunease with the offender. reasons be ill-tempered to (6) The kind of displays will be concerned I with gender a featur:many appear beoptional.a displays-have related to In the case, for example, of male courtesies,often a particular display need not be initiated;if initiated,it need Finally,when but not be accepted, can be politely declined. failure to perform occurs, irony, nudging, and joking complaint, elc., can result-sometimes more as an opportunityfor a sally than as a meansof socialcontrol. is Correlated with this basisof looseness another:for each displaythere is likely to be a set of functionalequivalents effect can be accomwherewithsornething the display's of plished by alternativeniceties.At work, too, is the very process of ritualization. A recipient who declines an gesture deference waited until the intending has of incipient giverhasshownhis desireto perform it; the more the latter cancome to count on this foreclosure his move,the more of the his show of intent can itself come to displace unfolded form. (7) Ordinarily displaysdo not in fact provide a reprebut in sentation the round of a specificsocialrelationship a of ratherof broad groupings them. For example, socialkiss persons cross-sex or friends, may be employedby kin-related and the detailsof the behavioritself may not inform as to is Similarly,precedence whichrelatlonship beingcelebrated. rank, but to througha door is available mark organizational guests an establishment, of the sameindulgence accorded is young,the agedand infirm, indeed, thoseof the dependently strongsocialpositionand those(by inversion unquestionably weak position.A picture,then, of courtesy) unquestionably can hardly be of the relationship betweenany two persons of they extend obtained throughan examination the displays one would haveto eachother on any one type of occasion; assemble these nicetiesacrossall the mutually identifying types contacts of that the pair has. then, betweensocialstructures There is a loosegearing, occasions ritual expression. of and what goeson in particular ordinal This can further be seen by examiningthe abstract formatwhich is commonlygenerated within socialsituations. for Participants, example,are often displayedin rankable order with respectto some visibleproperty looks, height, closeness the center,elaborateness costume, to of elevation, precedence, 50 forth and the comparisons are and temporal somehow taken as a reminderof differentialsocialposition. in the differences socialdistancebetweenvariouspositions of and the specificcharacter the positionsbeing lost from providea peculiarly view.Thus, the basicforms of deference limited version of the social universe,telling us more, perhaps,about the special depictive resources social of presumably expressed than about the structures situations therebY. (8) People,unlike other animals, can be quite conscious of the displays they employand are ableto performmany of Thus them by designin contexts of their own choosing. "displacing"an act (in lhe sense described instead merely of
" A s Z i m m e r m a na n d W e s t ( 1 9 7 7 ) r e m i n d m e , t h e j n d j v i d u a h a s l ( a n d s e e k s ) e r y l i t t l e o p t i o n r e g a r d i n gi d e n t i f i c a t i o n o f o w n s e x c l a s s . v Oftn, however, there will be choice as to which complement of d i s p l a y si s e m p l o y e d t o e n s u r eg e n d r p l a c e m e n t .

by etiologists), humanactor may wait until he is out of the the direct line of sight of a putative recipient,and then engage a portrayal of attitude to him that is only then safe in to perform, the performancedone for the benefit of the performerhimselfor third parties.In turn, th recipientof such a display (or rather the target of it) may actively that the act hasescaped collaborate,fostering the impression evidentallyso. him even though it hasn't-and sometimes (Thereis the paradox, then,that what is donefor revealment More important,once a display can be partiallyconcealed.) well established a particular in sequence actions, of becomes can be lifted out of its original a section of the sequence and used in a quotative way, a context, parenthesized, posturalresource mimicry,mockery,irony, teasing, for and very commonly,the depicother sportiveintents,including, scenes advertisements. stylizain Here tion of make-believe tion itself becomes an obiect of attention, the actor providinga commenton thi5 process the very act through in it. realizes Whatwasa ritual becomes which he unseriously itself ritualized, a transformationof what is already a "hyper-ritualization." Thus,the humanuse transformation, a of displays is complicated by the human capacity for behavior. reframing In sum, then, how a relationshipis portrayedthrough evendistorted, view of the ritual can providean imbalanced, relationshipitself. When this fact is seen in the light of accomtend to be scheduled another,namely,that displays modativelyduring an activity so as not to interferewith its ritual even more clearthat the version execution,it becomes gives of socialrealityis only that not a pictureof the way us exhortative things but a passing are Suideto perception. "erpressive l\ / Displaysare part of what we think of as behavior," and as such tend to be conveyedand I Y receivedas if they were somehow natural, deriving,like from the way peopleareand needful, and pulse, temperature But, of course, of therefore, no socialor historicalanalysis. understandexpressions asneedfulof historical are ritualized practices we ing as is the Ford car. Given the expressive come from? employ, one may ask: Wheredo thesedisplays styles-codingsthat there are behavioral lf, in particular, the way men and women participatein social distinguish the situations, lhen lhe questionshould be put concerning origins and sources of these styles. The materialsand in available ingredients come directly from the resources can particular social settings, but that still leavesopen the question wherethe formulatingof these their ingredients, of styling, comes frcm. The most prominentaccountof the originsof our Sender to Genderis assumed be the displays of course, biological. is, an extensionof our animal natures,and just as animals are express their sex, so does man: innateelements said to account for the behavior in both cases.And indeed, the in an means which we initially establish individual one of bv and the two sexclasses confirm this locationin its lateryears of can be and are usedas a means placement the managein ment of domesticanimals.However,althoughthe signs for placement are expressive mattersbiological, of establishing and matters essential central as why we shouldthink of these gender is a culturalmatter.More important,wherebehavioral

GENDEBADVERTISEMENTS

to displaydoesdraw on animal life, it seems do so not, or sense but as a source of not merely,in a direct evolutionary The culturalresource, animalkingdom-or at least imagery-a us certainselectpartsof it provides (l argue)with mimetic phylogenetic display,not necessarily ones. for models gender Western the dog hasserved asan ultimate us Thus,in society, of modelof fawning,of bristling,and (with baringof fangs) the horse a model, to be sure, of physical threatening; and but of little that is interpersonal interactional.5 strength, that Once one seesthat animal life, and lore concerning for of display, life, provides culturalsource imagery gender a the way is opento examine other sources displayimagery, of but now modelsfor mimicry that are closerto home. Of significance, example,is the complex asfor considerable with European court life and the doctrines the of sociated (and gentleman, especially thesecame to be incorporated as modified)in military etiquette.Although the force of this style is perhapsdeclining,it was, I think, of very real in until the secondWorld War,especially British importance of influencedcountriesand especially, course,in dealings posbetweenmales.For example,the standing-at-attention being on call, the "Sir" ture as a means of expressing response, and even the salute, becamepart of the deference from military life. stylefar beyondscenes For our purposes, there is a sourceofdisplay much more closer relevant than animallore or military tradition,a source to home, a source,indeed,right in the home; the parentc h i l dr e l a t i o n s h i D .

much nglectedby studentsof society. The established is and Hobbesian, turningon the notion of imagery economic and the newervoiceshavebeenconcerned socialexchange, to show how parentalauthority can be mis8uided, oppressive, and ineffective. Now I want to argue that parent-childdealings carry specialvalue as a meansof orienting the student to the significance socialsituationsas a unit of socialorganizaof to tion. For a greatdealof what a child is privileged do and a great deal of what he must suffer his parentsdoing on his behalfpertainsto how adultsin our societycometo manage themselves social situations.Surprisinglythe key issue in 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 gulrdednesswithin them? It might be useful,then,to outlineschematically ideal the parent-child middle-class relationship, limiting this to what can occur when a child and parentare presentin the same social situation. It seemsto be assumed that the child comesto a social "basic" situationwith all its needs satisfied and/or provided for, and that thre is no good reason why he himselfshould be planningand thinking very far into the future. lt is as thoughthe child wereon holiday. The There is what might be called orientation license. child is tolerated in his drifting from the situation into fugues, and the like. Thereis license to aways, brown studies, into tears,capsizing into laughter, flood out, as in dissolving bursting into glee, and the like. Related to this licenseis another, namely, the use of The parent-childcomplex-taken in jts ideal middlepatently ineffectiv means to effect an end, the means class version has some verv sDecialfeatureswhen expressing desire to escape, a cope, etc., but not possibly imagery.First, most considered a source of behavioral as persons end up having been chlldrencaredfor by parents achievingits end. One example is the child's hiding in or form) behindhis and/oreldersibs,and as parents(or eldersibs)in the reverse behind parents, (in its more attenuated or position. So both sexesexperience both roles a sex-free own hand,therebycutting his eyesoff from any threat but (The personplayingthe role opposite child is a the not the part of him that is threatened. Another is "pumresource. joke, a use motheror older sister much or moreithan fatheror elder as a meling,"the kind of attackwhich is a half-serious brother.Half of those in the child rold will be male,and the of considerable force but againstan adversarythat one housewife role, the one we usedto thihk wasideallysuitable knows to be imperviousto such an effort, so that what starts Second, with an instrumental for females,contains lols of parentalelements.) effort endsup an admittedlydefeated giveninheritance residence patterhs, parents the only gesture. all of this one hasniceexamples ritualization are ln of in and the classical ethological sense. And an analysis what it is to of authority in our societythat can rightly be said to be both a c tc h i l d i s h l y . temporary and exerted "in the best interests"of those thereby.To speakhere at leastin our Western Next, protective intercession parents.High things, by subordinated in society-of the child giving somethingof equivalence intricate things, heavy things, are obtained for the child. Thereis no exchange the rearing for that he getsis ludicrous. Dangerous things chemical, electrical, mechanical*are kept quid pro quo. Balancelies elsewhere. What is for appreciable from him. Breakable thingsare managed him. Contacts received one generation givenin the next. lt shouldbe in is with the adult world are mediated, providing a buffer possibility persons. has been betweenthe child and surrounding Adults who are addedthat this importantunselfseeking presentgenerallymodulatetalk that must deal with harsh thingsof this world: discussion business, of money,and sex sAn importantwork here,of course, Darwin's is Expression of is censored; cursing inhibited;gossip is diluted. Emotions in Mon ond Animols. In this treatisea direct parallel is prioritis: precedence Thereare indulgence throughdoors drawn, in words and pictures, between a few gesturesof a few and onto life rafts is given the child; if there are sweets to appeasement, animals-gestures exptessing, example, for dominance, he distribute, getsthemfirst. fear-and the sameexpressions portrayed by actors. This study, as (for indeed, in it and rightlyresurrected a classic ethology as recently There is the notion of the erasability offense.Having of but are in is in thisbook th.t displays fi6t studied detailin everything done something wrong, the child merelycriesand otherwise natures and of name), generally is takenasan elucidation our animal shows contrition, after which he can begin afresh as though the expressions consequently we sharewith them. Now the book is the slate had been washedclean. His immediateemotional also functioningas a sourcein its own right of cultural beliefs expressions. response beingcalledto task needonly be full enoughand to concerning character origins alignment the and of

GENDEROISPLAY 5

it will be taken as final paymentfor the delict. He can also assume that lovewill not be discontinued because what he of hasdone,providingonly that he showshow brokenup he is because doingit. of There is an obviousgeneralization behindall theseforms of license and privilege. lovingprotectoris standing in A by the wings, allowingnot so much for dependency a copping as out of, or relief from, the "realities,"that is, the necessities and constraintsto which adults in social situationsare subject. the deepest In sense, then, middle-class childrenare not engaged adiusting and adapting socialsituations, in to to but in practicing,trying out, or playing at these efforts. Reality them is deeplyforgiving. for Note, if a child is to be able to call upon thesevarious reliefsfrom realities, then, of course,he must stay within rangeof a distress cry, or within view scamper-back distance.And, of course,in all of this, parentsare provided scenes which they can act out their parnthood. in You will note that there is an obvious orice that the child mustpay for beingsaved from seriousness. He is subjected to control by physical fiat and to commandsserving as a lively reminder thereof: forced from oncoming traffic and from potential falls; rescues forcedcare,as when his coat is buttonedand mittenspulled on againsthis protest. In general,the child's doingsare unceremoniously interruptedunder warrantof ensuring that they are executedsafely. He is subjected variousforms of nonperson to treatmenL He is talkedpastand talkedaboutas thoughabsent. Gestures "directly," without of affectionand attentionare performed him in verbal interactionthrough the sameacts. engaging Teasingand taunting occur, dealingswhich start out involving the child as a coparticipantin talk and end up treating him merelyasa targetof attention. His inward thoughts,feelings, and recollections not are treated as though he had informational rights in their He disclosure. can be queriedon contact about his desires and intent, his aches and pains, his resentments and gratitude, short, his subjective in situation,but he cannotgo vry far in reciprocating this sympathetic curiositywithout beingthoughtintrusive. Finally, the child's time and territory may be seen as expendable. may be senton errands to fetch something He or in spite of what he is doingat the time; he may be caused to give up territorial prerogatives because the needsof adults. of Now note that an imDortant feature of the child's situationin life is that the way his parents interactwith him tendsto be employedto him by other adultsalso,extending to nonparentalkinsmen,acquaintednonkin, and even to (lt adults with whom he is unacquainted. is as thoughthe world were in the military uniform of one army, and all adultswere its officers.) Thus a child in patentneedprovides an unacquainted adult a right and evenan obligationto offer help, providingonly that no other closeadult seems be in to charge. Given this parent-child complex as a common fund of experience, seems draw on it in a fundamental it we way in adult social gatherings. The invocationthrough ritualistic expression this hierarchical of complexseems casta spate to of face-to-face interaction in what is taken as no-contest terms, warmed by a touch of relatedness; short, benign in

control. The superordinate gives something gratis out of supportive identification, and the subordinate respondswith an outright display of gratitude, and if not that, then at least an implied submission to the relationship and the definition of the situation it sustains. One afternoonan officer wasgivena call for illegalparking in a commercial area well off his sector. He was fairly new in the district,and it took him awhile to find the address. When he affived he saw a car parked in an obviouslydangerous and illegal manner the corner a small at of street. took out histicket book He and wrote it up. As he wasplacing ticket on the car, a man the came out of the store on the corner. He approachedand asked whether the officer had come in ansver to his call. When the patrolman saidthat he had,the manreplied that the carwhichhad beenbothering him had already left and he hopedthe patrolman "Hey, l'm sorry, pol but it,s already was not going to tag his car. "l expectedOfficer Reno, he's usuallyon 6515 car. I'd appreciate Officer,if next time you wouldstop in beforeyou it, write themup." The patrolman slightly was confused.... He said polite,yand frankly, "Mister,how would ir look if I went into every storebefore I wrote up a ticket and askedif it was all right? What would people think I was doing?" The man "You're right,son,O.K.,forget shrugged shoulders smiled. his and it, Listenstop in sometime I canhelpyou with something." if He pattedthe patrolman the shoulder returned hisbusiness on and to 197 I Rubinstein 3t161-162]. Or the subordinate initiates a sign of helplessness and need, and the superordinate respondswith a volunteered service.A Time magazine story on female police might be cited as an

illustration:
Those who already provided have a Ipolicewomen] arc there devastating weapon the police new to crime-fighting arsenal, one that hashelped women gettheirmenfor centuries.worked to lt wellfor diminutive Patrolwoman SheDerd she lna after collared a muscular shoplifter MiamilastDecember discovered in and that there were othercops-or no even telephone-around, to a Unable "lf you in, l'll summon help,sheburstinto tears. I don'tbring lose my iob," she sobbed her prisoner, to who chivalrously her accompanied untila squad could found.d car be It turns out, then, that in our societywhenever male has a dealings with a femaleor a subordinate male (especially a younger one), some mitigation of potential distance, coercion,and hostility is quite likely to be induced by application the parent-child of complex.Which impliesthat, ritually speaking, females equivalent subordinate are to males and both are equivalent children.Observethat however to distastefuland humiliating lessers may find these gentle prerogatives be, they must give second thought to openly to expressing displeasure, whosoever for extendsbenign concern is free to quickly change tack and showthe other sideof his his oower.

v I fJli#.'"'J"",:":',jf J:"'"Tl#;':iJil:,ffi'; ;ff


for the studentto take socialsituations very seriously one as point from which to view all of sociallife. naturalvantage After all, it is in social situations that individualscan communicate the fullestsense the term,and it is only in in of them that individualscan physicallycoerce one another, assault another,interactsexually, one importune on another
6Time,May 1,1972,p.60; I l e a v eu n c o n s i d e r etd e r o t e o f s u c h h fashioning of stories.

tales in t/re's

l-

GENOERADVERTISEMENIS

gesturally, physical give it comfort,and so forth. lvloreover, is that most of the world's work gtsdone. in socialsituations Understandably, all societiesmodes of adaptationare in found, including systems of normative constraint, for managingthe risks and opportunities specific to social situations. was that it is Our immediateinterestin socialsituations can usetheir faces mainly in such contexts that individuals in at and bodies,as well as small materials hand to engage that socialportraiture,lt is here in thesesmall,local places to themselves icroecologically depictwhat m they can arrange is taken as their place in the wider socialframe, allowing lt what hasbeendepicted. is here, them, in turn, to celebrate that the individualcan signify what he in socialsituations, takesto be his socialidentity and here indicatehis feelings and intent-all of which information the others in the of gathering their own courses will needin order to manage he action-which knowledgeability in turn must count on in carryingout his own dsigns. which Now it seems me that any form of socialization to as itself to socialsituations such,that is, in effect addresses in to the resources ordinarily available any socialsituation whatsoever, havea very powerfuleffect upon sociallife. will at In any particularsoclalgathering any particularmoment, may be slight-no more the effect of this socialization consequence, than to modify the stylein which matters say, at hand proceed.(After all, whether you light your own or cigarette have it lit for you, you can still get lungcancer. And whether your job terminationinterviewis conducted you've still lost your iob.) with delicacy or abruptness, However,routinely the questionis that of whoseopinion is voiced most frequently and most forcibly, who makesthe minor ongoing decisionsapparentlyrequired for the coconcerns ordinationof any ioint activity,and whosepassing trivialsomeof these are giventhe most weighLAnd however them all may appear be, by summing to little gainsand losses up across the socialsituationsin which they occur,one all of The expression can seethai their total effect is enormous. and dominationthrough this swarmof situasubordination tional means is more than a mere tracing or symbol or Theseexpresritualisticaffirmationof the socialhierarchy. constitute the hierarchy;they are the sions considerably ond the substance.T shadow behavioral styles And heregender stylesqualify. For these can be employedin any socialsituation,and there receive decide what on their smalldue. Whenmommiesand daddies to teach their little Johnnysand Marys,they make exactly the right choice; they act in effect with much more sociologicalsophistication than they ought to have assuming, course,that the world as we have known it is of what thev want to rDroduce. of And behavioral style itself?Not very stylish.A means making assumptions about life palpable sociaisituations. in At the sametime, a choreography throughwhich participants

present their alignments situatedactivitiesin progress. to of And the stylingsthemselves consist thosearrangments of the humanform and thoseelaborations humanactionthat of can be displayedacrossmany socialsettings, each case in to of drawingon local resources tell stories vry wide appeal,

,ive sea Vl I fi::; l';;ii: il:J*T, *"r rishesinthe

because they cannot breatheon land, and that we live on land because cannot breathein the sea.This proximate, we everyday account can be spelled out in ever increasing physiological cases circumstances and detail,and exceptional uncovered,but the generalanswerwill ordinarily suffice, to namely,an appealto the natureof the beast, the givens and a guileless of the use and conditionsof his existence, term "because."Note, in this happy bit of folk wisdom-as surelyas it needs be-the landand sea to soundand scientific can be taken as there prior to fishes and men, and not contrary to genesis-putthere so that fishesand men, placawaitingthem. would find a suitable whenthey arrived, contains, think, I This lesson about the men and the fishes the essence our most common and most basicway of of of thinkingaboutourselves: accounting what occursby an an "natures,"an appealto the very conditlons of appealto our our being.Note, we can use this formula both for categories of persons and for particularindividuals. Just as we account for the fact that a man walks upright by an appealto his nature, so we can account for why a particularamputee to conditions being, of doesn'tby an appeal his particular It is, of course, hardlypossible imagine societywhose to a do to members not routinelyreadfrom what is available the senses somet[]inglarger, distal, or hidden, Survival is to thereis a very deep unthinkablewithout it. Correspondingly, belief in our society, presumably as thereis in others,that an object produces signs that are informingabout it. Obiects are thought to structure the environmentimmediatelyaround heat up the surround, themselves; they cast a shadow, strew indications, leavean imprint; they impress part picture of a and not dependent themselves, portrait that is unintended a to on bingattended,yet, of course,informingnonetheless whomsoever is properly placed, trained, and inclined. Presumably indicatingis donein a malleable this surround of some kind-a field for indications the actualperturbations one herewith "natural in which is the sign.Presumably deals "iconic" ln indexical signs,"sometimes having features. any case,this sort of indicating to be seenneitheras physical is nor a5communicainstrumental action in the fullesl sense, a an tion as such,but something else, kind of by-production, wherever overflowing, tell-talesoiling of the environment a the object has been.Although thesesignsare likely to be distinctfrom, or only a part of, the objectabout which they provide information,it is their configuration which counts, of and the ultimatesource this, it is felt, is the obiectitselfin some independence the particular field in which the of happens occur.Thus we take sign production to expression ?A recent alongthis ljne can be found in the effort to suggestion phrased to be situationally but not situationally determined. collegemen and womenin specifyin detail the difference betwen The natural indexicalsignsgiven off by objects we call conversation. Zimmerman See and regard sequencing cross-sexed to in animal (including,and principally, man) are often called ( , d n a W e s t 1 9 7 5 ) F i s h m a ( 1 9 7 5 ) , a n w e s t n dz i m m e r m a( 1 9 7 5 ) . T h e "expressions," n but in the sense that trm hreimplied,our of between parent-child and adult last discusses some similarities practices. is not imagerystill allows that a materialprocess involved, male-female conversational

GENDERDISPLAY 7

We tend to believe conventional symbolic communication. objectsnot only give off naturalsigns, but that thesespecial in do so more than do other objects.lndeed,the emotions, associationwith various bodily organs through which veritable emotions most markedly appear,are considered As that among engines expression. a corollary,we assume of humansa very wide range of attributes are expressible: informationstate,health,social intent, feeling,relationship, class, etc. Lore and adviceconcerning thesesigns, including how to fake them and how to seebehind fakeries,constitute man, All of these beliefsregarding a kind of folk science. taken together, can be referred to as the doctrine of natural expression. It is generally believed that although signs can be readfor true of the obiect what is merelymomentarily incidentally or producing them-as, say, when an elevatedtemperature a indicates fever-we routinelyseekanotherkind of information also, namely, information about those of an object's properties that are felt ta be perduring, overoll, and structurolly bosic,in short, information about its characteror "essential nature," (The samesort of informationis sought and of aboutclasses obiecs.) We do so for many reasons, in of so doing presumethat obiecs (and classes objects)have naturesindependentof the particular interestthat might arouseour concern.Signsviewed in this light, I will call "essential," and the belief that they exist and can be read give thm off is part of the doctrineof and that individuals Note again,that althoughsomeof these naturalexpression. attributes, such as passingmood, particular intent, etc., are not themselves taken as characteristic, the tendency to possesssuch states and concerns is seen as an essential attribute, and conveyingevidenceof internal statesin a particular manner can be seenascharacteristic, fact, there In that contingent expression can't be seems be no incidental to taken as evidenceof an essentialattribute: we needonly see that to respondin a particularway to particularcircumstancesis what might be expected in generalof personsas such or a certain kind of personor a particular person.Note, any property seenas unique to a particularpersonis likely also to serveas a meansof characterizinghim, A corollary is that the absencein him of a particular property seen as commonto the classof which he is a membertendsto serve similarly. Herelet me restate notion that one of the mostdeeply the seatedtraits of man, it is felt, is gender;femininity and masculinity are in a sense the prototypes of essential fleetinglyin any that expression-something can be conveyed socialsituationand yet somethingthat strikesat the most basic characterization the individual. of But. of course, when one tries to use the notion that signs and that some humanobjectsgiveoff naturalindexical nature of theseexpressions can inform us about the essential of lheir producer, matters get complicated.The human "expression,"and employ the term obiects themselves to conduct themselves fit their own conceptionsof expressivity; abounds,doing so because it iconicity especially has been made to. lnstead of our merely obtainingexpressions the object, the object obliginglygivesthem to of and communicaus, conveyingthem through ritualizations ting them throughsymbols.(But then it can be saidthat this givingitself has unintendedexpressive for it does features:

not seempossible for a message be transmitted to without process the transmitterand the transmission blindly leaving tracesof themselves whatevergetstransmitted,) on There is, straightoff, the obviousfact that an individual for can fake an expression what can be gainedthereby;an is individual unlikely to cut off his legso as to havea nature unsuitable military service, for but he might indeed sacrifice a toe or affect a limp. In which case"because of" becomes "in order to," But that is really a minor matter; thereare moreserious difficulties. mentionthree. I First, it is not so much the character overallstructure or (if of an entity that getsexpressed suchtherebe), but rather particular, situalionally-boundfeatures relevant to the viewer. (Sometimes, example,no more than that the for object is sucha one and not another.) The notion of essence, character, structure,is, one might argue,social,sincethere are likely to be an infinitenumberof properties the obiect of that could be selected out as the central ones. and. furthermore, often an infinite numberof ways of bounding the obiectfrom other ones.Thus, as suggested, attribute an which allowsus to distinguish possessor from thosehe is its seenamonSst likely to enter stronglyin our characterizais t i o no f h i m . Second. exoression the main is not instinctivebut in patterned;itis a sociallydefined sociallylearned and socially category which employs a particular expression, and a when these socially established schedulewhich determines expressions occur. And this is so eventhoughindividuals will in come to employ expressions what is sensedto be a way, that is, uncalculated, spontaneous and unselfconscious unfaked, natural. Furthermore,individualsdo not merelv themselves, in learning for learn how and when to express this they are learning be the kind of obiect to which the to applies, fallibly; they are if doctrine of natural expression learningto be objects that havea character,that expressthis expressingis character,and for whom this characterological to only natural.We are socialized confirm our own hypotheses about our natures. Third, social situations turn out to be more than a convenient field of what we take to be natural expression; not these configurations intrinsically, merelyincidentally, are in a consequence what can be generated socialsituations. of ought not to be in uncovering So our concernas students whatever they might be. One should real,naturalexpressions, not appeal to the doctrine of natural expressionin an for that (as is attempt to account for nalural expression, beforeit had begun. These the analysis said)would conclude are acts and appearances likely to be anything but natural of indexical signs, exceptinsofaras they provideindications the actor'sinterestin conductinghimself effectivelyunder with the doctrine conditionsof beingtreatedin accordance of of natural expression.And insofar as natural expressions genderare-in the sense here employed naturaland expressive, what they naturally express is the capacity and to inclinationof individuals portray a versionof themselves at and their relationships strategic moments a working agreementto present each other with, and facilitate the of, gesturalpictures of the claimed other's presentation and character their of realitvof their relationshio the claimed human nature.The competencyto producetheseportraits, and interpretthoseproducedby others,might be said to be

GENDERADVEBTISEMENTS

may providea to essential our nature,but this competency very poor picture of the overall relationship between the And indeed, I think it does. What the relationship sxes. objectivelyis, taken as a whole, is quite betweenthe sexes matter,not yet well analyzed. another What the human nature of males and femalesreally consistsof, then, is a capacity to learn to provide and to read andfemininity and a willingness to depictions masculinity of for presenting thesepictures, and this adhereto a schedule not femalesor capacity they have by virtue of being persons, identity. males. One might iust as well saythereis no gender for There is only a schedule the portrayal of gender.There is no relationship between the sexes that can so far be characterized in any satisfactory fashion. There is only of evidenceof the practice betweenthe sexes choreographing behaviorallya portrait of relationship.And what these portraits most directly tell us about is not gender,or the betweenthe sexes, but about the special overallrelationship character functioningof portraiture. and "expresses" One can say that female behavioralstyle gratuitous femininity in the sense providing incidental, of an portrait.But Durkheimrecommends is that suchexpression a political ceremony, in this case affirming the place that personsof the female sex-class havein the socialstructure, in other words,holdingthem to it. And ethologists recommend that feminineexpression an indicationof the alignment is a person of the female sex classproposesto take (or accept) in the activity immediately follow an alignment to which does not merely express subordination in part constitutes but it. influence worshipping of The first points out the stabilizing one's place in the social schemeof things, the second,the substantial consequences minor allocations. of Both these from us by the doctrine modesof functioningare concealed of natural expression: for that doctrine teaches us that expressions occur simply because is only naturalfor them it to do so-no other reasonbeing required. l\4oreover, are we led to accept as a portrait of the whole somethingthat actually occursat scheduled momentsonly, something that provides the caseunder question)a reflectionnot ofthe (in differentialnature of oersonsin the two sex classes of but their common readiness subscribe the conventions to to of display. Genderdisplays, like other rituals,can lconicallyreflect fundamentalfeaturesof the social structure:but iust as easily, these expressions can counterbalance substantive arrangements compensate them. lf anything,then, and for displays a symptom,not a portrait. For, in fact, whatever are the fundamental circumstances thosewho haDDen be in of to the samesocialsituation,their behavioral styles canaffirm a conararyprcrure. Of course, it is apparent that the nicetiesof gender prob" etiquetteprovidea solutionfor variousorganizational lemsfound in socialsituations-such who is to makeminor as decisions which seembetter lost than unresolved, who is to give way, who to step forward, who is to follow, who to lead, so that turns, stops,and movingabout can be coordinated, (ln and beginnings endings and synchronized. the same way, at the substantive level, the traditionaldivision of labor between the sexes providesa workable solution to the organization of certain personal services,the ones we call practices, similarly, domestic; sex-biased linguistic suchas the

use of "he" as the unmarkedrelativepronounfor "individual"-amply illustrated in this paper-provide a basisfor unthinkinglyconcertedusage upon which the efficiencyof language depends.)But just why gender insteadof some other attribute is invoked to deal with theseorganizational problems, genderis fordoing so, is an and how well adapted openquestion. In sum, gender,in closeconnectionwith age-grade, lays down more, perhaps, than classand other socialdivisions an understanding what our ultimate natureought to be and of how and where this nature ought to be exhibited.And we acquire a vast corpus of accountsto be used as a source of good, self-sufficient reasonsfor many of our acts (particularly as thesedetermine the allocationof minor indulgences just and deprivations), asothersacquire sovereign a means of accounting for our own behavior. Observe, there is nothing superficial about this accounting. Given our stereotypes of femininity, a particularwoman will find that the way has been cleared to fall back on the situation of her entire sex to account to herselffor why she should refrain from vying with men in mattersmechanical, financial,political,and so forth. Just as a particularman will find that his failure to exert priority over women in these matters reflects on him personally,giving him warrant for insistingon success in (Correspondingly, can decline these connections. he domestic groundof his sex,while identifyingany taskson the general of his wife's disinclinationhere as an expression her of particular character.) Becausethese stereotypesbegin to be years,the appliedby and to the individual from the earliest accounting affordsis ratherwell implanted. it I have here taken a functionalistview of genderdisplay and havearguedthat what, if anything, persons characterizes as sex-class members their competence is and willingness to sustain appropriate an schedule displays; of only the content of the displays distinguishes classes. the Although this view can be seenasslighting biological the realityof sex,it should not be taken as belittlingthe role of thesedisplays social in life, For the facilitationof theseenactments runs so deeplv into the organization societyas to deny any slighting of view of them. Cender expressions by way of being a mere are show;but a considerable amount of the substance society of is enrolledin th staging it. of Nor should too easya political lessonbe drawn by those sympathetic social to change. The analysis sexism of can start with obviouslyunjust discriminations persons the against of female sex-class, but analysisas such cannot stop there. Gender stereotypes run in every direction, and almost as much inform what supporters women'srightsapproveas of what they disapprove. principalmeans A men in our society havefor initiatingor terminating everyday an encounter a on sympathelicnote is to employ endearing terms of address and verbal expressions concernthat are (upon examinaof tion) parental in characterand profoundly asymmetrical. Similarly, an important ritual available for displayingafjuncturesin discourse, fectionateconcern,emphasizing and markingdifferential conversational exclusivenessthe laying is gestureof on of the hand, ordinarily an unreciprocatable maleto femaleor subordinate male. In all of this, intimacy certainlybringsno corrective. In our societyin all classes tenderest the expression affection of involves displaysthat are politicallyquestionable, place the

GENDERDISPLAY 9

taken up in them by the female being differentiated from them, is perhaps to accept a lay theory of signs. That a and reciprocal to the place taken up by tie male. Cross-sex multitude of "genderisms" point convergently the same in affectional gestures choreograph protector and protected, directionmight only tell us how these signs function socially, embracer embraced, and comforterand comforted, supporter namely,to supportbeliefthat there is an underlying reality and supported, extender of affection and recipient thereof; to gender.Nothing dictatesthat should we dig and poke and it is definedasonly naturalthat the maleencompass and behind these images we can expect to find anything the femalebe encompassed. this can only remindus that And there-except,of course,the inducement entertainthis to maledominationis a very special kind, a domination that can exDectauon. be carried right into the gentlest, most loving moment without apparentlycausingstrain-indeed,these moments REFERENCES ED CIT can hardly be conceived of apart from these asymmetries. Whereas groupscan turn from the world other disadvantaged Conners,Kathleen to a domesticscenewhereself-determination relieffrom 197i Studies in Feminine Agentivesin SelectedEuropean and Languages. Romance Philology 24(4):573-598. inequality possible, disadvantage persons are the that who are Fishman, Pamela female suffer precludesthis; the placesidentified in our i975 Interaction: The Work WomenDo. paperDresented the at society as ones that can be arranged to suit oneself are American Sociological Association Meetings, San Francisco, nonetheless women thoroughly organizedalong disadfor August25-30. HLrxley, vantageous lines. lulian 1966 A Discussion Ritualization Behaviour Animals on of in and And indeed, relianceon the child-parentcomplex as a Man. Philosophical Transactions of the Roval Societv of sourceof display imageryis a means extendingintimate of London,Series No. 772, Vol. 251t24'7-526. B, comfortable practices outward from their source to the Rubinstein, lonathan world, and in the wake of this domestication, 1973 City Police. New York: Farrar, this only Straus and Giroux. Candace, Don H. Zimmerman gentling the world we seemto have, and of femalesubordination West, .|975 Women's Place Conversation: in Reflections Adult-Child on follows. Any scene,it appears,can be defined as an occasion Interaction. Paper presented at the American Sociological for the depiction of gender difference, and in any scenea Association Meetings, San Francisco, August 25-30. resource can be found for effecting this display. Zimmerman, Don H., and Candace West As for the doctrine of expression,it raisesthe issueof 1975 Sex Role, Interruptions ahd Silences Conversation. in /, Language Sexi Differences Dominance. and and Barrie professional, well as folk, analysis. Thorne as To accept various "expressions" and Nancy Henley,eds.Pp. 105-129. Rowley,MA: Newbury of femininity (or masculinity)as indicating House. something biologicalor social-structural that lies behindor I977 Doingcender.Paper presented the American at Sociolosical underneaththese signs,somethingto be glimpsedthrough Association Meetings, Chicago.

FNAilESI PTGTUNE

anywhere' that can be attended something bilitv, becoming moments of one's own for any length of time, and at choostng. Thus"it is in moderntimes-and as the moderncontributhereis a wedding'an life-that whenever tion to ceremonial an graduation exerclse'. investitur,a birthday party, a. or terminated,a picnic' a shop extended voyage begun mdy well be ;;;;i;*, " uu""iion, o, even a visit, snapshots developed,and the prints kept easy to hano taken, The can thus be accomplished like seif-worship i"r"it'i"t himself at a moment when-for iJi"iJuui i, able to catch with socially in flirlf'," it in idealsurroundings, association wav (which'for ot'.t, garbedin a ietf-enhancing oliiruuL wear of whit-collarmen may mean rne rough and manly poisedfor a or machinists), nirl"it"", hunters,wranglers, be o e in P i c t u r e s - t h e 5 e n s of s t l l photographs-can divided I Pictures-inthe sense l stilll p n o r ( an Dromisinqlake'off, terminatinB imporlant engagement' privateand public' I into two classes, momenl and with a sociallyeuphoriclook on his fdce A for Privote piclurei are those desiSned display within the to socialmattersabout abouthim attests whenwhat is visible themintimate social circle of the personsfeatured inwhen he is in social to a protsslonal which he is proud' A moment,in short, picturestaken (with or without recourse as therefore, to accept his appearance a relatlon- bloom, ready, occasions' photographer) order to commemorate in 3 "u.i-ti"u"t.ntt, and i""iii.",ir" oi trimselt ihit tom"nt he can dry-freeze and Iife-turningpoints, whether of a ,t'iot. his shop,his locker' his on tl'u'ne ttr" wutttof his house, office, kind. familialor organizational point to which he can return time andiis wallet,a reference privatepicturesas part.or our of The specialproperties and asain(and long after he can no longerlive the scene)as and life ceremonial are worth considering, this can domestic social of as anc i"riir?"i"f tt evid;nce, depicl.ion, what his best be done best, perhaps, by starting with ceremony must still be' A modest self has been and, by implication, workingto pictures. ot shift the ravages portraiture, involvemaking pact with the devil: the individualcan involve Rit;l and ceremonial ones' to his current remainburied iime from his triumphant appearances what might otherwise ".1;;;i; ; the senses ""ti being to have slightlv spoiledinvolvemenl .in traditional ;h;;;; I"i ""i, in the struclure of social life' The on thesehigh points, consequent tne function to reaffirmbasic these former scenes, arsumentis that theseenactments by either the oottutui t"fr.ting distractively induced 'irr""""t and ultimate beliefs regardingman and i"?i"i liran*"t"no of or prorp""i of being snapped the mechanics nature. (wi1h Poldroid) a viewrng or Lne doing the snappingor throughdoingsare niiuat una ceremonial accomplished up microecolo8ical viewing, taking through making appearance5, in.the gestures-and ""tlii3"t i"r"i"i to others,performinB '""irr" doings are soon, if not quickly, completedor "f a wider ll Pubtic oiclures are lhose designedto catch the microDlavedout. (Durationcan vary anywherefrom of aggregate individuals.unconan anonymous a administer rmile to the six weeksrequired | | uuai"n.. I""l,"a ii""'," and soclal nected to one anolher by social relationship actscan A5 of festivities') such,these for the most obdurate the samemarket or the i",.i""ri"", althoughfalling within whlch also from another clas\ of devices be distinguished of appeal' r"r" p"il,i*f iuriidiction, the sameoutreaches us in f-elt help (alb-eitin a very small way) to maintain form' only print is u5uallynol -the.findl gifts' iere a photographic mementoes' tupooit of our socialstructure:souvenirs, pholo-mecnanlcal a preliminary step in some type ol other relics' Theseobiects,ofttims colimemorativ"s,and books' leaflets'or magazines, just as often reproductionin newspapers, air"ltfu u part of what it is they celebrate, posters. Bul " ooorlu' porit"y lhese celebraledsocial arrangements' are diversein function and Public pictures themselves not enactpictures since obiects are involved,not actions, things' sense character. For example, there are commercial mnts, they can last a long time-in the relevant forever. Conrid"|.now the pictorial arts' A feature of drawings' 2During recent of militarypersonnel all ranks wars, European is pholographs, that these the and especially sculpture, Daintinr,s, portraiture in dress uniform-a Jr"l*n to photographic '.#..""riiu ,""r"d for a combinationof ritual and relic The lrtiiilG'.ir"* .r''ti,iral oiienLationthat cut acrossnations and ano thal miShtwell turn out image of structurallyimportant socialarrangements rendition a irfir"""t, wf'vl To provide memorial providesthe asocial To i. u" irt" r"si oneu(gut then why not in ciwies?) bolster ultimate beliefs which ceremony fleetlngly of To shaky? mark the occasion can further condense'omitting ,i^ii* """ru-.i"tlo and therefore i"nr.s, tritt photoBraphy to thal'hap-pened current military ranl, whdlever visual "i"u"iion a one's i". oJt"i t"qu. n.. ind everylhingelse excepl static o 'dentllles nes o accessl- b e ? O r i 5 t h e w e a r i n g f a u n i f o r m t h a t n e a t l y suddenlyfinds permanent arravs.And what is caught is fixed into (at a time when one

ll have benefited from harshcriticismand a greatnumberof general way' from ur"fuf *gg".tion. from Sol Worth; also, in a (1968). Goodman

sliuationin life to all viewers a alreadv kind of -wnot" o""i"ii i" " tilr"ii." that can b; neatlvidentified) r"p.oau"tion then momentarily reestablishes ".rir"i,"i", protraiture in its normal role? may 3A aimil",argum"nt the "oncerning contentof homemovles (1975195'97)' in befor.rnd Chalfen

PICTURE RAMES 11 F

designed sella productfor an advertiser. to There are news photos, involvingmattersheld to be of social, and politicalconcern. currentscientific, pictures, found, say,in medical as Thereare instructional text books, the figuresin them intendedto be anonymous, servingonly (apparently)as illustrationsof what can be including line the visitedon man. (ln fact, many illustrations, drawingsin dictionaries,are also typifications,a variable to concernmixtureunadmittedlyresponsive preconceptions the and ingthe average, essential, the ideal.) There are human interest pictures, also anonymous, ofttimescandid, in which otherwiseunnoteworthyindivid( n u a l sc o n f i r mo u r d o c l r i n e f e r p r e s s i o b y e l o q u e n t l ya n d o presumably unintendedly)choreographing some response, or such as fear, puzzlement,surprise,love, shyness, some innocence, how we or innerstate,such as joy, hopelessness, look and what we do when we think no one is presentto that a well-placed observe To which must be addedscenes us. "aesthetic" design or can composeinto somesort of camera evocativeDortrait of nature. All of into a conventionallv can hopefully be viewed as ends in thesepictured scenes the and arty. (ln this domain,observe, themselves, timeless, line between orivate dnd public can waver.a Counllcss by to enthusiasts encouraged a masshobby apparatus are photographic acquireprofessionin equipment, invest serious al techniques,and take non-family pictures styled for of hanging a gallery.Although only friendsand relatives in in they are the household likely to view the results, principle as members of do so "critically" in their capacity anonymous the wider public. And should a largerstagebe offered the amateur, the occasionis likely to be seizedas recognition, as of not avoided an invasion privacy.) Finally, there are personal publicity pictures, ones to designed bring before the public a flattering portrait of military, sportsometuminary,whetherpolitical,sreligious, elite still functions ing,theatrical, titerary,6or-where a class ial. andis publicized-soc Involved here are actual or putative leadershipand symbolizationof some structure or hierarchy or value presentable centralto socity,Note, the publicityfunction as extendsfar beyond personalpublicity shots, seepinginto pictures often link almostevery kind of picture.Commercial a product to a celebrity, sellinBthem both. The pictorial gives necessarily recordmadeof importantpublicceremonies

aFor this and other suggestions, am gratefulto Dorothea I Hurvich. 5A deft discussion oolitical oortraits is Roland Barthes' of "Photography Electoral Appeal"(1972:91"93). and 6For male novelists picturedon the back of their dust covers, (currently) openshirts, tousled hair,youthful,virile this means rough, and look, this iast bespeaking deep the appearance, often a brooding poetsmay lvlale of thoughts that areproperto the innards the species. feel obliged to appeareven more feeling.Nonfictionwritersalso present pictures themselves part of the merchandising their of of as product, more the steady march thought of but their posing suggests the cost of so directlyaddressing humancondition. thanthe psychic analyses advertising even of Interestingly, thosewho publishslashing to to on find reason allowtheir pictures appear the jacketin a posture calculated confirm that qualities the book are to be seenin of to qualities the appearance the writer, thus promotinga folk of of of alongwith their booksand themselves. theory expression

personalpublicity to thosewho officiate. News eventsare very often presented through the words and presence of political leaders, write-upof the first accompanied a a by Dicture of the second.Human interest shots have more Eventhe celebrity's interestif they involvefamoussubjects. personalliferitualscan be publicized a means affirming as of in everyone's what is beingaffirmedin his own, so that life whateverhis oarticulardomain. he will tend to becomea public performer private ceremonies have extrareason of and on suchoccasions takingpictures for and ensuring that they ofpublic and private are good ones a mutualcontamination which comesto a headin fan magazines. the limitingcase In of a social elite, mere attendance a particularsocial at placecan qualifyas function or merevisitingof a particular newsworthy, these performers being empowered to transform social DarticiDation from routine into ritual. A has a sacred remindr that every undertaking elementand which realizeits hierarchical can be done in circumstances potential.Here, may I add, the British Royal Familyis the modern creativeforce, leadlngthe civilizedworld in knowproductionof personal publicity. how for the mass Celebrities not only link their own privatelivesto the public domain,but alsocan link the livesof privatepersons something of to it. For persons the publiceye representing in possessing or value and concernto many persons regional the nationalrenown-seem acquireas one of their powers to sports capacity to be a contagioushigh point. Politicians, qualify. In contrast to stars, entertainers, other notables and picturesof Jesus, Lenin, and the BritishRoyal Family,those of ordinarycelebrities not alwayslikely to carryenough are ritual impact to warranta placeon the mantel;nonetheless, celebrities need but posefor a picture in the companyof a for a memberof their public to manufacture memento him, a by to one that speaks his idealattributes, sort of elevation photographically Note that a personal attestdassociation. inscription can function as a weak substitutefor ioint (ln exchangefor their endorsemnt, then, appearance.T celebrities acquirea smallbillboard,rent free.)Thusin bars, and offices,these restaurants, drycleaningestablishmnts, trophies, the trophiesjostle with family pictures, latterbeing property (anddomestic too, for they attest to the domestic proprietor,which property, piety) of the establishment's in incidentally,has also been photographed ideal circumStances. portraiture represents a In all of this, note, photographic rather significantsocial invention,for, even apart from its a role in domestic ritual, it hascometo provide low andvery little guardedpoint in the barrier that both protectsand persons privatelife from passing overinto public of restrains recognition.

and public-il. is To consider photographs-private f I f I I I necessary, apparentiy,to consider[he question of perception and reality, and it is necessary control to

'Americanpresidents (oneof their few) of havethe distinction pictures their pre-election having circulated inscribed in capacity, and after electioncircLrlating ones that qualify as hangable without an inscription.

12

GENDERADVENTISEMENTS

our that characterize ambiguities somehowthe systematic pictures. talk everdav about images (1) Pictures of the comprise class two-dimensional into that havbeenprocessed fixed form, the chiefexamples being drawings,paintings,photographs,and, of course, saw of reproductions them all. (What Narcissus letterpress "actual" A "real" or was a reflection,not a photograph.) photographconsistsof a piece of stiff, emulsifiedpaper on marksand shadings one side,a text providing containing photographically, an image that has been processed us with not some other way. (Obviously,a photographdoes not a embody objects that it pictures-asSol Worth remarks, pictureof fire is not hot-although somemight want to say transsurfacedoes embody a perspectival that the exposed upon within the scene formationof someof the relationships focused.)By this definitionitfollows that which the camera "touched up," miscaptioned, or that has been a photograph of is still a realone.The realness a photograph evendoctored would only figure when, say, there wasa concernto prevent it from gettingcrumpled,soiledor torn, or to control the effect of the texture of a paper stock upon depth perception, was to that what appeared be a photograph or to discover realisticpainling. (What is only indeeda cleverlydisSuised a involves slightly else something and not reallya photograph issuethan that of what is not and certainlylesser, different, For there are else but only a photograph. really something can replicatelots of flat, paperythingsthat a photograph whether or not with intent to deceive dollar bills, water colors, and cardiograms being examples; indeed, with experimental controls a photographpastedinto -a window for real canbe mistaken a threedimensional scene.o ) "real" picture leads to a Consideration what is a of "same" picture, and thus of consideration what is the to a version of the type-token issue. We speak of the "same" or "identical" picture when referring to two quite different possibilities:two like prints from the self-same negative, and two meetings-up with the print. I don't think this particular ambiguity self-same causestrouble; in any case, unlike the situation with coins, here terminology is ready to hand any time we , needto soecifv, I believe that the significant question,and one that everydayuse and terminologydoes obscure,is not what a photograph is, or what would count as the same photograph, but what a particular photograph is of-a concern, incidntally, that allows one to treat a

photograph and its printing press reproduction as the 5ame. for small, flat tracings large, Somehowwe learnto decode three dimensionalscenes in a manner somewhat corto to responding the way we havelearned interpretour visual a imagesof real objects. (Because photographhas nearly perspectiv-saving taken,for example, prfectgeometric one lens-it is very like the image with a distorting wide-angle proiected on the retina of one eye, were the retina to be blocked from its usual scanning; but retinal images scaling modified by constancy themselves systematically are basedon additionaldepth cues drawn in part from stereG scopic and parallax-motioneffects which photography must do without.)e Here the point is not that our useof our eyes or and our pictureshashad to be learned, that this learning with the world drawsdeeplyand fallibly on pastexperience (allowing to makeeffective of use us modalities in all sensory small cues and good hypotheses as to which of a set of possiblestatesis to be iudged the actual one), but that it (in the rendering eyeingof live doesget learned our society), and of efficacious more or less and scenes, of pictures scenes, competency that we And note, this deciphering equivalent. acquire with respect to live scenes,and pictures of scenes, does not make us acute about just any set of perceptual details, but rather those which allow us to make for it is about conventionallyimportant discriminations; that we will these matters that are of generalsocial relevance then, have botheredto accumutate experience.l0Perhaps, of the primary differencebetweenan interpretation a live view and an interpretationof a picture of it is that live viewingordinarily assures that what is seen is as it appears that it wasonce now, whereas picture,at best,guarantees a 50. In sum, one can say that, as a result of acquired things(or ratheraspects things) of competence, interpretiv in ffect are as they seem to be seen,and as they seemto be pictured,notwithstanding fact that the actualimageon the the retina and on tle photographicpaper is a somewhat different matter. And one should be able to say that a photograph in effect can provide us with an objective, "actual picture of" sociallyimportant veridicalversion-an of aspects what is in fact out there. drawnfrom the psychology of However, conclusions these perception fail to tell us why thereshouldbe so much doubt as and concernamongstudents to what in fact photographs issue of the various do represent.The frame-theoretical

olt is worth noting various forms who compare that art historians woodcuts, drawings, paintings, photoof representation-etchings, graphs-and use illuslrationsin their books to explicate the tend to treal !he Sround ot their own operation, differences, as letterpresigraphics, somethingto be taken for granted,samething characteristics its own, in this followingthe of without constraining the of lay framingpractice treating mediumin which one is oneself workingaslimitlessand featureless. 'A closeissue a of here.Apart from the question permanehcy, picture that containsvastly more cameracan take an instantaneous detail, shading,and breadth than the eye can capture in the same length of time, the eye being restrictedapparentlyto flitting about taking spot checks which the brain then edits and composes pictures(oncedeveloped accordingly.Holvever,before the camera's and printed) can be of any final use,an eye mustview it, and that

to viewingrvill suffer all the limits of the eye compared the camera Dlusan extra set, namely,the limitationof havingto start with a photograph, the realthin8. not loThe frameworkof experience requiredin order to interpret (suchas thosetaken of missile site!, elementary somephotographs particle pathwaysJminor meteors) may be so restricted that a lay when it is personmight not even be able to see what he is seeing pointedout. However, is of valid perception not a question votesbut And W. notwithstanding. that is not to say of comptence, l. Thomas images that readbeyondthe "simple"physical somehow that viewers "literal" description "obiective," are"given"them;for a physicalistic, having be learned, to too-a fact quite interpretive, is itself,of course, is. of independent how common this learning Thereare no naked facts, merely varioustypes of inferentialelaboration,but lrat is not arbitrary, are common or otherwiser necessalily to sav that inferences,

PICTURE FRAMES 13

senses which pictures are said to be true, real, valid, in candid, realistic,expressive, contrariwise, or, false, faked, posed, unfaithful, doctored,guyed, still remainsopen, and social,not psychological, answers must be sought. The easy sense the man in the streetthat the meaning piclures of of is clear enough comes from an easy willingnessto avoid thinkingdbout the meanings meaning. of (2) lt is clear that an artist can executea drawinqor painting from memoryand imagination, processsing image an of, say, a person who is no more or even never was. One might say that the result was a picture of a subject (or "figure"), not meaning imply by this "oF" thar the subiecr to is now, or ever was, real. Subjectsbelongto very human realms being but not alwaysto the curren! realworld. A of subjecl,note, may be a buildingor a landscape a stagat or bay or the crossing the Delaware; can alsobe a oerson, of it the chief concernhere. (Frenchin this regardis clearer than English: a special reference for the word personnoge designates member of the fictional realm, the term a personhe being reservedfor designatinga member of ours.) Now it happens that when something that is not present to him is to be the subiect a painter's of work, he may steady his task of rendition by employinga stand-in, mock-up,or substitute-things this world that are materiallyto hand of and can serve as guides during phasesof the canvas processing. Thus, for an historical figure,he may usea living person there in the flesh;for a mythicalbeast with unnatural appendages,real beastwith naturalones.A materialguide a is often calleda model,especially whena person animalis or involved, and will be called that here, althoughother (and confusingly relevant) meanings alsobe givento that term can (Goffman 1974, esp. 41). Note, incidentally,a parallel distinctionin the theater,where it is fully understood that a characteror protagonist belongsto a make-believe realm of beingthat is dramatized, and the actor who takesa part and stagesits character belongs to another, namely, everyday reality. Indeed,from the theatercomesthe term "prop" to remindus that someartifacts have, it were,no life of their as own, taking their identifyingtitle from the fact that their crude similarity to certain objectsin the real world (along with their cheapness maneuverability) and allowsthem to be used in plays as if they were these obiects, this role in dramaturgy beingtheir only one. lf one allowsthat a paintermay usea material objectasa
.' lvlatters get a little can complicated here. movjeactormay be A givena stand-in that in staging character himself so a he will not have to engage tediousor dangerous in ,(andsimply):a activity.Clearly model for a model. Novelists, with no intent to engage cover! in patterna fi(tionalcharacter biography, sometimes upona reil person quitedistinct, in theirsocial circle, subiect and modelherebeing there beingan obligation blur the copy ahd makea secret the identity to of of the model.Biography, the other hand,allows on and requires that play5, then, the the subjectand model be one. In biographical character onstage becomesa refraction both of the actor who is taking the part and of the personwho wasthe inspirationfor the part. (or It is a tart experience a sad experience), not necessarily but a confusing one, that is produced when the inspiration a character for also as the actor of the part, aswhen the famousgunfighters serves of the West ended their years "8oingon the road" with enactments by of themsefves. The tricky caseis the romon d clef, " here a connection between subject and model is formally denied (as prefatory admonitions regarding the coincidence resemblance of attest) but

guide(whethermodel,prop, or whatever) help him in his to rendering, and if this guidingfunction is taken as centralto one'sconception suchobjects, of then one might extendthe categoryto include objectswhich the artist usesnot only as a guidebut alsoas a subject. After all, to sit for a portrait is to serve a subiectdfd as its model, and so one is forced to say as that a stand-in be the realthing.rt can Unlike what is requiredin drawing,painting,or fiction, but like the theater, a photograph requires material guides-"models"in the cases that interestus. The play of light and shadowupon something therein the realworld out is necessary, furthermore, is necessary the moment the and at Dicture taken. is Observethat just as a photograph can be said to be of its subject, this beingour first sense "of," so it can be saidto of be of its model, this being our secondsense "of." The of convenience using one word here insteadof two, is, I of believe, disaster analysis, althoughbiblicalpaintings a for for provideno problemin the distinction and the theatrical stage betwen subiectand model (or character actor),photogand raphy deeply confoundsthe matter in severalways-now merging subject and model,now concealing difference, a now taking a difference granted, for and in general causing to us think we areconcerned with one problemwhen we reallyare concerned aboutanother. (1) A "caught" or "candid" photographmay be l\/ I Y defined as featuring models thal have not been arrayed to serve as such, that is, to serve as something to photograph this occasion. on Suchpictures showobiectsand events as they are in regard to some matters other than photography. For human modelsthis means ordinarily that they are unawarethat a camerais where it is, or that they are so deeply caughtup in other vital mattersthat they either give no weight to the fact that they are being photographed or modify whatever they are doing only to the extent for required a disjunctive monitoringshift in response the to 2 suddenappearance a camera.r (All modelscan be angled, of if not manipulated, for photographiceffect; only human ones can do this on their own behalf.)Caughtpicturescan providevalid documents records,allowingthe viewerto or make relativelyreliableinferences to what had led up to as the activity representedand what was likely to have

guessing the identity of the model is encouraged at least at (or thoughtto be),alongwith the beliefthat the copying close. is l2ln f"ct, r"tt".. are a little more complicated. the infinite Of photographers numberof scenes miSht catch,they manage (and to bother to) catch only a small number,and thesetend to be ones whosecontent makeevidentthat the pictures could only havebeen caught. a caughtpictureturns out to be a patentlycaughtone. So Also note that whereas the term "caught" seemsto be preferentially applied a scene to uponwhicha camera wouldhavebeenunlikely.th term "candid" seems be preferentiallyused in reference scenes to to whereinthe participants would ordinarily have been unwilling to continue with what they had beendoinghad they but knownthat on a camera wasin action.Undersiandably, candid pictures present some frame,not only turningprecipitously monitorthe models breaking to camera's intrusion, but alsosimultaneously attempting obscure to the appearance had beengiving.Whatis candidabout suchpicturei they turnsout to be covering behavior, what the behavior not covers,

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extent, as can an followed,in the sameway, if to a lesser actualviewerof a live sceneinfer what is going on at the can momentof viewing.lt is in this way that caughtpictures concerning xistence a state the of be usedasstrongevidence of of affairsor of the occurrence an event.Thus. a pictured "personally identified," that is, a individualwho can be sub,ect that provides us with effective evidenceof the identification its model,can serve demonof to biographical strate that its model had been in a certain place doing a certain thing and in association with certain others,which demonstration courts of law may be inducedto accept.For insurance claimsfor injurieshavebeendefeated by example, photographs secretly taken of the claimant while he was such as bowling, engagedin demanding performances, "knowing" climbingladders, and the like. Denialof someone has similarly been defeated by pictures of the claimant chatting with the person he claims not to know. Bank robbershavefaced similar problemsdue to securityphotography. In fact, on occasionin courts, claimsas to what may find better supportthroughphotographs occurred than howeverrealistic, through direct testimony. Drawings, are not used in this particular way, although they can be i y w e m p l o y e dn i d e n l i f i c a l o rp o l i c e o r k . r l (2) Caughtphotographs to be contrasted another are to class, whosemembers share propertythat inferences to the as what was going on in the scene connot be correctly made from what is Dictured. (often caughtones) which First, there are photographs havebeencovertly"doctored" or "faked," aswhena picture of someone's face is superimposed a pictureof someone on else'sbody, and the whole passed as evidence that the off
'"ln his Art and tttuslor, E. H. Gombrich presents interesting the atgumentthat a picturc cannot be true or false in itself, these possibilities beingreserved the caption label: for or Logicianstell us and they are not people to be easily gainsaid-that terms"true" and "false"canonly be applied the to propositions, statements, And whatevermay be the usage of criticalpallance, pictureis never statement that sense the a a in of term. lt can no more be true or false than a statement be blue can or green. Much confusion has been causedin aesthetics by disregardjng simple fact. lt is an understandable this confusjon because our culturepictures usuallylabeled, in are and labels, or captions. be understood abbreviated can as statements, Whenit is "the camera cannot lie," this confusion is apparent. said Propaganda wartime often made use of photographs in falsely labeled accuse exculpate parties. to or one of the warring Evenin illustrations is the captionwhichdetermines truth scientific i1 the of the picture.ln a cause cAlibreof the last centuryr embryo the of a pig, labeledas a human embryo to prove a theory of evolution, brought about the downfall of a great reputation. Wjtholt much reflection, can all expandinto statements we the laconiccaptions find in museums books. we and Whenwe readthe painting, know we name"Ludwig Richter"undera landscape we arethusinformed that he painted and canbeginarguing it whether "Tivoli," we infer this information true or false.Whenwe read is the pictureis to be takenas a viewof that spot,and we canagain agree disagree or with the label.How and whenwe agree, sucha in case,will largelydependon what we want to know about the obiect represented. The Bayeux tapestry, for instance, tells us there was a battle of Hastings. doesnot tell us what Hastings lt " l o o k e d i k e . " 9 6 1: 6 7 - 6 8.1 l [] In sum,a caption frames picture, a tellingus what aspect it is to be of attended and in what light this aspect mattersis to be seen-e.g,, of the way thingsoncewere,the way they might be in the future,the

owner of the face was presentin the scenedepicted.Or a a seriously misleading captionis employedencouraging false attributionof modelto subject. Secondare the kind of picturesthat can be said to be rigged, set up, implying that modelsand scenic or arranged, materials,real enough in their own right, were brought together and choreographed to induce radically wrong "who" had been presentand/or what had as inferences to beengoingon. The resultis a pictureof a covertlycontrived scenej the picture is an actual one, but it is not actually of the sceneit portrays. The classic casehere is the collusively arranged infidelity picture,onceso popularin Britishdivorce proceedings, providing perfectly valid evidence that a Darticular man had been in a oarticular room with a particularwoman not his wife, the misleading restricted to their doings and her professionalidentity. The wrong (or impression court is induced receive rathergives the to the appearance receiving) much like the one that the hotel of is clerk could haveobtainedof the actualdoings,althoughhe might gt to seethe picture takingas well as the scenethe picture taker took. Observe that a doctoredpicture,whether intendedto mislead not, requires cooperation or no from the models,the fabricationbeingdone after, not before,picture taking;riggedpictures, the other hand,ordinarilyrequire on posingbeforethe picture is snapped, collaborative although admittedly if modelsare caught at the right momentfrom the right angle,they can find that they haveunintentionally produceda picture that is riggedin effect,ra as they can if they know they are about to b photographed but the photographer doesnot know they know. Observe, too, that although eyes and camerascan be similarly fooled, it is
dream the artist,a tributeto the styleof someperiod, of andsoforth. But, of course, this approach entirely begsthe question. a great In photograph understood number of contextsan uncaptioned /5 to present claim regarding properties character the model, a the and of (Theveryfact that effort courtsof law only beingthe most obvious. presupposes ordinarily pictures is madeto doctor pictures that imply an avowalabout reality and that this avowalis ordinarilyvalid;the sameassumption not madeof other modes representation, is of and understandably Any oblect,not merelya picture,is subject so.) to covertsimulation and various forms of overt reconstitutings. These transformations nonetheless remainiust that, transformations an of original. But granted that the interpretation pictureis given, a thatis, the sense which it is taken,derives in from the contextof use, one must seethat the caption,when thereis one, is but one part of thh context. A caption,then, can be true or falseonly if /ti context carries anothercaption, albeita tacit one: "The statement5 made here are meant to be taken as avowals what is." And the reading of a captioncan cause to makeof a picture, us otherelements context of "fantasy"cantell can cause to makeof the caption.(The caption us us how to reada picture an art book,but whatdoesit tell usabout in a picturein the NationalLampoon?) statement fact, laconic A of or expanded, can be presented a quotation,an exampleof literary as slyle, a displayof print format, etc., being no lessvulnerable to special readings than are pictures. any case, photograph In a thatir falsely captioned to or {whether deceive for openlyplayfulpurposes) can still present perfectly a validrepresentation its model, only of the problembeingthat the modelcan't be correctlyidentified from the caption.lvlayI add that although obviously angle, the light,timinSj cameradistance, printing,and the photol lens,film development, grapher'sintent can very significantlyinfluencewhat a picturc reproduces, every casethe model must introducea pattern in of constraints well. as l4For this, and for other suggestions incorporated without acknowledgment, grateful Richard lam to Chalfen.

PICTURE FRAMES 15

usuallyfar easierto hoodwink the viewerof a picture than quite apart from, say, for the viewerof a live scene, reasons the consequence insufficientdepth cues. For the still of photographer's practiceof holdinghis camera a smallfield to and (necessarily) a singleanglecan,in the shootingof a to protecthis illusionfrom anythingdisconfirming scene, rigged that might lie just beyond the posing;and what has been posed needonly be held longenoughto snapit. A liveviewer could hardly be restricted this way, and unlesshe wore blinders and kept his head in a vice, would haveto be faced with fakery that is considerably more extensive it is to be if effective-although admittdly he is not often in a position for to pore over what he sees flaws,whereas viewerof a the usuallvis. oicture (3) Pictures that are covertlydoctoredor covertlyrigged display scenesthat can't be read in the same way that for ones routinelv can. as a swarmof warrants uncontrived and drawingsound conclusions to who had beenpresent as what had beengoingon there.Suchcovertlyfakedpictures "fabrications" are to be distingulshed from ones that are also concocted, but this time admittedly, whether by what is photographed doctoringa photograph or arranging providea "keying" scenes alreadytaken.ls Openlycontrived as of photographic evidence to who was presentand what hereis what might hadbeengoingon.16The centralexample transformation be called"commercialrealism,"the standard mployed in contemporary ads, in which the scene is in conceivable all detail as one that could in theory have sliceof occurredas pictured,providingus with a simulated does not seem intent on life; but although the advertiser passing the picture off as a caught one, the understanding seemsto be that we will not presshim too far to accountfor just what sort of reality the scene has.(The term "realistic," "sincerity" when appliedto a stageactor, is like the term that is praiseworthy self-contradictory, meaningsomething by virtue of being like somethingelse,althoughnot that realismis to be sharplydistinsomething else.)Commercial guishedfrom scenes posedwith unlikely professionals and apparently intendedto be wrongly seenas caught and from scenesthat ore caught ones but now embeddedin an 7 that commercialrealismprovides advertisement,I Observe

especially nice examples the subject-model of issue. Asked what is in a particularad, we might say, "A family fishing." What makesus think the four subiects the pictureare in a in family relationship one another is exactly what might to make us infer sucha relationship with respect strangers to in real life. 5o, too, on seeingimagesof fishing lines in the water. Asked whether we think the four personswho modeled for the picture are reolly a family or if there are hookson the lines,the answer could well be, "Probablynot, but what doesit matter?"The point about an ad is what its composermeant us to infer as to what is going on in the pictured scene,not what had actually been make-belive going on in the real doingsthat were pictured.The issueis subiect. model. not It is thus that the constraints Dicture on scene Droduction can be properly sorted. An ad featuring a nude woman subject raisesquestionsabout the modesty of the model, especially she is a well-knownone; an ad featuringnuns if clusteredin front of a station wagon in honor of Gl\4's tilt-wheel steeringcan (and did) raisequestions about the desecration subjects the modelsin this casebeing well of covered unaccustomed by habit (seeLivingston 1976). Advertisements that emplov commercial realismor some other variety of overtly concocted scene can be aptly compared to what the stage presents. In both casesthe viewer is to engageknowingly in a kind of make-believe, treating the depictedworld as if it were reallike but of coursenot actuallyreai.The differences interesting. are One is that althoughwe undoubtedly can involveourselves more deeply in staged make-believe than in advertisements, is it probablythe casethat viewers morefrequentlyreify, that is, "downkey," ads than plays; for we can always fall into thinking that an ad is like a newsshot or a privateportrait, its model rightly to be identified with its subject.(ln any case,the imputationof realness what a picture is of is to unlikely to require our immediate intercession, presented the eventshavingalreadytranspired; the other hand, when on Othello attacksDesdemona, something will haveto be done immediately the audience they havemisframed by if him as endangering real life.) Another difference:lt is routine in a play production that we know the personal identity of the models,at least the lead ones,and that our pleasure the in show derivesin part from watchingfavoriteactorsat work, lSCurrentlynewspapers magazines exercise and very wide liberty whatever the part they are currently at work in. In the case pictures featuring bitsof anatomy ceof in presenting opnlydoctored political especially ones, portraits the completed linedraw- of ads, with very rare exception, the personalidentity of the by lebrities, cartoons, other photographs, the like.Precisely whatframe models is unknown to us, and we do not seek out this and in ings, interpret suchpictures not clear, is since whatcanbelegally dereaders Producttestimonyby celebrities, by specially knowledge. or fendedas an evident fantasymay not be so treated someviewers. by selected citizens whose actual names and addressesare '"A fuller treatment "keying" and"fabrication"is presented of in provided,is quite anothermatter and is by way of beinga Goffman(1974,esp.ch. 3, 4). ' 'There are deviations fraud a fabrication,not a keying.An interesting marginal ftom commercial realism that are more caseis the photoroman, popular on the continent, in which subtle,Thus, one finds that a picturein an annual companyreport personally restaurant with the aid of two displaying company's the equipment identified models indeed"stars" of the cinematic posingas personsdininS out and another asa waitress secretaries can perform for a series stillsin the mannerof a comic world of conveynot so much that there is a difference between subject and book, projectingthemselves fictional partsmuch as they in particular model,but that these models not making are everyeffort to might on the screen, and as on the screenrelyingon their conceal that they are unprofessional ones,therebyposing models "own" as identitiesas a sourceof drawing power (see Van posing as participants in a rcstaurant scene. A comparableframe homemovies part of as complexityis found in the useof simulated Dormael1974).
of the scenario a commercial of one,or the usein radiocommercials "interviews"with carefullyselected "citizens," ordinaryconsumers, Startingwith caughtscenes, the descriplion has been who have beenrehearsed into displaying the restarts, filled pauses, \/ Y complicated adding ones lhaI were fabricated by and and little floodingsthat presumably distinguish efforts of real the performedby studio actors. keyed. Now it is essential go on to see that all these interviewees from the responses to

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picturesshareone importantfeature,namely,they are all whether candid, faked, or scenes,that is, representations, "events" happening.Narrative-like frankly simulated,of action is to be read from what is seen,a before and after are to be inferred,and this location in tht! ongoingstreamof the activity provides context as muqh as do the modelsand propsper se. All suchpicturesare to be distinguished from another class, namely, portraits, these being pictures keyed,or actually of where action is absentor fabricated, and it cannot quite be said that a sceneis in incidental, progress. subiect is featured more than a streamof events. A ('l) Considerfirst the matter of the personalportrait format itself. This format was there before the cameracame in, has dominatedprivate pictures,and is only now giving way: the model sits or standsin his finery, holds an absent, half-smiling expressionon his face in the direction he is instructedto-a constraintonly familiar from the military paradeground-and rendershimself up to the iudgmentof eternity,the assumption rightly beingthat in many waysthe are of No modeland the subiect one,a case posing oneself. as needs doubt this posturalformula reflectedthe exposure of eady film and the style (and requirements) established in , painted portraiture providingus a central caseof pictures other pictures; any case, prototypeis to be in representing no found in the responses individuals, leastsighted at ones, have to any other circumstancein the workaday world.r8 (Certainly responses every kind can be affectedand held of by brute force for lengthy periods, but these responses are presented though in reaction to somethingother than as picture taking.) When this portrait format is extendedto commercialshots featuring a subject and a product, the unseeing expression often givesway to one that is not alien to natural life, merely crudely simulated:a frozen, summoninglook, asthoughthe subjectweremakingeyecontact, sometimescollusivelv.with someone there in the flesh behind shutter, with a widergroupout therein camera the or land. Also found is an expressionof defenseagainst a the intrusion, subtlemeans encouraging viewerto feel he of is an actual participant in the depicted scene. So, too, especially femaleones,may be shownreturning our subjects, intrusive look with one that passively submitsto apparently our Eaze. More subtle still, the subject can give the appearance turning away from a second figure in the of picturesometimes steala look at a third figure,in any case to angle so from a disclosive allowingus to catch the maneuver more privy to this disloyalty of that we find ourselves attentionthan is the subiectwho has lost it. The simulation

of viewer-responsive facialexpression subiects by somewhat changes portrait into a scene a and is, of course, standard a feature of Westernpainting.re And note the parallelto a phenomenon peculiarto the legitimatestagecalled "direct address." (2) Early privatephotographic portraitsemployed canvas (deemed proper backdrops featuring sylvanor hellenic scenes in their three dimensionai form to the gentry),thus taking open advantage the principlethat the camera, of somewhat like the theatricalstage,drops from the world everything between the figuresor objectsin centralfocus and what lies in front, and at the sametime tendsto reduce what remains of the embedding context to a bqchground, a depthless plane. A recent commercialversion is the high fashion frieze againsomething that does not mimic nature-which pristinelycostumed splays femalefigures flush against exotic slabs naturewhereperhaps of only goatsand mendicants are actually to be found, naturehereserving a substitute as for canvas. (3) In portraiture, this transformationof contextual space into a point of focusand a flat background matched is by the transformation of microecological space. Selfcommemoration a kin group,team,school, association by or packsfamiliars into compact rank-and-file graded clusters, for height;decorative kneelingand pyramidingcan also be employed.This assures that a likeness all the faceswill of show in the picture,alongwith at leastan inferential view of the corresponding bodies, and all this as largeas the camera can manage. this bunching-up modelsin order to takea In of picture, microecologyand body contact are given a systematically differentreading than obtainsin any other frame, althoughthe staging choralsingers Observe, of comesclose. I have been talking about real spacebetweenreal peoplemodels. not subiects.The current commercialversion of group picturespresents evenmore strikingreconstitution an for of space, it brings into jolly togethernessdeep-sea a diver, a Chinese cook, a ballet dancer, black nurse,a middle-age a housewife, and a grey-haired banker,causing subjects whom all of sociallife conspires keep separate be arm in arm, to to nullifying the basic metaphor indexing social distance physical throughinterpersonal But, ofcourse,thereis space. a profound difference between commemorativesand commercials. Teammates who entwinethemselves a portrait for produce a picture of themselves displayingthis territorial promiscuity;professional modelswho similarly pose themselvesdo not produce a picture of themselves but of subiectschosen by advertiser, and it is the intermingling not of subiects the pictured spaceJ models the studio's, in in that is striking. After all, professional models, like pro18ln recent fessional actors,havegivenup almostall naturalclaimsand years have stylishportraitphotographers brokenwith can be caused appearin almostany guiseand almostany to the traditional format. Insteadof inducingfrozen facial dignity in a liveliness, and model, they trackdownexpressions warmth,charm, of posture, a so forth, producing sensethat the individualhas been unself(4) An individualwho serves a model for a personal as consciously caught in action. To obtain these expressaons, a portrait-or does anything else-is someonewith a unique considerable varm-up period may be employedand a secondcamera, individuality, allowingfor a matchingbetween so that the modelwill not quite know whenand from what precise biographical
can be anglhis imagewill be taken.In this way, everycustomer photography transformed a fittingobiectfor sympathetic, into candid his and highsymbolism, becoming someone who expresss character, to as well as his status, allowing photographers make a statement lt suchpractices those that everytime their camera speaks. is through who make a living rproducing appearances life can continue of further to stampthe realthing out. r 9See,for exampfe, Rubens'HAAneFoument in o Fur Coot, ilnd (1975:60-61). might add that a whole art the discussion Berger in I hasdeveloped radioand TV to induceperformers projecttheir in to talk as if to actualaudiences located someDrescribed at distance. and as if part of a current interaction. the contingencies training On of political candidates these in techniques, Carey(1976). see

PICTURE FRAMES 17

subject and personalidentity of the model, providingonly that the model is knownpersonally, oratleast knowno{ by gameof identifyingbaby the viewer.(Thus the photographic pictures high schoolphotosor of matchingearlypictures or of celebrities againsttheir current image.)For viewers a of portrait,this matchingpossibility crucial; is ritual usecannot be made of pictures of just anyone, only picturesof the famed or of those within one's own circle. ln the caseof pictures,this linkageis unnecessary-except commercial in regard celebrity or "citizen" testimonials. to Observethat in photographicportraits, the model is "posed." frankly His havingtaken up a positionbeforethe camerasimply in order to be photographedin no way "real" detracts from the picture beingthought an authentic, one. Moreover,what is pictured is what is reallygoing on, namely,portraiture, the giving of the model over to the process beingrendered. would not say,then,that such of We a picturewas "merely posed,"asthoughto correctanyone's beliefthat it was something else.That the backSround may 6e a metepicture of scenery doesnot discredit the portrait either,for here there is no pretense that anythingbut a prop is involved. One is reminded here of the frame comolexitv of apparently naivephotographs the diverse and realms being of we seemable to easilyamalgamate. exampl, photoFor a graphmay involvenot only a model who is a recl person and a backdrop which is a painting of trees, but also a framed photograph oil portrait, real in its own sense, or usedas a scenicresourcer introducingstill another plane of events. lndeed, the turn of the centurymortuarypictures at wereto portrait of the be found in which a framed photographic deceased set amidstwreathsand realflowers,all placed was in front of a cloudy canvas sky and photographed. (lncidentally, what resulted v,tasa photograph of a photograph,somethingthat is frame-distinct from a print off the same negative, the rephotograph of a photograph, and, of course, letterpress a reproduction a photograph.) all of In of portraiturehasfrom the beginning theseways photographic involved embeddingsof material from one frame into materials in another,20 a practice, incidentally, long employed painting. in portrait may be one that strikes A "real" photographic the vieweras bad in variousways: it may be unflattering or fail to capturethe personality model is "known" to have the or be badly composed, lighted,printed, and so forth. But these deficienciesdo not reflect on the genuineness or authenticityof the portrait. A questionof fabricationand keying, a question of reality, would enter when we dis"really" coveredthat the portrait was of someoneelse, merelysomeone who looked like the model we thoughtwas involvedor that the picture containedthe mere posingof a posing,as when a commercial presents advertisement some-

2oExamples may be found in Lesy(1973).Postcards earlyin this century also employedembeddings, beautifulbeloved the the of lonely lover appearingin a balloon above his head, ofttimes for competing free space lvith her photograph portrait,this being or a I in the point wasmissed. Note, third realmemployed, suppose, case the equivalent a thoughtballoon's access the heated to brainof a of beforethe camerawasinvented, figure wa5a privilegeof novelists

thing meant to be seen as though a private photographic portrait when in fact a professional model did the work, posing in a way he would not were he posing for a photographof himself for his own private use.To which must be addedthe fact that almost from the beginning of privatepersonal photographic portraiture, modelsguyed the process, taking an avowedly"funny" picture, for example, one which extendedthe reprsented scenery into everything but a holefor the model's realheadto be poppedthrough,or one in which the model assumed purposelycomic pose. a Commercialpictures then added a lamination,presenting pictures of professional models posed as private persons guying a portrait pose. I might add that when a genuine private photographicportrait is borrowed by a student, transformed into a slide,and presented an audience an to as portraiture, instance photographic of then one might haveto say that althougha real portrait is beingused,it is not being used in the way intended, and no ritual attachesto its perception. Form remains; function changes. Finally, look again at the notion of "posing." A commercialmodel stagingan ad in which he is to appearas a "posing," doctor is an activity clearly different from "imposturing" as a doctor (as when someone attemptsto practicemedicine without trainingor a license), and akin to "acting" a medicalrole in a movie. But evenmore clearly, someone"posing" for his portrait is not doing so in the commercial model's sense. For, as suggested, private in portraitsthere is ordinarily no effort to use sceniccuesto providethe viewerof the picturewith an understanding tiat a make-believe world is picturedwhose subiects havea social and personalidentity little matchingthat of the models. posingavowedly Commercial transforms model into almost a anyone the advertiserwants to construct an imaginaryscene around; private portraiture transforms a model into a decorative representation of himself, the two "ofs" of photography here nicely blended.Observethat the question of primping or posturing for the camerais not here at issue. Private portraiture, public portraiture for purposes of publicity, caught news shotsof national leaders, and even art photographyof "interestinglooking" faces,all reflect the fundamental fact that their models are not presenting themselves a personal socialidentity not their "own"; in or that is what underlies commonsense our designation these of 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 Napoleon or tie devil does not signify herel in all cases subiect and model would not be the same,leadingus to say that we do not havean actual picture ofa doctor, Napoleon, or the devil.(Whichis not to say that a modelwho poses a as doctor will not provide us with an actualphotogroph, nor an 1ctual photograph of an adult, a male, a white person, a goodlooker,a professional model,and so forth. Nor to deny that an actual photograph of a doctor is a possibility, whereas actual photographof Napoleonor the devil is an not, although an actual photograph of an actual portrait of Napoleon whereas the devil,not.) is, of

"::::il"i,y'":?",';11'["", '?5 vll,HlSf


iudging picture portraits: of the first, is it doctored or

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contrived,and in either case,covertly or overtly; of the "touched up," faithful, flattering, second, it is and the like. (Ordinaryconcerns usuallyneglectthe possibilitythat what might seem to be a private portrait might really be the fabrication keyingof one, this neglect or due,perhaps, the to fact that a portrait is alreadya keying,already ritualization a of the human form, already a departurefrom the simple rendering an aspectof the world the way it is for us.) In of any case, the question can be raisedas to how, apart from portraitur,photographs featuresubiects a way that is can in different from the way their modelsmight systematically Here,then, is a deploy themselves when not beforea camera. with the concern that does not bear on issuesassociated physiology In and psychology perception. brief, whatare of the systematic differences betweenscens openlycontrived ts ' for picturing and live sceneswhose participan are unphotographed; put the other way, concerned about being or, what are the systematic differences between pictures of openlycontrived scenes pictures uncontrived and of ones? (1) Perhaps most obviousdeparture from realitythat the photography provides is commercial syncretism. The capacity to put together a realistic iooking scene to photograph is not far away from the capacity to put together a scenewhoseindividualelements imaginable realbut are as whose combinationof elements the world itself could not produceor allow.Thus fantastical pictures which a subject in speaksto us from within a block of ice or while soaring throughthe air, or mingles from myth or sociallywith figures with notableslong since dead but now returned in their prime, or seriouslydisplaysineptness, braggadocio, fearfulness, and hauteur we would only expect to find in consciousbuffoonery, or is subjectedto our readinghis thoughtsin a balloon that the other figuresin the picture can't see.A more subtle complexity is found in those ads which intendedly satirize other ads, thus elevatingthe make-believe world portrayed in one picture into real materialsto copy in the make-believe world of another, providing thus a keyingof a keying. (2) Consider now involvementstructure.A feature of social situationsis that participantsare obligedto sustain appear?nces zspontaneousinvolvement in appropriate of mattersat hand, Evidence ofan individual's involvement will comefrom the directionand mobility of his gaze, well as as the alignmentof his eyes,head,and trunk, theseordinarily oriented in the same direction. Now it seemsthat of ali obligatory appearances, that of correct involvement the is hardestto simulate, and this as if by design. Any attemptto produce an appropriate show of involvement something in tends!o produceinstead appearance involvement the an of in task of affecting such involvement.2r Although most individualsacquire the capacityto convincingly contrivea show of interestin what anotheris sayingor doing,ability falters when they are required to simulate "natural" involvementwithin more complex social arrangements, as when listening talk that the talker is himselfsimulating, to or expressing one participanta sharedreaction regarding to another, or maintaining one conversationin very close Droximitv to another. At such moments the individualis
2 rSee Goffman,"Alienation from Interaction"11967 13-136). t1

likely to inducea sense uneasiness viewers, of in due to the perceived overfixedness his gazeand his failure to align of trunk, head,and eyesin the mannerwe havecometo expect. Perhaps the most obtrusiveexampleis to be seenwhen an glances a camera persons individual at or monitoringhim but tries to preventhis trunk and his head from following his eyes. N4ayI add that our capacityto discernmicroscopic discrepancies anticipatedalignments eyes,head,and in of trunk is simolvenormous. (3) Another sort of photographic departure from reality portraitsand scenes. is clbar can be seenby contrasting lt that althoughan imageof a personor even of a group of persons in staggered (if array)can be ratherfully caughtfrom the front by the camera'sstraight-on eye, the activity in naturalsocialsituations rarelybe well picturedfrom such can point must be chosenafreshfor each an angle.Bestvantage configuration,and this can involve a positioningof the camerathat an eye and its personcould hardly manage in naturalsocial life. /\4ore important,activity may haveto be brokenup and spread open,for a camera cannotpeerinside the inward-facing encirclements often found. (After all, portrait posingis not a posture dictatedby what cango on in socialsituations; is throughand throughan answerto the it special needs of the camera and to the character of portraiture.) And such a spread-out array can be staged to incorporate devices directingthe attentionof the viewer for to a centralperson, which devices not otherwise do appear in nature.Thus in political publicity shots,one practiceis to havethe leader's advisors and childrenturn their facesfrom lhe camera and self-effacingly look at the main figure, deictically pointing with their faces and sometimestheir handsin the directionthat attention is to follow, evenwhile person the central waves directlV the camera to and the crowd. All of this is found only where thereisa front-onaudience a or camera, and is radically differentfrom the inwardturningex2 hibitedin ordinaryface-to-face interaction.2 There are other instructive differences betweenportraits and pictured scenes. both cases, In the persons who model for the pictures have unique biographical (personal) identities.As suggested, the owner of a photographic for portrait, the possibility of making this identification is centralto the ritual function the portrait will have.But not pictures, so in the caseof commercial exceptperhaps when the picture featuresa personaltestimonial.23 Presumably
"Other u n n a t u r a l d e v i c e sf o r e x h i b i t i n g d o m i n a n c e a r e a v a i l a b l e t o p h o t o g r a p h e r s . F o r e x a m p l e , a c l i c h e o f a d v e r t i s e m e n t si s t o p i c t u r e o n e i n d i v i d u a l w h o i s i n t h e c l o s ec o m p a n y o f a n o t h e r l o o k i n g at that other adoringly and self-effacingiy, s if the other's useof the a a d v e r t i s e dp r o d u c t h a d r e n d e r e d h i m w o r t h y o f s u c h a t t e n t j o n , A l t h o u g h o p e n l y l o v i n g l o o k s a t c l o s e q u a r t e r sa r e s o m e t i m e sa d d r e s s e d to the very young as part of their easy transformation into nonpers o n s ,t h e s e e x p r e s s i o n s e t w e e n a d u l t s a r e n o t c o m m o n , b e i n g i n c o m , b p a t i b l e w i t h o t h e r i n t e r a c t i o n o b l i g a t i o n so f t h e a d o r e r t o t h e a d o r c d . _"Portraits taken of anonymous models by renowned photog r a p h e r s c a n b e c o m e p r i z e d b y t h e c o l l e c t o r s ,a n d i n t h i s s e n s eh a v e r i t u a l v a l u e , b u t h e r e b e c a u s et h e p i c t u r e p r o v i d e sa c o n t a c t w i t h t h e t a k e r , n o t t h e t a k e n . T h e a ea r e , o f c o u r s e ,v a r i o u se f f o r t s t o c o n s t i t u t e p h o t o g r a p h s n t o o b j e c t so f s c a r c i t y - i n t o r e l i c s a n d t h e r e b y i n t o i t e m s i o f m o n e t a r y v a l u e . P r i n t s f r o m t h e o r i g i n a l n e g a t i v ea r e a p p a r e n t l yd h t i n g u i s h a b l e f r o m r e - p h o t o g r a p h so f t h e t e x t . T h e s k i l l i n v o l v e d i n developing and enlarging can itself be claimed as identifiable and t h e r e f o r e a m e a n s o f d i s t i n g u i s h i n gp r o d u c t s , E t c . ( F o r a l l o f w h i c h , and for much other help, I am grateful to Lee Ann Draud.)

PICTUNE FRAMES t9

what the advertisementis concerned to depict is not particular individuals already known, but rather activity which would be recognizablewere we to seeit performed in (Whichis not reallife by persons known to us personally. not to say that the subjectsmay not be depicted in a mannerto imply that they would naturallyknow eachother very well.) ln effect, pictured scenes show examplesof categories of persons, particular persons. Now observe not that althoughin real life we obtain lots of views of persons whom we can merelyplace in socialcategories, unless also know them we personally havegood business or reasons be dealingwith to them, we are not in a position to witness what we witness about them in commercialscenes. Indeed,there are many scenes. such as that of husbandand wife in their Dictured bedroom, that no business acquaintanceship or could warrant Only a peeping our seeing. tom of unprecedented capabilities could managethe view. Like readersof what a novelist suppliesof his characters, the viewer becomesgodlike, unconstrained any need of legitimate by socialgroundsfor beingprivy to what is depictedin the scene.2a short,the In possibilityof arranging scenefrom the visualpinpoint of a view of a singlecamera's eye-into which angleand dislance of vision vast hordes of viewerscan be thrust-is a social license well asan opticalone. as (4)A feature ofthe photographic frame is the possibility of eschewing depictionof ordinary life for high symbolism. the Thus,an imageof part of a model'sbody can be madeto fill the whole picture,articulated be readasa deepcomment to on the entire human condition, not merely an example drawnfrom it, and providing with a picturewhose us subject is not a personbut a small part of the anatomy,suchas a fingertip. A lesserversion qf this expressionism must be considered, being more common and probablymore significant. In real situations, externalize we our circumstances and intent, in effect facilitating the adaptation of others in our surroundto us. But in a mannerof speaking, this display tends to occur as part of a streamof acts in the sameorder of being,some of which acts haveiust occurredand othersof which are likely to start occurring.In privateand publicity portraiture, individuals can be givena quite differentrelation to what they display. Two boxers taking weighing-in publicity shots will assume fighting pose,choreographing a in. an illustrationof the actionsthey will engage But these "mere" actions are representations, totally cut off from any actual sequencein which the orginalsmight occur. And indeed,little competence fistic arts is requiredto evince in of the pose. What we obtain are photographicrecordings emblems, not actions.Similarly,when a renowned scientist graciousfysubmits to a magazine interview (in the interests knowledge),he is likely to be posed of disseminating fingeringhis equipmentas thougha sliceof his occupational life had beencaught:he is shownpeering into a microscope, writing a formula on the board,holdinga testtube up to the

light, or arranginga fossil. Thereby he crudely mimes a posture plucked from his own role, momentarily transforming lhe living tools of his trade into dramaturgic equipment and himself into a pantomimist of fixed expressions. And what we seeis not a photographicrecord of an actual scenefrom the scientist'slife, as would be available were a secretcameratrained on his laboratorv. nor a clever contrivance of such a photographic record (this presented either as a real one or as an admitted simulation),but sometling that is only to be found as a posingfor a picture, having been staged in responseto a conception of what would makea colorful, tellingphotograph, and,behindthis, a conception what constitutes appropriate of the convention for "representing" the particularcalling.2s Obviouslyin all these caseswhat one has is not intention.. display in the ethologicalsense, sinceemblemsof the model'scallingdo not tell us what is to happen (or what is threatened or promised), but ratherthe sort of activity the modelchooses to be identified with, this activity being symbolized, it as were, by a quotation of one of its dramaticallytelling phases.26 What in fact probably has happened that the is staff photographer okayedthe pose,and what probably has will happen is that the scientist will soon exchange pleasantries guests-these with his departing events belonging to an order of activitv radicallv different from the one portrayedin the picture. intendedly

p l a i n ,t h e n ,t h a r e x c e p r n r h e c a s e f c a u g h t i o \/l I l, is Y | | scenes,the arrangements models and scenic of resources that the camera photographs will differ systematically from the way the unposingworld is. Now one , should considef the contrary issue:the carryoverof the way the world is to any photograph. For the transformational code for representingreality in pictures-the photographic frame-would hardly be a code were not some sort of relationship systematicallypreservedbetween what is transformed and the transformation. But in the ouestion of carryover, somepreliminary is discussion required. (like pencil sketches) Photographs can be usedto illustrote
2sFor

this latter point, and for other suggestions incorporated withoutfurtheracknowledgment, verygrateful lohn Carey. I am to 26Scientists are hereusedas an example because mightthink one they would balk at suchnonsense. Examples eveneasier find are to among business leaders who appearin nevs magazines annual and companyreportsbusy with an executive{ike action whoseposing could only havetakenthem awayfrom suchduties. truth it seems In that nigh everyone can be peEuaded publicists appear the by to to publicat largein a mock-upof themselves their occupations, and an amateur theatrics which politicians alsowillingto subject to are their greetings, farewells, commiserations, otherintimacy and rituals. Nor is this readiness reframe to one'sown doings that the publicwill get a so phenomenon. synopticviewof one'srolea palticularly contemporary Bourgeois society has neverwanted for persons readyto seethe need for a permanentdisplay of themselves somber portrait oils, in clutching book,a ledger, ridingcrop,or a rose, a a framingthemselves thus in some sort of mysticalrelationto the equipmentof their 24Cartoon strips provideother transformations the everyday. vocation, touchingencouragement the worship of a to that others might yet For example, protagonists be at a distance evenhidden the can or be willing to offer to exemplifications what is bestin humanity. of their wordscan be ballooned into the foreground, effectallowing Perhaps should the readiness thissort of personal in publicity one see for the viewer to bug distal voices.Here,and in regardto other aspects of as entirely natulal,to the self, and a modest life a perversion forced the transformation rulesof the cartoonframe,seeFresnault-Deruelle upon the masses want of anythinglike an adequate for supplyof (197 1975b, 197 5a, 6). boardrooms and marble fireDlaces.

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practices arrangements, typically by virtueof and behavioral The kind of practices havingbeenposedaccordingly. models photographs can best illustrate are those that are firmly from beginning to codifiedasto form and can be represented end, in toto, within the visual field that can be nicely focus.27Of course, one encompassed short-range by camera behavioral is likely to be interestedin photographable practices because they are routinelyassociated with particular socialmeanings, it is admittedlythe signvehicle, and not illustratable. the signification, is precisely that As I use the term "illustration." no implication is an intendedabout existence; illustratedpracticemay have occurred, but illustration itself does not attest to such belongingto subjects,not models.lt is, then, occurrence, perfectly reasonable expect that illustrationsmay be to some clearly found across several modesof representation, For example,the "armlock," the involvingmake-believe. standardadult cross-sextie-sign in our society, can be illustrated by means of what can be found in comics, cartoons,realisticads, news shots of celebrities who are "on," two actorstakingthe part of a coupleon the theatfical stage,caught pictures from ordinary life scenes, and, of course,live scenes. More to the point, acrossthesequite relevant difference differentrealmsof being,no systematic seems detectable the armlocksdeDicted: form of this in the display can be, and very often is, perfectly represented in toto in any of theseframes. Photographs alsobe usedto provide can documentation or of an instonce-record the sort of behavorialpractice which pictorially.An instance-record evidence can be illustrated is (which a mere illustration is not) that an instance the of pr\ctice did occur as pictured on the occasionof the picture takiiig. Call such a picture an instontiqtion- Not that a picture which records an instanceof a practice,that is, instantiatesit, is necessarily good illustration of it, a that can't be said of many other kindsof records. something that picturescan be usednot merelyto provide And observe alreadyknown, but alsoto help instance-records practices of aware practices of theretofore unidentified. us become Now note that if one'sinterestis in the picturingof scenes as well as in the scenes that are pictured,then the difference between illustration and instantiationcan become complicated. For any photographwhich merely illustratesa behavioralpractice must also provide not merely an practice,but an instance instance-record the illustrative of itself. And the samecan be said when one passes bevond illustration itself to symbolization, namely, a referencing based on what may be a loose, uncodified connection betweensign and meaning (or a fixed but thoroughly which conventional one), and upon an evokedsignificance may bear little relation to the facts. A creditablycandid weddingpicture of the groom placing a ring on the finger of the bride not only attests reliablyto a wedding havingtaken place,but also suppliesus with a specialsegmentof the ceremony, one that has come to serve as a symbol of the whole,and behind this,asa symbolof the presumably loving relationship that was solemnized the occasion. fact, on In

however,the pictured event itself doesnot provideus with evidence th sequence specificritual detailsout of of of which the weddingin questionwasformulated,or evidence of the quality of the relationship therebyratified.What can be instantiated completedform (and what is therefore in most suitableto pictorial research) involveslesser matters, such as the asymmetryof the traditional ring ritual, the genralstyling of weddingrings,and the choice of fingers thought properfor the placement this pieceof ceremonial of jewelry. On the other hand, an "expressive" picture does provide an actual instance of the use in pictures of stereotypedsymbolizationsof wider social events and relationships. The differences amongillustrations, instance records, and symbolizations here defined,complicatethe analysis as of pictures. A further bedevilment is the "photographic fallacy," namely, the very generaltendency to confuse realness with representativeness and ideographic with nomothetic validity. A caught photographof personsin action can provide all the evidence that one needsthat a particularevent-suchas a wedding-very likely did occur. But that sufficiency for thoseinterested the particulars is in of the past,in a word, biography. instead lf one is interested patterns, in socialroutines,in customarybehavioral then a wedding picture must differently figure; it can provide an instancerecord of, say, placementpattern with respectto the ring, but very little evidence concerning socialcharacterthe isticsof the populations acrosswhich the practiceis found and the rangeof contexts in which it occursamong these people in fact, little evidencetiat one is dealing with a pattern at all. Yet when one establishes that a picture of something really is of the subiectit portrays,it is very hard to avoid thinking that one hasestablished something beyond this, namely, something about the event's currency, typicality, commonness, distribution, and so forth. The paradoxis that "small behaviors" what can be very fully are photograph, one suchpicturecan instantiated a single by but only establishthe feasibility of actual occurrence.(The picture of Lee HarveyOswaldbeingshot provides excellent evidence how a revolverwas held on one occasion of and, more important, lack Ruby's guilt in this connction;but the picture provideslittle evidenceof how hand guns are generally held for closerange firing.)To which one must add that verv often the soft of event wh osemere occurrence-not typicolity of occurrence is of biographical or historic interestis one that cannot be photographed the round in throughoutits course,but only in cross-section, it were, as this momentoften providing very inadequate evidence the of occurrence character the eventasa whole. and of

2?For 11974).

example, tongue showingi Smith, Chase, and Lieblich

of Whether a \ / | | I Turn now 10 the question carryover. pictured scene is caught, faked, or, in varying Y llI degrees realisticallymocked-up,the model will bring elementsof himselfto it, affordingto the viewers something of what he affords the eyes of actual participants in his real scenes. Just as a stageactor (but not an opera singer)can hardly perform a part in a language other than one in which professional amateur, he hasa realcompetence, models, so or cannot transformthemselves completelyfor a photographic appearance, leastif they are not to be encumbered at with a

PICTURE FRAMES 21

massive disguise. theory at least,personal In identity will be probably quite correctly,that the two constitutea,,with," recoverable, ofttimes also the unique setting in which the drawing here on precisely the 5ame cues we woutd photographoccurred (if not by us, then by modeling automatically employ when functioning as actual agencies, police, kinsmen of the models.or whoever). particiDants live scenes. the of However,if our interestsare not ritualistic,as when we cherish picture of Aunt l\4abel a because herself she can be identifiedin it, or legalistic, when we establish as that the Given that pictures may be organized portraits as as or peron a certificate authorizesis the personwho is presenting | !Z scenes (and if the latter,caught,faked,or realistic a IA to the authorization,or playful, as when we match early degree), and given the distinctionbetweenillustrationand portrails againstlater ones, but rather academic,namely, to instantiation,and the contrast of both of these to evocative inquirinto the way the world is, then identifiability such symbolizationsproviding at best a purely as conventional ceases be central. to relationbetween vehicleand sign,and givenfurtherthat one Other matterswill be more important.We are all in our can be concernedabout the nature of pictures as well as the societytrained to employ a somewhatcommon idiom of nature of the world, it is possibleto begin to see how posture,position, and glances,wordlesslychoreographing heterogeneous photographmay a be as an object of academic ourselves relative to others in social situationswith the effect tnreresL that interpretability scenes possible. of is Someof this idiom One finds in picturesnot only rulesof scene production we automaticallycontinue to employ in composing and that are exclusive pictures, to but alsophotographic convenposingfor scenesthat are to be photographed-iumbled up, tions peculiarto particularsubiect matters. For example, of course, with crude patches grosssymbolization the of portrait photographers for routinely touch up negatives prints or camera. to improve the complexion of the subjectsappearing in But that is only the beginning, for howeverposedand them, creatinga people that has smootier skin than that "artificial" picture a is, it is likely to containelements that found among mort2ls. In ads brunettewomen tend to be record instancesof real things. The scenepictured on the styled somewhat differently from blond women; this backdropof a photographicportrait might be a painted presumably characteristic pictures, a of not life.2E fantasy, but the chair the subject sits on is real enoush and The settingsin which membersof a familv snao one speaksto a real genre of chairs, not pictures.(S;dents another are not fabricated for the purpose, are not merely question the sense which a chaircan be saidto be real,but in props,but, as with the real settings usedin homemovies,2e that sort of doubt is not here at issue,for however tiat are hardly a haphazard selection from all the onesthe family question answered, fact still remains is the that a pictureof a employs, and can only have the effect of producinga false chair is a radicallydifferent thing from a chair itself.)The general impressionof its habitat. The expensivebackdrops clothes worn on lhe occasion are often Sunday best, found in most commercial scenes con be found in the real sometimes causingthe wearerto feel "unnatural," but, of world but only in very narrow circles. (Once rented or course, in all likelihood there will be real ceremonial donated as backgroundfor a film or an advertisement, these occasions when the same garb will have been worn, the environments can becomemerely another element of the limiting casehere being the weddinggown, sinceit may be world to which tie viewer has pictorial access;they can worn and pictured on the sameand (often) only occasion. becom unrealistically familiar.) The females depicted in The way a female model for a seatedprivate portrait manages commercially posed scenes have straighter teeth and are her legscan be a very studiedeffect helped alongsometimes slimmer, younger,taller, blonder,and "better" lookingthan by the photographer,but what the two here strive for in this those found in most real scenes, even most real scenes apparently artificial way can be exactly what she strivesfor occurringin stylish settings, but certainly thesefiguresare when seated at a party facing viewersfrom the front; what similar to the ones found in uncontrived, live scenes that one is learningabout, then, is how she might choreograph occur in modeling agencies and other real placeswhere herself for front views in general, not for cameraviews in mainly modelsforegather-whichplaces, note, may not be particular. The same can be said for the Western male luxuriouslyfurnished.ln contrast,the fact that women in practiceof coveringthe crotch when in a sitting position. Americanadvertisements show no hair on their legs under or The fact that male subjectsfrom non-Western cultures tend their arms can be taken to reflect directly the shaving not to exhibit this protectiveness portraitsis not a soecific in difference between their pictures and ours, merely an 26suggested in ^4i um (1975:142), incidentalone, being specificto the more generalissueof 29See Chalfen(1975:96).Commerciat moviescan be shot in a behavior when exposed to direct view, and pertains to studiocontaining hand-fashioned environments, on an openstudio or models, merelysubjects. not Whena moviestafletcoupleat a lot, or in a Seographical regionrhat is similarin terrainio the real "on location,, nightclub back bench suddenlyadjust their facesinto the thing but closer hand, to or where fictiveevents the are purported occur.But',real,, the lastcase to in mustbe usedwith care. stylizedteeth grimacefound mainly in photographs, doing Because mocked-upeventsare stagedin thesesettings, often set in an this because cameramanhas come into sight, the free a epoch before or after the actual moviemaking, distance between their rumps can still reflect spacing ordinary traffic of people and events must be and becausethe roped off during practices in uncontrived scenes,not merely contrived shooting, the realism provided by the setting can only serve ti the ones-although admittedlyin photographs to indexeddistances heighten illusion,as when a con man manages makeuseof a office to hoodwinka mark. Reliance suchbackdrops on and especially depths hard to measure. are And by examining realbanking to establish life-likeness givesthem a significance different from what the spacing and body orientation of the two in regard to they would ordinarilyhave,transforming them-as far as functionis other subjects the picture,we come to take it for granted, concerned-into in quotations symbols themselves. or of

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prevalent amongwomen throughoutAmerica'(But Dractice in itr ttuitt"tt legsand armpitsdisplayed Frenchadvertisesimilarly be taken as evidenceol appearances mentscannot depilatory beyond the camera,for in France, American the commercially rrj*i"at to far have mostly influenced in hair iiciurea *ortO.) Finalty, the general difference and clothing pattern that distindecoration, itvtine, facial American *Jitt'"1 tuf" subjectsfrom female subiectsin of how males in all is by and large true lJu"rtir"t"nt both in from females are countries distinguished Westernized and posingsfor advertisements in uncontrivedscnes lo which" must be addedthat what is common to commercial and rare in life may yet be commonly part of the scenes of andfantasies manyactualpeople' ideals 'and posedscenes liveones commercially in rut, between of there is every kind of carryoverand almost every kind in any way fixed' As soonasa Nor discrepancy. are matters is scenes choreographed formulaic featureof commercially are and publicized,advertisers in a position to uncovered initiate a sharply contrary policy or to self-consciously of guyedversions the old. Withal,the art of analysis present with a batch of pictures and end up with is to U""ein scenes' of features unconlrived of suqgestions unanticipated that are hard Lo write of or ;ith representations themes of about but easy to picture, or with illustrations novel between pictures and life' And throughout, I differences believe,the issueof explorationshould be kept separate which i"rpoirttv from the issueof proof' Arrangements (or live scenes many picturedones)lie ready toii ro, tunv to be uncoveredin one example,but not direct evidence th c o n c e r n i n g e i ra ct u a ld i s l r i b u l i o n '

which a playwright or novelistmight want to set as the of context of his action.A segment an act in a stage eneral from one to ten an play (something act may haveanywhere of,'each offering continuousaction in one place) is also conducted relatedpersons, "uit"d u ,""n". A quarrelbetween to be open by onlookersto whom the in a mannersensed And thereis is are disputants lessrelated, alsocalleda scene' a current vernacularuse, referring to somethingthat an this paper might make,dig, or dislike.The scenes individual with areof a differentorder' concerned hasbeen In dctuallife aswe wendour way throughour day we pa(s ol perception rangeof sequnces into and out of immediate for viewing also occurswhen others;fleering opportunity that this circumstances means they passus. ln metropolitan of we will be momentaryonlookers thosewhom we cannot lhat through nameor appearance, i), identily biographically glimpses courses actionof strangers' of of that we will catch Due to the warranted rputation of various behavioral we of and to the conventions self-presntation, will settings sex, about the socialidentity (age, L" uti" to infer something relationship their personal strangers, etc.) of these race,class, to one anothetltheir mood, and their current undertakings, last,typically,only broadlycalegori/ed' these ttre totaiity of viewingsof the coursesof action of which we obtain throughoutour daysconstltutes strangers world, g-limpsed world. This is not quite an impersonal our one, But viewers. it is a truncated for espe;ially sophisticated can be locatedin broad and one'in which almosteverything only. lt is ordinarily bereftof detailsconcerning categories and bereft of iives of those who are witnessedin passing the what they are-seen point of view regarding their longitudinal do as beingind doing. (Westrangers not seeJohn and l\4ary for a brooch to replacethe one that "otpuiron shopping "scene,"along wut iott tust*."I atl ean'sparty,nor do we detectthat their Finallv.anotherlook at the notion of a apparentdallying is due to their havingto kill some time realism' of with a review the conceptof commercial beiore goingon to catch the new Fellini That is what they in all constraints scenes first the organizational Consider couplelooking at thingsin see young middle-class I and might shareand presuppose, the liberties see.We advertisements a then,that to glimpse world is not Observe, a jewelry store.) in taken in their assembly; that can (but aren't necessarily) dramathat somehowto happenupon an intimate revealing the drama in short, considerthe realm of being of which marred' Nor is il 1o obtain a somehow wasnot meanl for us. ad everyindividual is but an instance. that can view of the whole,something fragmentary distorted, on It is easyto contrastwhat goeson in adsto what goes by to be caused snapback into its propershape the addition in the real world and conclude as commentatorsare skill' lt is of present a dolled-up, affluent of new informationor the exercise interpretive wont-that advertisements havingto startwith a cryptographers not as though we were version of reality, but this does not tll us about the partially decipheredtext, able to take comfort in the world, that is, the way in which it is of structure advertising's in success unlockingwhat hasall along prospect eventual of as realism So, Dut together. too, it i( easyto seecommercial interpretingthe sounds of a leen there. Or cardiologists w r e a l m( a l o n g i t h t h e m b consti;rinR ut another ake-believe To characterof a patient's disease' for the theater,caitoons,the novel,elc.) and to contrasl all these stethescope more glimpse world rather is to employ a set of cateSories a instructlve, merelyfictive domainswith reality; but however such 6r lessdistinctiveto glimpsingand often entirely adequate the I this comparison, think, misses point' For although to for the iob they are desiSnd do- Nor are thesecatgorles u iontrutt ought to be made,there is another that should indeed,the personsglimpsedare rough and undeveloped; precede To erplicatecommercialrealismone musl stdrl it. how they can -beread, "scene,"whetherlive or fictive, andonly likeiy to be quite awareof precisely with the nolion of ro to other waysof organizing and wlll hav as part of their concern to conlorm beencontrasted after sceneshave and to use these l anticipated displayingsof themselves sh u n d e r s t a n d i n g o u l d ,I t h i n k , o n e g o o n l o c o n l r a s t h e behind which to pursue all to varietyin pictures live,uncontrived behavloralrubrics as a cover depicted commercially e m a n n e r o f u n p u b l i s h a b l p r o i e c t s .Y e t n o a m o u n t o f one5. "scene" is itself not a particularly information of the kind we are likely to supplementary happy one. The term obtain is likely to bring us to the private view that the that is An actualview, or a pictureof a view, of something have of their own a objectsof our attention will themselves a r e l a t i v e l u n c h a n g i n g - l i k e f o r e s to r a s k y l i n e i s c a l l e d v and viewsas strangers To undertakings. be sure,our passing howeverbustlinS' or ,"ana. u, i, any background backdrop,

PICTURE FRAMES 23

viewsof participants not usuallycontradicthe sustained are tory, and rough correspondences could be worked out, but inevitably our concerns and theirs will be considerably different, to a degree as will be the world their conventional public behaviorgenerates us and the world they are in for whilemovingfrom point to point underthese ensigns. Now although there are reai individuals whoseglimpsed world is almost their only one, most of us live, and principally, in other worlds, ones having a longitudinal featuring extendedcourses interlinkedaction character, of and unique relationships other people.Observethat a to play or evena comic strip provides with something us stage quite beyonda glimpseof the lives(albeitfictional lives)of its characters;for we are given considerablepersonal informationabout the protagonists and can link together glimpsings them, in consequence which we can various of of of enter into lheir courses action in more detail and with much more temporaldepth than is ordinarilypossible the in case our real passing of viewsof the livesof strangers. Commercial realism (along with certain cartoons and provides, otherdrawings) then,something the same of sort of realmas thp one a strangerto everyonearound him really livesin. The realm is full of meaningful viewings others, of but each view is truncated and abstract in th ways menltoneo. And now havingnoted the significant similaritybetween live scenes and the onespicturedin advertisemnts, can one go on to properly locate the considerationalready given of differences. To repeat; glimpsesof real life (like caught photographs of it) provide us with models who are portraying themselves, whereascommercial realism does not-cartoons and other drawings may not even employ models.Yet there are ways in which commercialrealism providesus somethingthat is fuller and richer than real glimpses. First, ads (alongwith cartoonsand other one-shot drawings) are intentionally choreographedto be unambiguous about mattersthat uncontrived scenes might well be uninformingabout to strangers. Second, scenes contrived (just as the onesdrawn in comics) for photographing can be chooses,the shot from any angle that the cameraman subjectstiemselvessplayedout to allow an unobstructed view; these two liberties are that a person viewing livescene a cannottake. Finally,shortof engaging voyeuristic in activity, a real person is very considerablyrestrictedas to the sorts of iivescenes will be allowedto glimpse he from whatever angle, for his presence a placealwaysrequires in socialwarrant.In advertisedworlds, however, we can look in on almost everything. Observe that these dramaturgic advantages of

commercial realism over real life, other fictional realms have also, along with some advantages that commercial realism lacks. A closing comment. The magical ability of the advertiser to use a few models and props to evoke a life{ike sceneof his own choosing is not primarily due to the art and technology of commercial photography; it is due primarily to those institutionalized arrangementJ in social life which allow strangers to glimpse the lives of persons they pass, and to the readinessof all of us to switch at any moment from dealing with the real world to participating in make-believeonesR E F E R E N C E SC I T E D Barthes,Roland 1972 lvlythologies. Annette Lavers, trans. New York: Hill and Wang. Berger, ,ohn i 975 Ways Seeing. of London:Pelican. Carey, John .|976 A lvlicro-Frame Analysis the On-Camera/On-lMike Paraof linguisticBehaviorof Three Presidential Candidates. Ph.D. dissertation, Annenberg School Communications, Unive6ity of of Pennsylvania. Chaifen, Richard 1975 Cin6ma Naivet6: Study of Home lvloviemaking Visual A as Communication,Studies in the Anthropology of Visual Communication 2:87-1 03. Fresnault-Deruelle, Pierre 1975a La couleur et l'espace dans les comics.Documents de Travail#40, Series Centrolnternazionale Semiotica di F. e di Linguistica, Universiti Urbinod'ltalia, di 1975b L'espace interpersonnel lescomics.In Semiologi6 dans de la Repr6sentation. And16 Helbo, ed. Pp. 129"150.Brussels: Editions Complexe. 1976 Du lin6ai.e tabulaire. au Communications 24,7-21. Goffman, Erving 1967 lnteraction Ritual.NewYork: Anchor, 1974 Frame Analysis. NewYork: Harper and Row. Goodman, Nelson 1968 Languages Art, New York: Bobbs"l\4errill. of Lesy,l\4ichael DeathTrip. NewYork: Pantheon. 1973 Wisconsin Livingston,Victor '1976 Are the Nuns in This Ad What They Appearto Be?The Evening Bulletin(Philadelphia), tularch 11. Millum,Trevor 1975 lmages of Womenr Advertising in Women's I\4agazines. London:Chattoand Windus. smith, W. lohn, lulia Chase, Anna Katz Lieblich and 1974 TongueShowing:A FacialDisplayof Humans and Other PrimateSpecies. Semiotica11\3) t201-246. Van Dormael. Monique paper,University 1974 The Photoroman Frame.Unpublished of Pennsvlvania,

GOTIilENGNts GEIfIIER

real life picturesprovideus a fair imageof, and what social effect commercial picturing has upon the life that is purportedly pictured a limitation also of the purposely pictures selected displayed here. {2) Since there is little constrainton what | lect to identify as a theme (a "genderism"),or which picturesI bring togetherin order to displaywhat is thus identified, or on the way I order the stillswithin a givenseries, could be it taken that anythingcould be depictedthat I can manage to suggestthrough what appearsto be common to a few pictures.Success here requiresnothing more than a small amount of prversity and wit and a largebatchof pictures to from. The larger initial collection, more surely choose the the the analystcan find confirmingexamples what he thinks of i he has found in one pictur or would in any caselike to R e p r o d u c e dn t h i s c h a p t e ra r e s o m ec o m m e r c i i ls t i l l I sd h In declining the data base as I p h o t o g r a p h a - s f e a t u r i n g u m a ns u b j e c t s . a d d i t i o n , depict a caseof representativeness "actual" persons, that is, someuseis madeof newsshotsof increases. effectivedepictionof a themecannot in itself So l\4y proveanythingabout what is found in pictures of course, or, of modelswho are beingpicturedin their own capacity. in is in the world. Indeed,somethinglike the mthod I use is assumption that anyone whose picture appears media print has almost certainly cooperatedin the processand employedby artful compilers photographic of funny books, camera pranksterswho match gesticulatorypictures of therefore-like a professionalmodel has placed this appearance the publicdomain,foregoing protectionfrom in the famous citizens against animals and plants apparently postures, or who that persons, leastliving ones,canstrongly at socialanalysis engaged in similarly characterizable pictures takenfor homeconsumption. claimregarding superimposeballooned thoughts and statements,these The pictures reproducedwere selectedat will from formulated to define the situationas it neverwas in actual newspapers current popularmagazines and easyto hand-at life, committing the protagonists responses a wildly to of the eachset kind. So, too, the texts accompanying pictures leastto my hand.t They werechosen fit into sets, to scurrilous nceme delineating, mocking up of a or are cast in the style of generalization-by-pronou nt to allow the displaying, femalegender, found in the writings of freelancebody linguists, strayed discretetheme bearingon gender, especially journalists. ethologists, lesser and arranged with malice within each set to the sameend. and (3) The particularmattersI want to consider Each set of pictures is accompanied informally by some raisethree questionsthat should verbal text. distinct and generalmethodological presentation, and proof. Only not be confused:discovery, the first two will here be at issue, thesetwo allowingme to f g c investment very special the exploit without a maj'orresearch I I S o m ec o m m e n t qi r s t c o n c e r n i n h o w p i c t u r e s a na n d l\4y cldim i5 that the of which advantages I I can't be u:ed in social analysis. advantages working with photographs, themesthat can be delineated throughpictureshavea very argasfollows: (ii There is a class behavioral practices-what as mixed ontological statusand that any attemptto legislat of might be "small behaviors"-whose physicalforms are fairly to the order of fact represented thesethemesis likely to in called be optimistic. or well codifiedeventhoughthe socialimplications meaning (1) The student of commercial pictures can draw a of the actsmay havevagueelements, and which are realized particularissue, from a from a magazine's or randomsample in their entirety,from beginning nd, in a brief periodof to or list definedperiod of issue, from a specified of magazines, time and a small soace.These behavioraleventscan be and disciaim characterizingother issues, periods, or maderetrievable means audio by of recorded and their image even more so other sources pictures, of suchas magazines, and video tapesand camera.(Tape and film, unlike a still, providenot only a recoverable newsprint, postcards,and the like, not even to mention image an actualinstance of of representativeness, is a way actuallife itself,Specifiable then, the activity in question, but alsoan appreciable collection of that a collectionof picturescould qualifyz and a way the l\4ore theserecords, important,audioand videorecordings of picturesabout to be analyzed not. (Of course, do findings very smallbhaviors facilitatemicro-functional study,that is, an examination the role of a bit of behavior the stream in basedon a systematic samplevery often get their wight of which precedes, can be trustedto generalize the co-occurs, and follows.)The coincidence of from the fact that the reader statistical warrantfor a subiect matter and a recording technology places the findings beyond their stateduniverse, which would requireanotherstudy, which, if done,would studentin an entirely novel relationto his data,forming the practical basis for microanalysis. rgeneralization, so on, but that and This special research inducea still broaderove is another matter.) Observe that this sort of repre- situationshould not be confusedwith the useof recording to technologyto documenta news story, provide a feel for a sentativeness Dertains picturesas such and doesn'ttell us of community,limn in the contoursof a relationship, depictthe what we very often want to know, namely, what aspects history of a nation, or any other matter whosemeaningis form which can be realized not linked to a fixed ohvsical in l and time. A n d t o t h a t o f a f e l l o w s t u d e n t , l \ 4 i c h il s h i d a . the round in a recordable space 2 (ii) Pictures F o r a r e c e n t e x a m p l e ,s e e R o b j n s o n ( 1 9 7 6 ) . from any source are now cheapand easyto

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allowsfor easy in reproduce uniform slideform. A collection a arranging and rearranging, searchand mock-up,trial and error luggling,somethingbetweencryptographyand doing jigsawpuzzles, remarkable both to uncovering patterns a aid finding examples, whether mere illustrations actual or and instance records. (iii) The student can exploit the vast socialcompetency consensus sustained viewers. by of the eye and the impressive Behavioral configurations which he has insufficientliterary skill to summon up through words alone, he can yet unambiguouslyintroduce into consideration.His verbal glosses serveasa means direct the eyeto what is to be to can seen, insteadof havingto serve a full renditionof what is as "merely response" can The notion of a subjective at issue. upgraded; clearlypart of what one for then be academically is from studyingbecause only approach through the refrains verbal vagarieshas a specific nature and is precisely perceived, of the vagarybeinga characteristic one's literary incapacity, one'sdata.3 not (iv) A set of pictorialexamples (whetherillustrations or more than a instance records) a common themeprovides of devicefor making sure that the pattern in questionwill be Often one or two examples would suffice clearto the viewer. for that. Nor doesthe sizeof the set relateto the traditional of notion of showinghow prevalentwere cases a sampling particular kind in the sample and (by extension)in the sampled universe.Something else is involved. Different pictorial examplesof a single theme bring different conuntold into the same array,highlighting textual backgrounds even while exhibiting the samedesign.lt is the disparities which depth and breadth of these contextual differences of somehowprovide a senseof structure,a sense a single which organizationunderlying mere surface differences, simply by reference the numerical to sense not generated is Whereas in sizeof the set relativeto the sizeof the sample. between itemsthat are to traditionalmethodsth differences of be countedas instances the samething are an embarrassof in mnt, and are so in the degree their difference, pictorial patternanalysis together the oppositeis the case, casting the is being what the analysis all of theseapparentdifferences about. Indeed, somthingis to be learnedeven when an that is, advrtiserin effect performs analysisbackwards, starts with the same modelsand th samesalesDitch and for as then searches out different possiblescenes vehicles them and it all this in the hopeof buildingproductinterest through a mixture of repetition and novelty. For in

purposelysetting out to ring changes a set theme, the on advertiser must nonetheless satisfyscne-production requirements such as propriety, understandability, and so forth, thereby necessarily demonstrating that, and how, different ingredients can be choreographed "express" the same to theme. Here, certainly, it is entirely an artifact of how advertisements assembled a setof them will exhibit a are that common underlyingpattern, and here the student is only uncovering what waspurposely implantedto this end in thd first place. But how the advertisersucceeds finding in differentguises his stereotypes inst(ucts the matter for still in of how the materialsof real scenes can be selectedand shaped providea desired to reading. (4) The picturesI haveun-randomly collected genderof of relevant behavior can be used to iog one's consideration three matters:the genderbehavioral styleJfound in actual life, the ways in which advertisements might present a view thereof,and the scene-production specific slanted rules to the photographic frame. Although my primary interestis by actual gender behavior,th pictursare accompanied questions any order that might be textualglosses raise that of stimulatd the pictures.In any case,what will mostly be by shownand discussed advertisrs' is viewsof how womencan generalizations be profitably pictured. My unsubstantiated grace havethe slightsaving that they mostly referto the way gendr pictured,not the way it is actuallypeformed. is (5) By and large, I did not look for pictures that exhibited what seemedto me to be common to the two whetherjust in pictures in realityas well. Nor for or sexes, picturesthat dealtwith sexdifferences were which I assumed The widely and well-understood. vast amount of what is-at is least to me unremarkable advertisements thus vastly in (Somethingof the same bias actually underrepresented. from one'sown it informseveryethnography; is differences Bat world and unexpected similaritiesthat get recorded.) given these limitations, once o genderism wos identified as one worth mocking-up, olmost all sex role exceptions ond reversolsI came acrosswere selected, lt is to be added that business locused(in rhe U.S.A.)in is althoughthe advertising are New York, and although models and photographers populationinded, their productis drawn from a very special by something treatedas nothing-out-of-the-ordinary viewers, "only natural." In brief, although the picturesshown here of in cannot be taken as representative genderbehavior real of in life or even representative advertisements generalor particular publicationsources particular, in one canprobably negative statementabout them, namely, make a significant that 0s pictures they are not perceived as peculiar and 3Th" "", ", well as the eye provides impressive an competency, unnatural.AIso, in the caseof each still, by imagining the (and lately thoseinterested conversational in and here phoneticians of sexes switchdand imagining appearance what results, the have made an exemplaryeffort to formulate notation analysis) By into awareness stereotypes. keeping of one can jar oneself of that can be printed on paperyet avoid the limitations systems his can generate own sounds and this switchingtask in mind, the reader ordinary orthography, thus providinga bridgebetween publications. The problem is that although trained studentscan glosses obtaina cue to the possible merit of min. and produce the same transcription a given spate of sound, the of (6) A further caveat. and Advertisements overwhelmingly which formulationthey producewill equally apply to expressions or candidlypresentmake-believe scenes, subiects figures the different.Givena recording listen to they would hearas signjficantly models depictedbeing quite differentfrom the professional means can serveas a very adequate of to, a linguistt transcription soundand with that the the ear'sattentionto a particular directing who pose the action. Obviously,then, a statementabout, But exploited, written full competency the earcanbe academically of in say, how nursesare presented ads is to be taken as a do transcriptions without recordings not solvethe problem. {Nor, I like and shorthand way of sayinghow modelsdressed nurses a believe, doesit help much to package tape in the iacketofabook, set in a mock-up of a medicalsceneare pictured. (A fee printingof analysis.) The of alongwith encouragement do-it-yourself presents greater problems. or could persuade real nurseto posein an ad about nursing a still theanalysis videotape of records

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"caught" photograph her in actionto be used, but of allow a find that a real nursein a real agencies ordinarilyadvertising h lp h o s p i t du n s a t i 5 f a c t o r li yy i f i e s e r k i n d . )I w i l l o n o c c a : i o n l of employ this simplification,speaking the subjectsof a namely,recorded pictureas thoughthey wereinstantiations, for real thing. The complicationis that posing of images the an ad almost invariablyinvolvesa carryoverof sex,female models appearingas female figures, and male models as males. (So, too, there is a carryoverof broad rangesof of of lt age-grade.) follows that any discussion the treatment is genderin ads happens strike wherea sense to be found to s i n w h i c h m o d e l a n d s u b j e c ta r e o n e . I n s t a l e m e n ta b o u t then, there is specialwarrant for falling sex-stereotyping, contrived An advertiser's back upon simplified reference. "nurse" does not present us with a scene featuring a that is, an actualpictureof a photographic recordof a nurse, presents with one of a real us real nurse, but nonetheless "real."" meaningof in the common sense woman, at least is After the studio session overJthe model doesnot go on "nurse," but shedoescontinueto be a "woman." beinga of (7) Finally, a word about the arrangement picturesin details. In general,subject matter each seriesand other to proceeds from childrento aduttsand from actualpictures ones. (An implicationis thus overtly contrivedcommercial found in a implanted that ritualized behavioralpractices of contexts in real Iife come to be employedin a variety " "hvoer-rituatized form in adsfeaturing women.)Depictions arguedhere,i.e.,depictions the arrangements disconfirming are of sex role reversals, placedat the very endsof the series to which they belong and are marked off with a special females a in border.lt shouldalso be noted that throughout "feminine" stance will be seen to take up this position relative to another womanr not merely relative to a man, lhat Senderstercolypesat led(l photostrongly :uggesting graphicones involvea two'slot format, the important issue not subjects, being to fill the slots with role differentiated sexualidentity. of opposing with necessarily subjects in haveall beenreproduced black The picturesthemselves of and white for reasons cost. Although it would havebeen somewhatmore accurateto reproducethe color ones in color, I feel that not much has beenlost. Eachpicture has l a b e e n n u m b e r e d , n d t h e n u m b e r sc o t r e s p o n d o t h o : e appearingbefore the rlevantverbal text; the text itself o o h i m m e d i a t e l p r e c e d ets e s e r i e s f i l l u s t r a t i o nts w h i c hi t v refers. Picturesas well as text have been footnoted, and p i L l u r e \ s w e l l a \ t e x l a p p e airn i o o t n o l e sI. h e p h o l o g r a p h \ a "read" from top to bottom, have been arrangedto be , c o l u m nt o c o l u m n a c r o s tsh e P a g e .

The implicationis that if you buy the one, you are on the way to realizing the other and you should want to. young lady is likely to be in the picture InterestinglyJclassy a her approval of the product and herself to its adding whether the product be floor mops, inscticides, ambience, credit cards,vacuum orthopedic chairs,roofing materials, and pumps,or Learjets.But all of this is only advertising has actuallife. So goesthe criticalview of these little to do with failingto appreciate arts.Whichview is itselfnaive, exploitive what actuallife hasto do with. wantsto makeabout his Whatever Doint a Drintadvertiser of he must suffer the constraints his medium in oroduct. making it. He must present something that will be easilyso, yet all he hasspaceto work with will meaningful, be type and one or two still photographs,typically whose words (if any seem to be containing protagonists And although textual material spoken) are unavailable. outside of the picture bracketswill provide a readingof "what is happening," this is commonly a somewhat to duplicatedversion;the picture itself is designed tell its little story without much textualassastance. How can stills present the world when in the world persons engaged courses action,in doinSsthrough of are in where sound is almost as time (not frozen posturings), important as sight, and smell and touch figure as well? before Moreover, the world, we can know the individuals in us personally,something unlikely of pictures used in advertising, Some of the solutionsto this problem are obvious.A in are in scene can be simulated which figures captured those from acts which stereotypicallyepitomize the sequence because these acts are are taken-presumably which they identified as happening only in the course of, and momentarilyduring, an extendedaction. Thus viewersare time from the and forwardin sequence led to read backward moment of vision.5Another solution is to draw on scenes silent and static in real life: sleeping, that are thmselves pensive poses, window shopping, and, importantly, the fixed looks throughwhich we are taken to convey off-angle our overall alignment to what another person one not or lookingat us directly-is saying doing.Anothr solutionis icallyso in to position the characters the picturem icroecolog relativeto one anotherwill providean that their placement soclalposition relative index of mappingof their presumed and And, of course, thereis the useof scenes to one another. identified characters which have come to be sterotypically with a particularkind of activity by the widest rangeof recognizability.Inviewrs, thus ensuring instantaneous cidentally, advertisers overwhelmingly select positive, approved typifications (perhapsso their product will be to with a goodworld asopposed beingdissociated associated characters from a bad one). so that what we seeare idealized w h y m y s e l e c t i o no I r | | | Having consideredea5on5 using ideal facilitiesto realizeideal ends-while, of course, n c o m m e r c i ap i c t u r e s e e d n o t b e t d k e n s e r i o u s l yI, l lll arranged to index ideal relationships. microecologically why they should. somereasons want to consider for as Finally,advertisers usecelebrities models, although can viewers is The task of the advertiser to favorablydispose they ar known are product,his means, and large,to show a sparkling thesepersonages not known personally by to his events. about. versionof that product in th context of glamorous
5A point suggested me someyearsagoby DavidSudnow(see to 1 Sudnow 972).

"real woman"arepresented 4Qualificalions the regarding phrase 4:284-285), in coffman \191

GENDERCOMMERCIALS 27

lnterestingly, is not merelycommercial it advertisers who haverecourse theseDictorialmethods. to Governments and nonprofitorganizations employ the samedevices orderto in posters, conveya message through pages, and billboards; so do radical groups and so do private persons with photography a hobby or a calling.(lt is ratherwrong,alas, as to say that only advertisers advertise.Indeed,even those concerned opDose to commercial versions the world must of pictorialize their arguments through images which are selectedaccordingto much the same principlesas those employed the enemy.) by I want to argue now that the iob the advertiser has of dramalizing the valueof his product is not unlike the iob a societyhas of infusing its socialsituations with ceremonial and with ritual signs facilitating the orientation of participantsto one another.Both must use the limited "visual" resources available socialsituationsto tell a storv: both in must transform otherwise opaque goings-oninto easily readable form. And both rely on the same basicdevices: intention displays, microecological mappingof socialstructure, approved typifications, and the gestural externalization (Thus,just as a of what can be taken to be inner response. Coca-Cola might feature a welldressed, ad happy looking family at a posh beachresort,so a real family of modest meansand plain dress might step up their levelof spending during ten days of summer vacation, indeed, confirmingthat a self-realizing display is involved by making sure to photographthemselves onstage a well-dressed as family at a poshsummerresort.)This is not to deny,of course, that the prsented stills are not a specialselection displays in from displaysin general.Advertisers, and large,must limit by themselves soundless, to scentless appearances one-shot and moments time, whereas of actualritual neednot be restricted in these Darticular wavs. Whichraises issue "socialsituations," the definingthese of as arrangements which persons in are physicallypresentto one another. Stills may, and often do, contain a solitary figure, ostensiblynot in a socialsituationat all. But if the must give scene to be read by the viewer,then the subiect is and in and appearances engage doingsthat are informative, these informingsare just what we employ in actual social situationsin order to establishour own storiesand learn by others. Solitary or not, about the stories established to figures in stills implicitly addressthemselves us, the viewers, locatingus closeat hand throughour beingallowed a to see what we can see of them, thus generating social situation in effect. And indeed, the photographer often to a clinchesmattersby requiringsolitarysubjects simulate

gestural response a phantomhoveringnear the camera, to a forciblereminder the placewe the viewers supposed of are to inhabit.Observe, solitarysubject the not only "externalizes" give us an understanding what it is informationthat will of that can be taken to be going on, but also quite fails to exhibit taboo and unflatteringselfsystematically involving behavior, eventhoughthese just the sort of acts are that are likely to occur whenthe actor is assured is alone. he (So perhaps byproduct of commerciat a realism will be the reinforcement censored of versions solitarvconduct.) of When one looks, then, at the presentation genderin of advertisements, attention should be directednot merely to uncovering advertisers'stereotypesconcerning the differences betweenthe sexes significant thesestereotypes as might be. Nor only examinethesestereotypes what they for patterns prevalent our society might tell us aboutth gender in at large.Rather one should,at leastin part, attend to how thosewho compose(and posefor) pictures canchoreograph the materials available socialsituations orderto achieve in in their end, namely, the presentationof a scene that is meaningful,whose meaningcan be read at a flash. For behind theseartful efforts one may be able to discernhow mutuallypresent bodies, alongwith nonhuman materials, can b shaped into expression. And in seeing what picture-makers can make of situational materials, one can beginto seewhat we ourselves might be engaging doing. Behind infinitely in varied scenicconfigurations, might be able to discerna one singleritual idiom; behinda multitudeof surface differences, a smallnumberof structural forms. Let me admit that thesearguments about the relationof ritual to commercialpicturesmight seem to be a way of makingthe bestof a bad thing,namely, usingeasilyavailable ads to talk about actual gender behavior.But I am not interested here in behaviorin general, only in the displays that individuals manage inject into socialsituations, to and surely this is part of what advertisers to iniect into the try scenes they compose around the product and then photograph. picturesare in the main entirely Commercial posed,"mere pictures,"at best "realistic." But, of course, the reality they presumably reflect distortedly is itself, in important ways, artificial. For the actualityhere at issueis how socialsituations employedasthe scenic are resource for portraits of constructingvisually accessible, instantaneous pictures our claimedhumannature.Posed can therefore turn out to be more substantial than one might have thought, being for students a community'sritual idiom something of like what a written text is for students of its spoken language.

28

GENDERADVERTISEMENTS

Size Relative

1 - 4 O n e w a y i n w h i c h\ o c i a lw e i S h l p o w e r a u l h o r i l vr,a n k ,o f f i c e , e n o w n i s , r in e e c h o e d x p r e s s i v e l y\ o c i a l( i t u d l i o n \i 5 through relativesize, espciallyheight. is This congruence somewhatfacilitated selecamongmalesthroughoccupational tion favoringsize a form of circularity, since selection often occurs in social wheresizecan be an influence. situations parents of between In the case interaction b a n d t h e i r y o u n g c h i l d r e n , i o l o g yi t s e l f that socialweight will be indexed assures k b y t h ep h y s i c a li n d . ln social interaction between the s e x e s ,b i o l o g i c a ld i m o r p h i s mu n d e r l i e s t h e p r o b a b i l i t yt h a t t h e m a l e ' s u s u a l of superiority statusover the femalewill in be expressible his greater girth and height. Selectivemating then enters to ensurethat very nearlyevery couplewill in e \ h i b i t a h e i g h ld i f f e r e n c e l h e e \ p e c l ed direction, transformingwhat would tendencyinto a otherwise a statistical be near certitude.Even in the caseof mere maintaining talk, vartof clusters persons ls o u s f o r m s o f o c c u p a t i o n aa , s o c i a t i o n a l , m a n d 5 i l u , r r i o n as e l e c t i o n a r ( e d l y i n l g c r e , r ( er h e b i o l o g i c a l l v r o u n d e dp o ' s i w b i l i t y t h a t e v e r ym a l ep a r t i c i p a n t i l l b e bigger than everyfemaleparticipanl. Now it seemsthat what biology and , ) o c i d l\ e l e c t i o nf a c i l i l , l t ep i c l u r ep o \ i n g completes: rigorously

that lndeed,so thoroughly is it assirmed differencesin size will correlate with differences socialweight that relative in of size can be routinelyusedas a means e n s u r i n gh a t t h e p i c t u r e ' s t o r y w i l l b e t s u n d e r s t a n d a b lte g l a n c e : a a

5-7 And here exceptions seem prove the rule. For on the very w o c c a s i o n sh e nw o m e na r ep i c t u r e d than men,the men seem almostalways in be not only subordinated socialcl status,but also thoroughlycostumed craft-bound servitors who it m appear can be safely treated totally the circumscribed terms of their trade:

ile said:

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THE FEMININETOUCH

29

The theme of relative size is employedas a basisfor symthat is, designinga picture every detail speaksto a s i n g l e

The Feminine Toucho


12-26 Women, more than men, are pictured using their fingersand handsto trace the outlines of an object or to cradleit or to caress surface its (the latter sometimes under the guiseof guidingit), or to effect a "just barely touching,'of the kind that might be significanrbe_ tween two electricallychargedbodies. This rituaiistic touching is to be distinguished from the utilitarian kind that grasps, ipulates, holds: man or

10

6Here a n d e l s e w h e r ei n c o n n e c t i o n w t t h t h e role of lingers (see pjcrurej 295 J201. r oraw d i r e c t l yo n o b s e r v a r i o nm a d e b y l r 4 i c h ; s lshida, to whom i give thanks.

(continued)

30

GENDERADVERTISEMENTS

ANDIIIA inv, WASH'NWI

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THEFEMININE OUCH 31 T

Because nothing very prehensile in theseritualistictouchings, face be usedinstead a hand: can of

29-36 Self-touchingcan also be invblved,readable conveying sense as a of o n e ' sb o d y b e i n g d e l i c a t e n d p r e c i o u s a a thing;

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32

GENDERADVERTISEMENTS

Functionf,anldng

In our societywhen a man and a woman collaborate face-to-face in an undertaking,the man-it would seem is likely to perform the executiverole, providing only that one can be fashioned.This seems widely represented in arrangement advertisements, part, no doubt, to in facilitate interpretability a glance. at

37-44 This hierarchyof functions is picturedwithin an occupational frame:?

?The irony has been noted that an appreciable amount of the advertising aimed at selling 5upplies for women's holsehold work employs males in the depicted role of instrucfing professionals r employs a male celebrity to o tout the efficacy of the product (see Komisar 1912t3o71.

FUNCTION RANKING

33

I t i s a l s o p i c t u r e doutside of ionaspecialization: l

The Faces of Virginia

ffi

"Chalfen (1975:94) reports that in his Amerjcan sample: "The male had of househ o l d u s e d t h e c a m e r am o s t o f t h e t i m e . l n a f e w c a s e s ,a t e e n a g e s o n , w h o w a s l e a r n i n g a b o u t c a m e r a sa n d f i l r n m a k i n g , t o a k o v e r t h j s r e s p o n sibility."

(continued)

34

GENDERADVERTISEMENTS

59-60 Function ranking is also pictured among children,albeit apparently with the understanding that althoughthe pe l i l e d c t o r s r et h e m s e l v e s r l e c t l y e r i a s ous, their activity itself is not, being rather something that touchinglystrikes an anticipatorynote. In brief,"cuteness" is involved.e

61 All instruction seemsto some sort of subordination of structedand deference the for Theseexpressive featuresof the situationare reinforced the lin by learning to age-grade throughoutmost of the individual's ing career.In our society,one learningseems especially associated c hi l d s t a t u s , h e " k i n a e s t h e t i c " t i n v o l v i n g m o l d i n gp h y s i c a l a tween instructor and instructed, seem to be pictured instructing this way more than the reverse:

'A u s e f u l s t u d y o f g e n d e rs t e r e o t y p e si n t h e i i l u s t r a t i o n so f c h i l d r e n ' s b o o k s i s p r o v i d e d b y W e i t z m a ne t o l . \ 1 9 7 2 ) , f o r w h i c h I a m m e r h o d o l o g i c a l l yg r a t e f u l .

r oThe notion of kinaesthetic d e r i v e s f r o m B a t e s o n a n d l \ 4 e a d( 1 9 4 This book b.illiantly pioneered in the pictures for study of what can be pictured. The wofk stimulated a whole a t i o n o f a n t h r o p o l o g i s t st o t a k e p i c t u r e s . e v e r , v r y l i t t l e a n a i y s i sw a s - a n d p e r h a p s be made of what these siudenis Somehow a confusionoccurred between interest and the analytical kind. Dandy and stills were brought home of p e o p l e a n d f a s c i n a t i n ge v e n t s ,b u t t o l i t t l e Much respect and affection was shown n " t i \ e s a n o l i t t l e o f e i t h e rf o r r h e d n d l ) r c a l t t h a t c a n b e m a d eo f p i c t u r e s .

FUNCTION RANKING

35

Whenever an adult receives help or service from a , t h e r e s u l t i n g c t i o ni s l i k e l y t o collaboration hands.The re, of guidesthe action and/or takes a t i t s t e r m i n a lp h a s e s(.E x a m p l e s : t h e s a l t o r h e l p i n gs o m e o n e n o h i sc o a t . )I n t h i s w a y , p r e s u m a b l y , rccipient's sense of autonomy js It is also preserved, course, of acqu iring those skills through he canefficientlytend to his own n e e d sI.n f a n t s n d c h i l d r e nh o w a , must suffer their hands being byw h i l e n a d u l tg e t s n w i t h t h ej o b a o n ga f t e r h e m . " l t i s u n d e r s t a n d , t then, that when adultsare pictured scenes being spodn-fed, they are guyingthe action in someway, so the self proiectedby the beingfed will not be taken as a of the realone.

It appears that womenare morecommonl y p i c t u r e dr e c e i v i n gh i s k i n d o f h e l p t from men than givingit to them,and are not depicted markedly guying their reSponSe:

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A d m i t t e d l yt h e r e i s t h e p o p u l a r n o t i o n members f the aristocratically inclined o traditionally engaged personalservants b o d y - c o n n e c r e d r et h a t m e m b e r s f ca o classes ould want to provide for w ashamdness re being a support h . Of course, (orrelated w rh perw a s t h e n o n - p e r s o nt r e a t m e n t o f k h o p r o ! i d e di t .

36 GENDERADVERTISEMENTS 68-71 Which raisesthe questionsof how males are pictured when in the domainsof the traditionalauthority and of competence females the kitchen,the nursery,and the living room when it is being cleaned. One answer, borrowed from life andpossibl) nderrepre)enled. u is to picture the male en8agedin no c o n t r i b u t i n gr o l e a t a l l , i n t h i s w a y or eithersubordination contami' avoiding nationwith a "female" task: 72-AO Another answer,I think, is to p r e s e ntth e m a n a s l u d i c r o uo r c h i l d l i k e , s u n r e a l i s t i c a lsl o ,a s i f p e r h a p isn m a k i n g y h i mc a r ' : d i duv r e atlh ec o m p e t e n c y d g e ln im o f r e a lm a l e s o u l db e p r e s e r v e d . c
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THEFAMILY 37

81-3n A <ubller technique to allow is male to pursue the alien activity the direct appraising scrutiny of w h o c a n d o t h e d e e d p r o p e r l y ,a s the doing were itself by way of a lark or a dare,a smileon the face t h e d o e r o r l h e w a t c h e ra l l e s l i n g o t essentiallynserious u essayed charac, 2 of the undertaking.r

The Family

T h e n u c l e a rf a m i l y a s a b a s i cu n i t o f socialorganization well adapted the is to requirements pictorial representation. of Ail of the members almostany actual of family can be contained easilywithin the s a m ec l o s e p i c l u r e .d n d , p r o p c r l yp o s i tioned, a visual representation the of members can nicely serve a symbolizaas tion of the family'ssocialstructure.

85-8 Turning to mocked-upfamilies in advertisements, one finds that the allocation at leastone girl and at least of one boy ensures that a symbolization of the full setof intrafamilyrelations can be effected. For example,devicesare employed to exhibit the presumedspecial bond betweenthe girl and th mother d n d l h e b o v a n d t h ef a t h e r s o m e t i m ei \n , picture: the same

r r C o r r e s p o n d i n S l w ,h e n f e m a l e sd r e p i r v e n g a g e di n a t r a d i t i o n a l l y m a l e t a s k , a m a y ( a s i t w e r e ) p a r e n t h e s i z eh e a c t i v i t y , t o n a p p r a i s i n g l y , c o n d e s c e n d i n g l y ,o r

86

(continued)

38

GENDERADVERTISEMENTS

scenes 89-99 Although in commercial fathers and between a unity is symbolized and daughtrs, mothers between sonsand that there is a suggestion differenttypes o f u n i t y m i g h t b e i n v o l v e dI.n a w o r d , there is a tendency for womn to be pictured as more akin to their daughtrs years) than (and to themselves younger in is the casewith men. BoYs,as it wre, have to push their way into manhood, effort is involved: and problematic

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(continued )

THE FAMILY

39

100-14n Often the father (or in his a b s e n c e , s o n J t a n d s l i t t l eo u t s i d eh e a s a t physicalcircle 6f the other members of the family, as if to express relationship a whoseprotectiveness linked with, peris hapsevenrequires, distance:

104

105

99

103

( c o ni n u d ) t e

40

GENDERADVERTISEMENTS

The Ritualization ol Subordination


115-24 A classic stereotype deferof physically ence is that of lowering oneself in some form or other of prostration. C o r r e s p o n d i n g hy , l d i n gt h e b o d y e r e c t l o and the head high is stereotypically a mark of unashamedness, superiority, and disdain. Advertisersdraw on (and endorse) the claimed universalityof the theme:

1 0 81 3

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(continued )

I r A n i n t e r e s t i n gc o n t r a s t i s t o b e f o u n d i n turn-of-the-century portrait poses of couples, wherein the effect was often achieved of d i s p l a y i n gt h e m a n a s t h e c e n l r a l f i g u r e a n d t h e woman as backup support, somewhat in the manner of a chief lieutenant.I cite from Lesy \ 1 9 73 ) :

112n 110n
past Perhaps the contrast between currenl portraits betokenr i chrnge in underlling rocidl o'Sanizdlion than c o n v e n t i o n o f e x p r e s s i o nw i t h i n t h e s format.

111n

THE RITUALIZATIONOF SUBORDINATION 41

:.

125-39 Bedsand floors provideplaces i n s o c j as i t u a t i o nw h e r ei n c u m b e np e r l s t s o n s i l l b e l o w e rt h a na n y o n e i t t i n g n w s o a chair or standjng. Floorsalsoare assoct, d l e d w i l h t h e l e s sc l e a n ,l e s 5p u r e ,I e s s e \ a l l e dp d r t ro f a r o o m l o r e x a m p l et,h e place to keep dogs, basketsof soiled clothes, street footwear, and the like. And a recumbentposition is one from which physical defenseof oneself can leastwell be initiatedand therefore one w h i c hr e n d e r o n e v e r yd e p e n d e n tn t h e s o benignness the surround.(Of course, of lying on the floor or on a sofa or oeo seemsalso to be a conven tionalized exp r e s s i oo f s e x u aa v a i l a b i l i t y . ) e p o i n t n l Th here is that it appears that childrenand women are picttlredon floors and oeos more than are men.

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(continued)

GENDER ADVERTISEMENTS

Ihe Gid Whofk6 E\erylhing Ptus

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THE RITUALIZATION SUBORDINATION 43 OF

Aithoughless than in some, so seemsto be employed indicin our society,high physical place izing high social place. (Courtprovidean example.) contrived In in advertisements, tend to be men igherthan women,thusallowing :ion to be exploitedas a delineative rce.ta A certainamount of contorm a y b e r e q u i r e dN o t e ,t h i sa r r a n g e . is supportedby the understanding our societythat courtesyobliges men favor women with first claim on i s a v a i l a b lb y w a y o f a s e a t . e

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44

GENDERADVERTISEMENTS

151

(continued)

THE RITUALIZATIONOF SUBORDINATION 45

168-72n Womenfrequently,men very infrequently, posedin a displayof the are "ba)hful k n e eb e n d . "W h a l e v ee l s e , h e r t knee bend can be readas a foregoing of full effort to be preparedand on the ready in the current socialsituation,for the positionaddsa momentto any effort to fight or flee. Once againone finos a posture that seemsto presuppose the goodwill of anyonein the surroundwho could offer harm.Observeaswill be seen throughout-that a sex-typedsubject is not so much involvedas a format for constructinga picture. One female In a picture may perform the gesture and another serveas the supportthat allows the performance. a two-rolformulais So at rssue, necessarily sexes: not two

(continued)

z16 GENDERADVERTISEMENTS

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173-86 Having somewhat the same distributionin ads as the knee bend are canting postures. Although a distinctron can be madebetween body cant and head cant, the consequences seemto be much the same. The levelof the headis lowereo relativeto that of others,including,rndirectly, the viewer of the picture.The resulting configurations be readasan can acceptance subordination, expresof an sion of ingratiation, submissiveness, and appeasement. 173-A Body cant:

173' 6

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THE RITUALIZATIONOF SUBORDINATION

Headcant:

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4A GENDERADVERTISEMENTS 147-91 Smiles, can be argued, it often function as ritualisticmollifiers, signaling that nothing agonistic is intended or invited, that the.meaning the other's of act has been understoodand found acceptable,that, indeed,the other is approvedand appreciated. Thosewho warily keep an eye on the movements a of potential aggressor may find themselves automatically smilingshouldtheir gaze be "caught" by its object,who in turn may find little causeto smile back. ln addition, a responding smile(evenmore so an appreciative laugh)followingvery rapidly on the heels a speaker's of sallycan imply that the respondent belongs, knowlby edgeability,at least, to the speaker's circle. All of these smiles, then, seem more the offering of an inferior than a superior.In any case,it appears that in cross-sered encounlers Amerilan sociin ety, women smilemore,and more expansively, than men,17 which arrangement appears be carriedover into advertiseto m e n t s , p e r h a p sw i r h l i l t l e c o n s c i o u s intent. 192-206 Given the subordindleu indulgedpositionof childrenin regard adults, it would appear that to oneselfin puckishstyling is to the corresponding treatment.How of this guise is found in real life is open question;but found it is in tisements.

r TSee 11913:49).

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(continued)

THE BITUALIZATIONOF SUBORDINATION

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GENDERADVERTISEMENTS

2O7-16 fhe note of unseriousness struck by a childlike guiseis struck by another styling of the self, this one perhapsentirely restrictedto advertisethe ments,namely, useof the entirebody device, sort of a as a playful gesticulative b o d yc l o w n i n g :

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THE RITUALIZATIONOF SUBORDINATION

217-23 fhe special unseriousness in, v o l v e d n c h i l d l i k eg u i s e s n d c l o w n i n g i a suggests re"ldine(s be presenf in a d lo socialsituatjon garbed and styled in a mannerto which one isn't deeply or irrevocably committed.Perhaps reflected h e r ei s a r e a d i n e stc l r y o u t v a r i o u s o and Suises to appearat varioustimes in different ones. ln any case,in advertisementsJ least, there seemsto be an at unanticipated difference between men andwomen.l\4en displayed formal, are in business, informal gear,and although and it seems understoodthat the same individual will at different timesappear all in guises, each guiseseems afford these to himsomething is totally serious he about, and deeply identified with, as though w e a r i n a \ k i n , n o t a c o s t u m eL v e n i n g . the caseof the cowboy garb that urban malesaffect recreationally, little sense that one's whole appearance a lark is wouldseemto be present. Womenin ads seem have a different relationship to to theirclothing and to the gestures worn with it. Within eachbroad category(form a l b u s i n e s i n f o r m a l ) h e r ea r ec h o i c e s , s, t which are considerablydifferent one from another,and the senseis that one possibilities may well try out various as to what comesof it-as thoughlife were see a series costumeballs.Thus, one can of occasionally mock one'sown appearance, for jdentification not deep.lt might be is argued, then, that the costume-like characterof female garb in advertisements present locates women as less seriously in social situationsthan men, the seif presented through get-upsbeing jtsell in a wayan unserious thing. Observe that the extension this argumentto real life of need not involve a paradox. lt rs a commonview that women spendmuch m o r eo f t h e i r t i m e a n d c o n c e r nn s h o p i pingfor clothes and preparing appearfor ances than do men, and that women set considerable store on the appreciative or depreciative response they producethereby. But, of course) doesan actor in a so part he will never play again.A concern overcarryingan appearance doesnot off necessarily imply a deep and abiding (This identification with that appearance. argument with the fact that women's fits styles change much more rapidlythan do men's.)

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52 GENDERADVERTISEMENTS 224-43 Adults play mock assault games with children, games such as and chase-and-capture grab'and-squeeze The chiid is playfully treatedlike a prey under attack by a predator.Certainmaterials (pillows, sprays of water, light beach balls) provide missilesthat can s s t r i k eb u t n o t h u r t . O t h e rm a t e r i a lp r o vide a medium into which the captured body can be thrown safely-beds,snow banks,pools,arms.Now it turnsout that men play thesegameswith women, the through a display of latter collaborating and through cries of attemptsto escape a l a r m , l e a r , a n d a p p e a s e m e n(tl.- i g u r e for dancingprovidesoccasion an instituwho are example, the partners tionalized off their feet neverbeingmen.)Of swung this show a man may underneath course, in be engaged a deeperone, the sugges" l i o n o f w h a l h e c o u l dd o i f h e g o t s e t i o u . is mock assault about it. In part because " f u n " a n d m o r e l i k e l y i n h o l i d a ys c e n e s it than in work scenes, is much represented in advertisements:

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THE RITUALIZATIONOF SUAORDINATION 53

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54 GENDERADVERTISEMENTS 244-6 A male pjctured with a female appears employ an extendto sometimes ed arm, in ffect marking the boundary of his social property and guarding it A is encroachment, suggstion that against this miniatureborder patrol is especially found when the femaleat the sametime her in is engaged a pursuit which accords authority. 247-69 There seem to be four main of behavioral arrangemenls pairs of personswhich providewhat is taken to be a physical expression that the two are a "with"-that is, togetheras a socialunit w i t h r e s p e c r o t h e s o c i a ls i t u a l i o ni n which they are located.(ln all four cases, do note, the work thesedyadic tie-signs betweenfigin defining the relationship uresin a picture would seemto be much the same as the work they do in real socialsituations.) 247-9 lirsr, a matter of microecology: sitting or standingclose and with or without touching. This alongside, arrangement symmetricalin physical is character and social implication, no differentiationof role or rdnL being in itselfconveyed: 250-3 The "arm lock" is the tie-signin Western societies for that a woman is under the custody of the accompanying man though most commonlysustained tween husband and wife, no sexual legalIink is necessarily advertised it: father and grown daughrer, man bestfriend'swife may alsoemployit sign is asymmetricboth in term<of physicalconfigurationand what it cates. However nominally, the showsherself b receiving to support, both the man's handsare free for everinstrumental tasksmay arise:

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THE RITUALIZATIONOF SUBOBDINATION 55

254-60 The "shoulder hold" rs an asymmetrical configuration more or less requiringthat the person holdingbe taller than the personheld, and that the held person accept direction and constraint. Typically the arrangement seemsro be dyadically irreversible. When employed by a cross-sexed adult pair, the signseems to be taken to indicate sexually-poten tial proprietaryship.

257

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GENDERAOVERTISEMENTS The directing potential of hand,holding can be madeapparent ads: in

261-9 Finally, hand-holding.When employed betweenadult male and female,hand-holding appears be takento to indicate a sexuallypotential, exclusive relationship.l8 relativelysymmetrical A tie-sign prsumablyexpressingrelative equality. Physicalasymmetry is to be for the male to detected the tendency in hold the femalehand, this allowingth indicationthat he is presumably free to let go quickly shouldan emergency arise and free to guideand direct.The physical fact that the back of his handis likely to be facing what is upcomingcan faintly protectiveness: symbolize

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t 3 T i e - s i g n si n g e n e r a l a n d h a n d - h o l d i n gn i particular are considered i n G o f f m a n ( 1 9 7 1 : 188-231).

LICENSED WITHDRAWAL 57

ticensedWithdrawal

Womenmore than men, it seems,are pitured engaged involvements which in from the removethem psychologically socialsituation at large, leaving them unoriented it and to it, and presumin dependent the protecon ably,therefore, tiveness g$odwill of others who are and (ormightcometo be) present. 270-94 When emotional response an causes individualto losecontrol of his posture, facial that is, to "flood out", he b c a np a r l l y c o n c e a l h e l , t p 5 e y l u r n i n g away from the others present or by covering face, especially his his mouth, with his hands.Ritualization the kind of with for associated the young is involved, ls the act cannotconcealthat something being concealed,and furthermore requires momentary blindness everything to aroundoneself this being a particularly when mpty and maladaptiveresponse to the withdrawal is itself a response a real threat. 270-5 Remorse:

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LICENSED WITHDRAWAL 59

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295-309 Just as covering the mouth with the hand can be an attenuationof coveringthe face, so a finger broughtto the mouth can be an attenuation of coveringit with the hand. But here s a n o t h e r r i t u a l i z a t i o n e e m sm o r e c o m o m o n : t h e a t t e n u a t i oo f s u c k i n g r b i t i n g n n t h e f i n g e r .T h e i m p r e s s i o i s g i v e nt h a t somehow a stream of anxiety, ruminahas beensplit off from tion, or whatever, o a t h e m a i nc o u r s e f a t t e n t i o n n d i sb e i n g , s u s t a i n e di n a d i s s o c i a t e du n t h i n k i n g fashion. ln any case,the face is partly c o v e r e d s t h o u g ho n e c o u l d s e eb u t n o t a free to engage be seenand weretherefore hand and face outside the stream of address: face-to-face

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position ap310-20 Finger-to-finger pearsto carry the samedissociated selfcommunication is expressed fingeras in to-mouth gestures ut in a still more b attenuated form. Displacementfrom p m o u t hi s a t h i n k a b l e o s s i b i l i t y .

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321-2 Turning one's gazeaway from another's can be seen as having the consequence withdrawing from the of c u r r e n tt h r u s t o f c o m m u n i c a t i o n ,l l o w a ing one's feelings to settle back into protected control while one is somewhat f r o m d i r e c t s c r u t i n y . i n c ef l i g h t i s n o t S exhibited in this gaze-aversive behavior, s o m es o r t o f s u b m i s s i otn a n d t r u s t i n o t h e s o u r c eo f s t i m u l u ss e e m s o b e i m t o l i e d .o 2

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I eNote the combination of finger-to-finger with body cant and knee bend in this and the next two pictures. 2 o T h e p r o c e s s e c e i v e st s c a n o n i c a l i t e r a r y r i e x p r e s s i o no n a p a g e i n J o y c e ' sP o r t r o i t o f o n Artist os o Young Mon, here cited in full as a r e m i n d e r t h a t t h e n o v e l i s t i cs e x i s m a t t r i b u t e d t o M a i l e rc a n r u n g e n t l y a n d d e e p : A girl stood before him in midstream: alone and still, gazing out to sea. She s e e m e dl i k e o n e w h o m m a g i c h a d c h a n g e d i n t o t h e l i k e n e s so f a s t r a n g ea n d b e a u t i f u l seabird. Her long slender bare legs were d e l i c a t e a s a c r a n e ' sa n d p u r e s a v ew h e r e a n h e m e r a l d t r a i l o f s e a w e e d a d f a s h i o n e di t s e l f a s a s i g n u p o n t h e f l e s h . H e r t h i g h s ,f u l l e r a n c i s o f t h u e d a s i v o r y , w e r e b a r e da l m o s t t o the hips where the white fringes of her drawers were like featheringof soft white d o w n . H e r s l a t e - b l u es k i r t s w e r e k i l t e d b o l d l y a b o u t h e r w a i s t a n d d o v e t a i l e db e hind her. Her bosom was as a bird's, soft and slight, slight and soft as the breast of s o m e d a r k - p l u m a g e dd o v e . B u t h e r l o n g f a i r h a i r w a s g i r l i s h : a n d g i r l i s h ,a n d t o u c h e d with the wonder of mortal beauty,her face. S h e w a s a l o n e a n d s t i l l , g a z i n go u t t o s e a ; a n d w h e n s h e f e l t h i s p r e s e n c ea n d t h e w o r s h i p o f h i s e y e s h e r e y e st u r n e d t o h i m

322
in quiet suffrance of his gaze, without s h a m e o r w a n t o n n e s s .L o n g , l o n g s h e s u f f e r ' e d h i s g a z e a n d t h e n q u i e t l y w i t h d r e wh e r e y e s f r o m h i s a n d b e n t t h e m t o w a r d st h e stream, gently stirring the water with her foot hither and thither.The first faint noise of gently moving water broke the silence, f low and faint and whispering,aint as the b e l l s o f s l e e p ;h i t h e r a n d t h i t h e r , h i t h e ra n d thither: and a faint flame trembled on her c he ek . - H e a v e n l y G o d ! c r i e d S t e p h e n ' s o u l ,i n an outburst of profane joY.l T h e e t h o l o g i c as o u r c ei s C h a n c e( 1 9 6 2 ) .

LICENSED WITHDRAWAL 63

aversion. The lower323-38 Head/eye w ing of the head presumably ithdraws at attentionfrom the scene hand,depend e n c y e n t a i l e d a n d i n d i c a t e dt h e r e b y . w T h e g a i n i s t h a t o n e ' sf e e l i n g s i l l b e o momentarily concealed-although, f course,not the fact that one is attempttA i n g s u c h c o n c e a l m e n ( . s i n h e a dc a n t t , i n g , h e i g h t i s r e d u c e dc o n t r i b u t i n g o a o s ) s y m b o l i z a t i o n f s u b m i s s i v e n e sM.e r e serve of aversion the eyescan apparently similarly:

324

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(continued)

64

GENDERADVERTISEMENTS

In real socialsituations and in 339-47 p i c t u r e do n e s , t h e i n d i v i d u a c a n w i t h l draw his gaze from the sceneat large (with the dependency trust that this and implies)and lock it in such a way as to g i v et h e i m p r e s s i oo f h a v i n g n l y m i n o r n o dissociated concern with what is thus evenas his mind haswandered from seen, everythingin the situation;psychologic a l l y ,h e i s " a w a y . " ( D o o d l i n g n d m i d d l e a distancelooks are examples, althoughit s h o u l d b e k e p t i n m i n d t h a t t h e s et w o practicescan also figure in another arrangement, the one in which the indiv i d u a l a u r a l l ya t t e n d st o w h a t i s b e i n g w s a i db y a n o t h e r h i l e m a k i n gi t a p p a r e n t for that nothing he can seeis competing attention.)

343

L I | - E N S t s DW I T H D R A W A L

objecton which to lock an An interesting 348-72 ln advertisements women are f a w a yl o o k i s t h e h a n d sf,o r . t h i s o c u sn o t shown mentallydrifting from the physionly can convey some sort of selfcal scenearound them (that is, going "away") while in closephysical e n c l o s u r e ,u t a l s o c a n r e q u i r ea d o w n b touch w a r dt u r n i n go f t h e h e a d ,s u b m i s s i v e n e s s w i t h a m a l e , st h o u g h i sa l i v e n e s o t h e h a ts being a possibleconsequent interpretas u r r o u n d n d h i s r e a d i n e sts c o p ew i t h a o tion: a n y t h i n gt h a t m i g h t p r e s e n ti t s e l f w e r e enoughfor both of them. (At the same time, the male may well wear a wary, monitoring look.) Thus, "anchored p d r i f t s " . V a r i o u s o i n t so f v i s u afl o c u sa r e found. 348-61 Middledistance:

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368-72 A twistable part of the male,s clothng: i

367 (seealso 3351

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GENDERADVERTISEMENTS

c 3 7 3 - 5 M a i n t a i n i n ga t e l e p h o n e o n means some withversationnecessarily drawal of attention from the immediate sceneat hand, with attendant lack of for, events orientationto, and readiness t h a t m i g h t o c c u r t h e r e i n .T h i s c a n b e b c o n t r o l l e d y l i m i t i n gt h e l e n g t ho f c a l l s a n d o n e ' si n v o l v e m e nitn w h a t i s t a l k e d women are about. In advertisements s s o m e t i m e s h o w n l u x u r i a t i n gi n a c a l l , t n i m m e r s i n g h e m s e l v e is a d r e a m y a n d p r e s u m a b lp r o l o n g e d a y . y w

In advertisements, women are 376-8 n o t o n l y p o s e dl y i n go n t h e f l o o r o r i n a b e d , b u t a l s oa t t h e s a m et i m e b e n d i n g their legsas though that part of the body were being employed in a dissociated w a y , a s i n d o o d l i n g ,e x c e p t h e r e t h e dissociated behavior large is as scale, might thereforebe the attention it withdraws from the scene large: at

379-95 lt has alreadybeen remarked that in ads women, more than men, from the appearto withdraw themselves a s o c i a ls i t u a t i o n t h a n d t h r o u g hi n v o l v e ments, including emotional response. Significant here are the responses of pleasure, delight, laughter, and glee-states of being Perhaps transported happiness. by t h e i m p l i c a t i o ni s t h a t a w o m a n - l i k ea child with an ice cream cone-can find some sortof final satisfaction goals in that c a n b e f u l l y r e a l i z e dn t h e p r e s e n t . 2l ln i consequence, consumatory"flooding a o ut " :

'1 la! 13!r.a. ist$ d gd . hd rir f8!a iwill Slilli: h irt 3 dsMN *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

373

( c o n t i n u e)d
2 r A s i m i l a r a r g u m e n t i s s u g g e s t e db y K o m i s a r ( 1 9 7 2 | 3 0 6 - 3 0 1| | lf television commercials are to be be' lieved,most American women go into un' a controllable ecstasies t the sight and smell o f t a b l e s a n d c a b i n e t st h a t h a v e b e e n l o v i n g ' l y c a r e s s e d w i t h l o n g - l a s t i n g ,s a t i n - f i n i s h , f O s l e m o n - s c e n t e d ,p r a y - o n u r n i t u r e p o l i s h . t they glow with rapture at the blinding w h i t e n e s so f t h e i r w a s h - a n d t h e g r e e n - e y e d . e n v y o f t h e i r n e i g h b o r s T h e h o u s e w i f ei n the Johnson's Wax commercial hugs the d i n i n g r o o m t a b l e b e c a u s et h e s h i n e i s s o w o n d e r f u l ; t h e n s h e p o l i s h e sh e r s e l fi n t o a c o r n e r a n d h a s t o i u m p o v e r t h e f u r n i t u r et o g e t o u t . B o l d d e t e r g e n s h o w so n e w o m a n i n t d e e o d e o r e s s i o nb e c a u s eh e r w a s h i s n o t a s b r i g h ta s h e r n e i g h b o r ' s . i O b s e r v e t h a t i n a d v e r t i s e m e n t s , n s t e a do f o u r u b e i n g s h o w n a w o m a n ' sf l o o d o f p l e a s u r e p o n receipt of a present from a man, we may be s h o w n t h e s c e n et h a t m i g h t h a v ei u s t p r e c e d e d "Guess what?" scene, that one, namely, the w h e r e i n t h e m a n h o l d s s o m e t h i n gb e y o n d t h e b v i s i o no f t h e w o m a n ( s o m e t i m e s y o b l i g i n gh e r t o c o v e r h e r e y e s ) a n d t e a s i n g l yi n v i t e s h e r t o g u e s sw h a t h e r l i f e i s a b o u t t o b e e n r i c h e d b y , t h e p r o s p e c t o f w h i c h i s s e e nt o t h r o w h e r i n t o a s t a t e o f i o y o u s t o r m e n t . A n o t h e r v e r s i o nh a s , w t h e g i v e rs p r i n gt h e s u r p r i s e i t h o u t w a r n i n g i n c o n s e q u e n c o f w h i c h t h e r e c i p i e n tm o m e n t a r i e ly losesall self-control, breaking into a flutter o f p l e a s u r e .T h e s e t e a s i n g u s e s o f i n d u l g e n c e a r e , o f c o u r s e ,c o m m o n l y e m p l o y e db y p a r e n t s i n c o n n e c t i o nw i t h t h e i r c h i l d r e n ,a n d a r e t o b e c o n s i d e r e d a l o n g s i d ea n o t h e r p l a y f u l t h r e a t t o e q u i l i b r i u m , o n e a l r e a d yt o u c h e d o n , n a m e l y , mock assault.

377

378

LICENSED WITHDRAWAL69 A corollary is that when a male and female are pictured in a euphoricstate, t h e f e m a l e i s l i k e l y t o b e e x h i b i t i n ga more expansive expression than is the male, which in turn fits with the argument alreadymadeand illustrated that in our society women smile more than men-both in real scenes and in commerc i a l l yc o n t r i v e d n e s : o

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70

GENDERADVERTISEMENTS

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to 396-437 lt is possible look in on a or socialsituationfrom a distance from "participation behinda one-waypanel-a s h i e l d " - a n d b e l i t t l e s e e n o n e s e l f ,i n which caseone can, in effect, partakeof to the eventsbut not be exposed scrutiny o r a d d r e s sA s p l i t t i n g u p t h u s r e s u l t s . betweensome of the gainsand someof interaction. I the costs of face-to-face might note that when one'sparticipation m i s t h u s s h i e l d e d ,s i m u l t a n e o u s a i n side involvements tenanceof dissociated sincethese would seemto be facilitated, o f b c o u l d h a r d l yi n t r u d e e t w e e n n e s e la n d t one's availability o the othersin the a e n s i t u a t i o n - o n e o t b e i n g v a i l a b la t a l l .

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s o A ritualization f participationhielding s s w o c c u r s h e n o n e p r e s e n to n e s e l f a i f o n the edge of the situation or otherwise , f s h i e l d e dr o m i t p h y s i c a l l yw h e n i n f a c t quite accessible thosein it. Still to one is i f u r t h e r r i t u a l i z a t i o ns f o u n d i n c o m m e r cial posings.

LICENSED WITHDRAWAL 71

397-400n

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2 2 C o n t r a s t h i s p i c t u r e o f h e d g e dp a r t i c i p a t tion with one that is formally similar but s u g g e s t i nn o p r o t e c t i v e p a r t i c i p a t i o n : g

72

GENDERADVERTISEMENTS

406-8

a F r o mb e h i n d n i m a l s :

409-37 From behind a person(with opportunity to overlay the consequent expression, with a differentiating distance , e l i n t h e e x t r e m ec o l l u s i v b e t r a y ao f o n e ' s shield):

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23 l t s h o u l d n o t b e a s s u m e d t h a t m e r e physical placement is involved here. Men are routinely pictured in a rear position in a m a n n e r i m p l y i n g a n y t h i n g b u t c o y n e s sa n d example, pictures dependence (see, for 100-14n and 244-61. As typical in these m a t t e r s , t h e s a m e v e r b a l d e s c r i p t i o no f r e l a t i v e " p h y s i c a l " p o s i t i o n c o u l d b e e q u a l l ya p p l i e dt o cover radically different effects. For the effec' tive reading of his text, the-writer depends upon effective viewing by his readers-words h e r e s e r v i n gt o P o i n t , n o t s P e c i f Y .

LICENSED WITHDRAWAL 75

438-78 Snuggling: among primates the very young turn, or are turned, into their mothers' bodies for comfort and protection, sometimesfurther cut off from the surroundingsituation by enc l o s u r ew i t h i n h e r a r m s . P e r h a p s h e t suckling position is the prototype, althoughfor a child any adult in a parental role seems qualified as something to into.2aAs the child growsup, the snuggle p i n s u l a t i o nh i s p r a c t i c eo b j e c t i v e l y r o t vides from the surroundingscene deprogressively; eventually withcreases the drawal achievedthis way can only be ritualistic.Whateverthe biologicalroots practice, is a resource of this snuggling it in the formulating of commercial pictu res. 438-44 Children:

' aAn ethologicalposition o n t h e s ep o s t u r e s i s p r e s e n t e di n E i b l - Ei b e s f ed t ( 1 9 7 2 : 1 2 0 - 12 4 1 . l I a m v e r y g r a t e f u l t o P r o f e s s o rE i b l - E i b e s f e l d t for permission to reprint three pictures (192, 283 and 284) from Love ond Hote,

76

GENOERADVERTISEMENTS Adults, lying:

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LICENSED WITHDRAWAL 79

an 479-86 Nuzzling-apparently attenemuated form of snuggling-involves ployment of the face and especially the or noseas a sort of surrogate substitute f o r t u c k i n gi n t h e w h o l eb o d y . N u z z l i n g , a then, would seemto constitute form of partial withdrawalfrom full availability to the situationat large.What one finds, in picturesat least,is that womennuzzle c h i l d r e n b u t m e n a p p a r e n t l yd o n o t . pictured lndeed, women are sometimes women And, of course, nuzzlingobjects. n m a r ep i c t u r e d u z z l i n g e n .

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487-96 The process wherebyan individual snuggles into anotherseems anyl t h i n g b u t i m p e r s o n aa,n d y e t i s ( l f e e l ) related to something that has an impersonal cast, namely,the use of another's body as if it were something that could be used at will, without apparentreferas enceto its possessor, an objectto lean on or rest one's limbs on, in short, as a physicalresource, not a sociallyresponsive one. In many cases,note, such leaning use of another seemsto be an attenuated,very ritualized,form of snugg l i n g .N o t e a l s o t h a t a n o n - s e x u am p l i il cation is presentin the contact,and that, a , i n a d v e r t i s e m e n ttsl e a s t w o m e n( m u c h a s d o c h i l d r e nw i t h r e s p e c tt o a d u l t s ) to apparentlyhave license use more of a w m a n ' sb o d y i n t h i s u t i l i t a r i a n a y t h a n seems be to The assumption the reverse. that a woman is lesslikelv to havesexual intent than a man,and that her useof his lesssuspect body is therefore than his of hers. (Of course,an addedfactor is the tg u n d e r s t a n d i n h a t h e w i l l b e a b l et o b e 4 r t h e rw e i g h tm u c hm o r ee a s i l yh a ns h eh i s .) hereconsidered Note, the configurations n i n v o l v ei n d i v i d u a lis a p e r s o n arle l a t i o n p s h i p , t y p i c a l l ya s e x u a l l y o t e n t i a lo n e . to close, license touch the Among the less follows a different pattern. Men can punctuate their verbal interactionwith women by showing support,protectivegood will, and parent-like affection, ness, through the laying on of the hand, a less to license apparently available women ( a n do t h e r s u b o r d i n a t e isn t h e i rd e a l i n g s ) r v i t hm e n ( s e e e n l e y 9 7 3 ) . H 1

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497-500 A very standardizedtwoperson asymmetricalconfiguration obin servable real life and often in pictures " i s t h e " g r i e f e m b r a c e .A l l c o m b i n a t i o n s except, of sex are found in the two roles, that women are not pictured apparently, p r o v i d i n gh i s s o r t o f c o m f o r tt o m e n . 2 5 t o W h e t h e ri n l i f e o r i n p i c t u r e s , n e i s p r o v i d e dh e r e w i t h a n i c e e x a m p l eo f o r f o r m a l i z a t i o n - t h ee d u c t i o n f m u l t i p l e to configurations a rather set ritualistic manoeuvre:

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' 5 T h i s d i s t r i b u t i o ni s n o t . I t h i n k , t h e b a s i c o n e i n o u r s o c i e t y .F o r t h e r e a r e m a n y r i t u a l p r a c t i c e so f a s u p p o r t i v e ,b o n d i n g k i n d t h a t w o m e n c a n e x t e n dt o w o m e n o r m e n , t h a t m e n can extend to women, but that men can't e x t e n d t o m e n . K i s s i n ga n d t e r m s o f e n d e a r m e n t "honey","dear", "love" areexamples. such as I n d e e d , a w i d e r a n g e o f s u p p o r t i v ep r a c t i c e s may have a common, natural social history, b e g i n n i n ga s s o m e t h i n ga d u l t s e x t e n d t o c h i l d r e n a n d t h e n m o v i n go n t h r o u g h t h e f o l l o w i n g sequence of accretions: women-to-women, , w o m e n - t o - m e nm e n - t o - w o m e nm e n - t o - m e n . ,

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501-8 The grief embraceappearsto hypermanifest itself in an attenuated, r i t u a l i z e df o r m , n a m e l y , a r m s u p p o r t given as evidence some sort of comof o . m e n d a t i o n r m o r a l a p p r o v a lA g a i n ,i n pictures, womendo not seem commercial t o b e s h o w ng i v i n gt h i s s u p p o r t o m e n .

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" n a t u r a l " e x p r e s s i o no f g e n d e r By and large, advertisers not create the ritualized do s U n d e r d i s p l a yh a v e b e e n they employ; they seemto draw upon the same in advertising expressions insofaras thesecan be represented commercial the ritual idiom, that is the resource corpusof displays, same behavioral style. I believethat through visually accessible and to the turn out to be illustra- of all of us who participatein socialsituations, upon examinationtheseexpressions o of ritual-likebits of behaviorwhich portray an ideal s a m e e n d : t h e r e n d e r i n g f g l i m p s e da c t i o n r e a d a b l el.f tions ro zu , , relationship a n y t h i n ga d v e r t i s ec s n v e n t i o n a l i o e r c o n v e n t i o n s t y l i z e and their structural of conception the two sexes a , u again w h a t i s a l r e a d y s t y l i z a t i o nm a k ef r i v o l o u s s eo f w h a t i s this 1o eachother, accomplishing in part by indicating, y a l r e a d ys o m e t h i n gc o n s i d e r a b l c u t o f f f r o m c o n t e x t u a l l t i d e a l l yt,h e a l i g n m e no f t h e a c t o ri n t h e s o c i as i t u a t i o n . photographs,of course, involve carefully c o n t r o l sT h e i rh y p ei s h y p e r - r i t u a l i z a t i o n . . Commercial performed poses presentedin the style of being "only R E F E R E N C EC I T E D S are natural." But it is arguedthat actualgenderexpressions poses, too. artful B a t e s o n ,G r e g o r y , a n d M a r g a r e tM e a d of From the perspective ritual, then, what is the differ1 9 4 2 T h e B a l i n e s eC h a r a c t e r .N e w Y o r k : N e w Y o r k A c a d e m v o f and encelbetween the scenesdepicted in advertisements Science. "hyper'ritual- C h a l f e n , R i c h a r d from actuallife? One answermight be scenbs 1 9 7 5 C i n 6 m a N a i v e t 6 :A S t u d y o f H o m e M o v i e m a k i n g s V i s u a l a exaggeration, and simplifiizatiion." The standardization, Communication. Studies in the Anthropology of Visual rituals in generalare in commercial cation that characterize C o m m un i c a t i o 2 : 8 7- 10 3 . n posingsfound to an extended degree,often rekeyed as Chance, . R. A. M '1962 mockery, and other forms of unseriousness. babyishness, A n I n t e r p r e t a t i o n o f S o m e A g o n i s t i c P o s t u r e s :T h e R o l e o f " C u t - O f f " A c t s a n d P o s t u r e s .S y m p o s i u m o f t h e Z o o l o g i c a l answer is found in the processof editing. A Another S o c i e t yo f L o n d o n 8 : 7 1 - 8 9 . photograph a ritualization socialideals with of is commercial D a r w i n ,C h a r l e s all the occasionsand sensesin which the ideal is not o 1872 On the Expression f the Emotions in Man and Animals. exhibitedhavingbeencut away,editedout of what is made London: JohnMurray. In available. ordinary life we conspireto providethe same E i b l - E i b e s f e l d t ,I r e n a u s 1 9 7 2 L o v e a n d H a t e . G e o f f r e y S t r a c h a n ,t r a n s . N e w Y o r k : H o l t , s, k i n d o f " n a t u r a l " e x p r e s s i o nb u t w e c a n o n l y d o t h i s b y R i n e h a r ta n d W i n s t o n . juncturesin our style or at particular meansof behavioral Goffman, Erving for course of activity-moments of ceremony,occasions i 1 9 7 1 R e l a t i o n s n P u b l i c .N e w Y o r k : B a s i cB o o k s . "1974 giving sympathy, sudden accessto friends, and similar F r a m e A n a l y s i s .N e w Y o r k : H a r p e r a n d R o w . j u n c t u r e sn t h e d a i l y r o u n d ,a sd e t e r m i n e b y a s c h e d u lw e H e n l e y ,N a n c y e d i . 1 9 7 3 T h e P o l i t i c so f T o u c h . l n R a d i c a lP s y c h o l o g y P h i l B r o w n , and know little about as yet. So both in advertisements life e d . P p . 4 2 1 - 4 3 3 .N e w Y o r k : H a r p e ra n d R o w . poses, externalization; in but in we are interested colorful in K o m i s a r ,L u c y lm s l i f e w e a r e ,i n a d d i t i o n , t u c kw i t h a c o n s i d e r a bae o u n to f 1972 The lmage of Woman in Advertising./, Woman in Sexist Society. Vivian Gornick and Barbara K. Moran, eds. New whetherwe posefor a pictureor dull footage.Nonetheless, Y o r k : N e w A m e r i c a nL i b r a r y . is executean actual ritual action, what we are presenting a L e s y ,M i c h a e l under the auspices its of an commercial, idealrepresentation D 1 9 7 3 W i s c o n s i n e a t hT r i o . N e w Y o r k : P a n t h e o n . the characterizing way things really are. When a man in real Robinson, wight E. D for is life lightsa cigarette a woman,the presupposition that 1 9 7 6 F a s h i o n si n S h a v i n ga n d T r i m m i n g o f t h e B e a r d : T h e M e n of the lllustroted London News,1842-1972. American Journal limited in someway, femalesare worthy objects,physically of Sociology l (5):1131-'1141 8 . transitions. a n d t h a t t h e y s h o u l db e h e l p e do u t i n a l l t h e i r S u d n o w ,D a v i d " of But this "natural expression the relation betweenthe 1972 Temporal Parameters of Interpersonal Observation. /n ritual, may be no more an sexes,this little interpersonal S t u d i e si n S o c i a l I n t e r a c t i o n .D a v i d S u d n o w , e d . P p . 2 5 9 - 2 7 9 . New York: The Free Press. between sexes the than is of actualreflection the relationship , the cou'ple pictured in the cigarettead a representative W e i s s t e i nN a o m i 1973 Why We Aren't Laughing ny More.MS 2:49-90. A performedto are couple. Natural expressions commercials Weitzman, Lenore J., Deborah Eifler, Elizabeth Hokada, and s e l l a v e r s i o n o f t h e w o r l d u n d e r c o n d i t i o n sn o l e s s C a t h e r i n eR o s s questionable than the onesthat advertisers and treacherous 1972 Sex-Role Socialization in Picture Books for Preschool 1 C h i l d r e n .A m e r i c a nJ o u r n a lo f S o c i o l o g y7 7 ( 6 ) : 1 1 2 5 - 1 5 0 . face.

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