Gender Commercials

~.

GENDERCOMMERCIALS

IReproduced in th is chapter are some commercial stillphotographs-ads-featuring human subjects. In addition,

some use is made of news shots of "actual" persons, that is,of models who are being pictured in their own capacity. Myassumption is that anyone whose picture appears in mediaprint has almost certainly cooperated in the process andtherefore-Ii ke a professional model-has placed this ap-pearance in the public domain, foregoing the protection fromsocial analysis that persons, at least living ones, can stronglyclaim regarding pictures taken for home consumption.

The pictures reproduced were selected at will fromnewspapers and current popular magazines easy to hand-atleast to my hand.! They were chosen to fit into sets, each setto allow the displaying, delineating, or mocking up of adiscrete theme bearing on gender, especially female gender,and arranged with malice within each set to the same end.Each set of pictures is accompanied informally by someverbal text.

IISome comments first concerning how pictures can andcan't be used in social analysis. My claim is that the

themes that can be delineated through pictures have a verymixed ontological status and that any attempt to legislate asto the order of fact represented in these themes is likely tobe optimistic.

(1) The student of commercial pictures can draw arandom sample from a magazine's particular issue, or from adefined period of issue, or from a specified list of magazines,and disclaim characterizing other issues, periods, ormagazines, even more 50 other sources of pictures, such asnewsprint, postcards, and the like, not even to mentionactual life itself. Specifiable representativeness, then, is a waythat a collection of pictures could qualify' -and a way thepictures about to be analyzed do not. (Of course, findingsbased on a systematic sample very often get their weightfrom the fact that the reader can be trusted to generalize thefindings beyond their stated universe, statistical warrant forwhich would require another study, which, if done, wouldinduce a still broader overgeneralization, and 50 on, but thatis another matter.) Observe that this sort of repre-sentativeness pertains to pictures as such and doesn't tell uswhat we very often want to know, namely, what aspects of

, And to that of, fellow student. Michi Ishid,.

1For. r«en! example, ,eo Robin,on (19761.

.

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real life pictures provide us a fair image of, and what socialeffect commercial picturing has upon the life that ispurportedly pictured-a limitation also of the purposelyselected pictures displayed here.

(2) Since there is little constraint on what I elect toidentify as a theme (a "genderism"), or which pictures Ibring together in order to display what is thus identified, oron the way I order the stills within a given series, it could betaken that anything could be depicted that I can manage tosuggest through what appears to be common to a fewpictures. Success here requires nothing more than a smallamount of perversity and wit and a large batch of pictures tochoose from. The larger the initial collection, the more surelythe analyst can find confirming examples of what he thinkshe has found in one picture or would in any case like todepict-a case of representativeness declining as the data baseincreases. So effective depiction of a theme cannot in itselfprove anything about what is found in pictures or, of course,in the world. Indeed, something like the method I use isemployed by artful compilers of photographic funny books,camera pranksters who match gesticulatory pictures offamous citizens against animals and plants apparentlyengaged in similarly characterizable postures, or whosuperimpose ballooned thoughts and statements, theseformulated to define the situation as it never was in actuallife, committing the protagonists to responses of a wildlyscurrilous kind. So, too, the texts accompanying the picturesare cast in the style of generalization-by-pronouncementfound in the writings of freelance body linguists, strayedethologists, and lesser journalists.

(3) The particular matters I want to consider raise threedistinct and general methodological questions that shouldnot be confused: discovery, presentation, and proof. Onlythe first two will here be at issue, these two allowing me toexploit without a major research investment the very specialadvantages of working with photographs, which advantagesare as follows:

(i) There is a class of behavioral practices-what might becalled "small behaviors"-whose physical forms are fairlywell codified even though the social implications or meaningof the acts may have vague elements, and which are realizedin their entirety, from beginning to end, in a brief period oftime and a small space. These behavioral events can berecorded and their image made retrievable by means of audioand video tapes and camera. (Tape and film, unlike a still,provide not only a recoverable image of an actual instance ofthe activity in question, but also an appreciable collection ofthese records. More important, audio and video recordings ofvery small behaviors facilitate micro-functional study, that is,an examination of the role of a bit of behavior in the stream

which precedes, co-occurs, and follows.) The coincidence ofa subject matter and a recording technology places thestudent in an entirely novel relation to his data, forming thepractical basis for microanalysis. This special researchsituation should not be confused with the use of recordingtechnology to document a news story, provide a feel for acommunity, limn in the contours of a relationship, depict thehistory of a nation, or any other matter whose meaning is

not linked to a fixed physical form which can be realized inthe round in a recordable space and time.

(ii) Picture, from any ,ource are now cheap and easy to

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reproduce in uniform slide form. A collection allows for easyarranging and rearranging, a search and mock-up, trial anderror juggling, something between cryptography and doingjigsaw puzzles, a remarkable aid both to uncovering patternsand finding examples, whether mere illustrations or actualinstance records.

(iii) The student can exploit the vast social competencyof the eye and the impressive consensus sustained by viewers.Behavioral configurations which he has insufficient literaryskill to summon up through words alone, he can yetunambiguously introduce into consideration. His verbalglosses can serve as a means to direct the eye to what is to beseen, instead of having to serve as a full rendition of what isat issue. The notion of a "merely subjective response" canthen be academically upgraded; for clearly part of what onerefrains from studying because the only approach is throughverbal vagaries has a specific nature and is preciselyperceived, the vagary being a characteristic of one's literaryincapacity, not one's data3

(iv) A set of pictorial examples (whether illustrations ~rinstance records) of a common theme provides more than adevice for making sure that the pattern in question will beclear to the viewer. Often one or two examples would sufficefor that. Nor does the size of the set relate to the traditional

sampling notion of showing how prevalent were cases of aparticular kind in the sample and (by extension) in thesampled universe. Something else is involved. Differentpictorial examples of a single theme bring different con-textual backgrounds into the same array, highlighting untolddisparities even while exhibiting the same design. It is thedepth and breadth of these contextual differences whichsomehow provide a sense of structure, a sense of a singleorganization underlying mere surface differences, whichsense is not generated simply by reference to the numericalsize of the set relative to the size of the sample. Whereas intraditional methods the differences between items that are to

be counted as instances of the same th ing are an embarrass-ment, and are so in the degree of their difference, in pictorialpattern analysis the opposite is the case, the casting togetherof these apparent differences being what the analysis is allabout. Indeed, something is to be learned even when anadvertiser in effect performs analysis backwards, that is,starts with the same models and the same sales pitch andthen searches out different possible scenes as vehicles forthem and it-all this in the hope of building product interestthrough a mixture of repetition and novelty. For in

3The ear as well as the eye provides an impressi" competency,and here phoneticians (and lately those interested in convmationalanalysis) have made an exemplary effort to form"'ate notationsystems that can be printed on paper yet avoid the limitations ofordinary orthography, th"s providing a bridge between so"nds andp"blications. The problem is that altho"gh trained st"dents caoprod"c< the same transcription of a given spate of so"nd, theform"lation they prod"" will eq""'ly apply to exp"ssions whichthey wo"'d hear as significantly different. Given a "cording to listento, a ling"ist's transcription can serve as a very adeq""te means ofdi,,"ing the ear's attention to a particolar so"nd and with that thef"11 competency of the ear can be academically exploited. B", writtentranscriptions without recordings do not solve the problem. (Nor, Ibelieve, does it help moch to package a tape in the jacket of a book,along with encooragement of dO-it-yoorself analysis.) The printing ofthe analysis of videotape "cords p"sents still g"ater problems.

GENDER COMMERCIALS 25

purposely setting out to ring changes on a set theme, theadvertiser must nonetheless satisfy scene-production require-ments such as propriety, understandability, and so forth,thereby necessarily demonstrating that, and how, different

ingredients can be choreographed to "express" the sametheme. Here, certainly, it is entirely an artifact of howadvertisements are assembled that a set of them will exhibit a

common underlying pattern, and here the student is onlyuncovering what was purposely implanted to this end in thefirst place. But how the advertiser succeeds in findingdifferent guises for his stereotypes still instructs in the matterof how the materials of real scenes can be selected and

shaped to provide a desired reading.(4) The pictures I have un-randomly collected of gender-

relevant behavior can be used to jog one's consideration ofthree matters: the gender behavioral styles found in actuallife, the ways in which advertisements might present aslanted view thereof, and the scene-production rules specificto the photographic frame. Although my primary interest isactual gender behavior, the pictures are accompanied bytextual glosses that raise questions of any order that might bestimulated by the pictures. In any case, what will mostly beshown and discussed is advertisers' views of how women can

be profitably pictured. My unsubstantiated generalizationshave the slight saving grace that they mostly refer to the waygender is pictured, not the way it is actually performed.

(5) By and large, I did not look for pictures thatexhibited what seemed to me to be common to the two

sexes, whether just in pictures or in reality as well. Nor forpictures that dealt with sex differences which I assumed werewidely and well-understood. The vast amount of what is-atleast to me-unremarkable in advertisements is thus vastlyunderrepresented. (Something of the same bias actuallyinforms every ethnography; it is differences from one's ownworld and unexpected similarities that get recorded.) Butgiven these iimitations, once a genderism was identified asone worth mocking-up, almost all sex role exceptions andreversais I came across were selected. I t is to be added that

although the advertising business is focused (in the U.s.A.) inNew York, and although models and photographers aredrawn from a very special population indeed, their product istreated as nothing-out-of-the-ordinary by viewers, something"only natural." In brief, although the pictures shown herecannot be taken as representative of gender behavior in reallife or even representative of advertisements in general orparticular publication sources in particular, one can probablymake a significant negative statement about them, namely,that as pictures they are not perceived as peculiar andunnatural. Also, in the case of each still, by imagining thesexes switched and imagining the appearance of what results,one can jar oneself into awareness of stereotypes. By keepingthis switching task in mind, the reader can generate his ownglosses and obtain a cue to the possible merit of mine.

(6) A further caveat. Advertisements overwhelmingly andcandidly present make-believe scenes, the subjects or figuresdepicted being quite different from the professional modelswho pose the action. Obviously, then, a statement about,say, how nurses are presented in ads is to be taken as a

shorthand way of saying how models dressed like nurses andset in a mock-up of a medical scene are pictured. (A feecould persuade a real nurse to pose in an ad about nursing or

..

26 GENDER ADVERTISEMENTS

allow a "caught" photograph of her in action to be used, butordinarily advertising agencies find that a real nurse in a realhospital unsatisfactorily typifies her kind.) I will on occasionemploy this simplification, speaking of the subjects of apicture as though they were instantiations, namely, recordedimages of the real thing. The complication is that posing foran ad almost invariably involves a carryover of sex, femalemodels appearing as female figures, and male models asmales. (So, too, there is a carryover of broad ranges ofage-grade.) It follows that any discussion of the treatment ofgender in ads happens to strike where a sense is to be foundin which model and subject are one. In statements aboutsex-stereotyping, then, there is special warrant for fallingback upon simplified reference. An advertiser's contrivedscene featuring a "nurse" does not present us with aphotographic record of a nurse, that is, an actual picture of areal nurse, but nonetheless presents us with one of a realwoman, at least in the common sense meaning of "reaL'"After the studio session is over, the model does not go onbeing a "nurse," but she does continue to be a "woman."

(7) Finally, a word about the arrangement of pictures ineach series and other details. In general, subject matterproceeds from children to adults and from actual pictures toovertly contrived commercial ones. (An implication is thusimplanted that ritualized behavioral practices found in avariety of contexts in real life come to be employed in a"hyper-ritualized" form in ads featuring women.) Depictionsdisconfirming the arrangements argued here, i.e., depictionsof sex role reversals, are placed at the very ends of the seriesto which they belong and are marked off with a specialborder. It should also be noted that throughout females in a"feminine" stance will be seen to take up this positionrelative to another woman, not merely relative to a man,strongly suggesting that gender stereotypes-at least photo-graphic ones-involve a two-slot format, the important issuebeing to fill the slots with role differentiated subjects, notnecessarily with subjects of opposing sexual identity.

The pictures themselves have all been reproduced in blackand white for reasons of cost. Although it would have beensomewhat more accurate to reproduce the color ones incolor, I feel that not much has been lost. Each picture hasbeen numbered, and the numbers correspond to thoseappearing before the relevant verbal text; the text itselfimmediately precedes the series of illustrations to which itrefers. Pictures as well as text have been footnoted, andpictures as well as text appear in footnotes. The photographshave been arranged to be "read" from top to bottom,column to coiumn, across the page.

III Having considered reasons why my selection ofcommercial pictures need not be taken seriously, I

want to consider some reasons why they should.The task of the advertiser is to favorably dispose viewers

to his product, his means, by and large, to show a sparklingversion of that product in the context of glamorous events.

4QualifiCations regarding the phrase "real woman" are presentedin Goffman (1974:284-285).

..

The implication is that if you buy the one, you are on theway to realizing the other-and you should want to.Interestingly, a classy young lady is likely to be in the pictureadding her approval of the product and herself to itsambience, whether the product be floor mops, insecticides,orthopedic chairs, roofing materials, credit cards, vacuumpumps, or Lear jets. But all of this is only advertising and haslittle to do with actual life. So goes the critical view of theseexploitlve arts. Which view is itself naive, failing to appreciatewhat actual life has to do with.

Whatever point a print advertiser wants to make about hisproduct, he must suffer the constraints of his medium inmaking it. He must present something that will bemeaningful, easily so, yet all he has space to work with willbe type and one or two still photographs, typicallycontaining protagonists whose words (if any seem to bespoken) are unavailable. And although textual materialoutside of the picture brackets will provide a reading of"what is happening," this is commonly a somewhatduplicated version; the picture itself is designed to tell itslittle story without much textual assistance.

How can stills present the world when in the worldpersons are engaged in courses of action, in doings throughtime (not frozen posturings), where sound Is almost asimportant as sight, and smell and touch figure as well?Moreover, in the world, we can know the individuals beforeus personally, something unlikely of pictures used inadvertising.

Some of the solutions to this problem are obvious. Ascene can be simulated in which figures are captured in thoseacts which stereotypically epitomize the sequence fromwhich they are taken-presumably because these acts areidentified as happening only in the course of, andmomentarily during, an extended action. Thus viewers areled to read backward and forward in sequence time from themoment of vision. s Another solution is to draw on scenesthat are themselves silent and static in real life: sleeping,pensive poses, window shopping, and, importantly, theoff-angle fixed looks through which We are taken to conveyour overall alignment to what another person-one notlooking at us directly-is saying or doing. Another solution isto position the characters in the picture microecologically sothat their placement relative to one another will provide anindex of mapping of their presumed social position relativeto one another. And, of course, there is the use of scenes andcharacters which have come to be stereotypically identifiedwith a particular kind of activity by the widest range ofviewers, thus ensuring instantaneous recognizability. In-cidentally, advertisers overwhelmingly select positive,approved typifications (perhaps so their product will beassociated with a good world as opposed to being dissociatedfrom a bad one), so that what we see are idealized charactersusing ideal facilities to realize ideal ends-while, of course,microecologically arranged to index ideal relationships.Finally, advertisers can use celebrities as models, for althoughthese personages are not known personally they are knownabout.

s A point suggested to me some years 'go by David Sudnow (seeSudnow 1972).

Interestingly, it is not merely commercial advertisers whohave recourse to these pictorial methods. Governments andnonprofit organizations employ the same devices in order toconvey a message through pages, posters, and billboards; sodo radical groups and so do private persons withphotography as a hobby or a calling. (It is rather wrong, alas,to say that only advertisers advertise. Indeed, even thoseconcerned to oppose commercial versions of the world mustpictorialize their arguments through images which areselected according to much the same principles as thoseemployed by the enemy.)

I want to argue now that the job the advertiser has ofdramatizing the value of his product is not unlike the job asociety has of infusing its social situations with ceremonialand with ritual signs facilitating the orientation of par-ticipants to one another. Both must use the limited "visual"resources available in social situations to tell a story; bothmust transform otherwise opaque goings-on into easilyreadable form. And both rely on the same basic devices:intention displays, microecological mapping of social struc-ture, approved typifications, and the gestural externalizationof what can be taken to be inner response. (Thus, just as aCoca-Cola ad might feature a well-dressed, happy lookingfamily at a posh beach resort, so a real family of modestmeans and plain dress might step up their level of spendingduring ten days of summer vacation, indeed, confirming thata self-realizing display is involved by making sure tophotograph themselves onstage as a well-dressed family at aposh summer resort.) This is not to deny, of course, that thedisplays presented in stills are not a special selection fromdisplays in general. Advertisers, by and large, must limitthemselves to soundiess, scentless appearances and one-shotmoments of time, whereas actual ritual need not be restrictedin these particuiar ways.

Which raises the issue of "social situations," defining theseas arrangements in which persons are physically present toone another. Stills may, and often do, contain a soiitaryfigure, ostensibly not in a social situation at all. But if thescene is to be read by the viewer, then the subject must giveappearances and engage in doings that are informative, andthese informings are just what we employ in actual socialsituations in order to establish our own stories and learn

about the stories established by others. Solitary or not,figures in stills implicitly address themselves to us, theviewers, locating us close at hand through our being allowedto see what we can see of them, thus generating a socialsituation in effect. And indeed, the photographer oftenclinches matters by requiring solitary subjects to simulate a

GENDER COMMERCIALS 27

gestural response to a phantom hovering near the camera, aforcible reminder of the place we the viewers arc supposed to

inhabit. Observe, the solitary subject not only "externalizes"information that will give us an understanding of what it isthat can be taken to be going on, but also quitesystematically fails to exhibit taboo and unflattering self-involving behavior, even though these are just the sort of actsthat are likely to occur when the actor is assured he is alone.(So perhaps a byproduct of commercial realism will be thereinforcement of censored versions of solitary conduct.)

When one looks, then, at the presentation of gender inadvertisements, attention should be directed not merely touncovering advertisers' stereotypes concerning the dif-ferences between the sexes-significant as these stereotypesmight be. Nor only examine these stereotypes for what theymight tell us about the gender patterns prevalent in our societyat large. Rather one should, at least in part, attend to howthose who compose (and pose for) pictures can choreographthe materials available in social situations in order to achieve

their end, namely, the presentation of a scene that ismeaningful, whose meaning can be read at a flash. Forbehind these artful efforts one may be able to discern howmutually present bodies, along with nonhuman materials, canbe shaped into expression. And in seeing what picture-makerscan make of situational materials, one can begin to see whatwe ourselves might be engaging in doing. Behind infinitelyvaried scenic configurations, one might be able to discern asingle ritual idiom; behind a multitude of surface differences,a small number of structural forms.

Let me admit that these arguments about the relation ofritual to commercial pictures might seem to be a way ofmaking the best of a bad thing, namely, using easily availableads to talk about actual gender behavior. But I am notinterested here in behavior in general, only in the displaysthat individuals manage to inject into sociai situations, andsurely this is part of what advertisers try to inject into thescenes they compose around the product and thenphotograph. Commercial pictures are in the main entirelyposed, "mere pictures," at best "realistic." But, of course,the reality they presumably refiect distortedly is itself, inimportant ways, artificial. For the actuality here at issue ishow social situations are employed as the scenic resource forconstructing visually accessible, instantaneous portraits ofour claimed human nature. Posed pictures can therefore turnout to be more substantial than one might have thought,being for students of a community's ritual idiom somethinglike what a written text is for students of its spokenlanguage.

...


Relative Size

1-4 One way in which social weight-power, authority, rank, office, renown-isechoed expressively in social situations is

through relative size, especially height.This congruence is somewhat facilitatedamong males through occupational selec-tion favoring size--a form of circularity,since selection often occurs in socialsituations where size can be an influence.

In the case of interaction between parentsand their young children, biology itselfassures that social weight will be indexedby the physical kind,

In social interaction between the

sexes, biological dimorphism underliesthe probability that the male's usualsuperiority of status over the female willbe expressible in his greater girth andheight. Selective mating then enters toensure that very nearly every couple willexhibit a height difference in the expect-ed direction, transforming what wouldotherwise be a statistical tendency into anear certitude, Even in the case of mere

clusters of persons maintaining talk, vari-ous forms of occupational, associational,and situational selection markedly in-crease the biologically grounded possi-bility that every male participant will bebigger than every female participant.

Now it seems that what biology andsocial selection facilitate, picture posingrigorously completes:

'" '...PETERHEERING

Indeed, so thoroughly is it assumed thatdifferences in size will correlate with

differences in social weight that relativesize can be routinely used as a means ofensuring that the picture's story will beunderstandable at a glance:

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5-7 And here exceptions seem toprove the r,ule. For on the very fewoccasions when women are pictured tallerthan men, the men seem almost always tobe not only subordinated in social classstatus, but also thoroughly costumed ascraft-bound servitors who-it mightappear can be safely treated totally inthe circumscribed terms of their modesttrade:

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The Feminine Touchs

12-26 Women, more than men, arepictured using their fingers and hands totrace the outlines of an object or tocradle it or to caress its surface (the lattersometimes under the guise of guiding it),or to effect a "just barely touching" ofthe kind that might be significant be-tween two electrically charged bodies.This ritualistic touching is to be distin-guished from the utilitarian kind thatgrasps, manipulates, or holds:

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0 Here and elsewhere in connectIOn with therole of fingers (see pictures 295-320), I drawdirectly °" observatio", made by Michi Ishida,to whom [ give thanks.

THE FEMININE TOUCH 29

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f 27-8 Because nothing very prehensileis involved in these ritualistic touchings,the face can be used instead of a hand:

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29-36 Self-touching can also be in-volved, readable as conveying a sense ofone's body being a delicate and preciousthing:

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THE FEMININE TOUCH 31

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32 36

.....


Function Ranking

In our society when a man and a womancollaborate face-to-face in an under-taking, the man-it would seem-is likelyto perform the executive role, providingonly that one can be fashioned. Thisarrangement seems widely represented inadvertisements, in part, no doubt, tofacilitate interpretability at a glance.

37-44 This hierarchy of functions ispictured within an occupational frame:7

'The irony hos been noted that an appre-,iable amount of the ad"'tising aimed atselling supplies for women's household workemploys males in the depicted role of instruct.ing pcofessionals or employs a male celebelty totout th, ,ffi,"'Y of th' product (see Komisar1972:3071.

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45-58 It is also pictured outside ofoccupational special ization:

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FUNCTION RANKING 33

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59-60 Function ranking is also pic-tured among children, albeit apparentlywith the understanding that although thelittle actors are themselves perfectly seri-ous, their activity itself is not, beingrather something that touchingly strikesan anticipatory note- In brief, "cuteness"is involved 9

60

'A useful study of gender stereotypes in theillustrations of children's books is provided byWeitzmanet 0/. (19721. for which I am method.0108i"llv gr.,.f,1.

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61 All instruction seems to involvesome sort of subordination of the in-

structed and deference for the instructor.

These expressive features of the learningsituation are reinforced by the linking oflearning to age-grade subordinationthroughout most of the individual's learn-ing career. In our society, one form oflearning seems especially associated withchild status, the "kinaesthetic" form, 10involving a molding physical contact be-tween instructor and instructed. Men

seem to be pictured instructing womenthis way more than the reverse:

61

'"The notion of kinaesthetic learningderi", from Bateson ond Mead (1942,85-86).This book brilliantlv pioneered in the use ofpictum for study of what can be neatlvpictured. The work stimulated a whole gener-ation of anthropologists to take pictures. How-ever. very little analvsis was-and perhaps couldbe-made of what these students collected.Somehow a confusion occurred between humaninterest and the analytical kind. Dandy moviesand stills were brought home of wonderfulpeople and fascinating events, but to little avail.Much respect and affection was shown thenativesand little of either for the analytical U>'thai can be made of pictUres.

62-7 Whenever an adult receivesbody-addressed help or service fromanother, the resulting action is Iikely toinvolve collaboration of hands. The re-cipient guides the action and/or takesover at its terminal phases. (Examples:

passing the salt or helping someone onwith his coat.) In this way, presumably,the recipient's sense of autonomy ispreserved. It is also preserved, of course,by his acquiring those skills throughwhich he can efficiently tend to his ownbodily needs. Infants and children, how-ever, must suffer their hands being by-passed while an adult gets on with the jabof looking after them. I I It is understand-able, then, that when adults are picturedin real scenes being spodn-fed, they arepictured guying the action in some way,presumably so the self projected by theact of being fed will not be taken as areflection of the real one.

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It appears that women are more common-ly pictured receiving this kind of helpfrom men than givingit to them, and arenot depicted markedly guying theirresponse:

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65

FUNCTION RANKING 35

66

63

67


68-71 Which raises the questions ofhow males are pictured when in thedomains of the traditional authority andcompetence of females-the kitchen, thenursery, and the living room when it isbeing cleaned. One answer, borrowedfrom life and possibly underrepresented,is to picture the male engaged in nocontributing role at aI!, in this wayavoiding either subordination or contami-nation with a "femaie" task:

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72-80 Another answer, I think, is topresent the man as ludicrous or childlike,unrealistically so, as if perhaps in making

him candidly unreal the competency imageof real males could be preserved.

Do you knowthe secret...

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81-3n A subtler techniqueis to allowthe male to pursue the alien activityunder the direct appraising scrutiny ofshe who can do the deed properly, asthough the doing were itself by way ofbeing a lark or a dare, a smile on the faceof the doer or the watcher attesting tothe essentially unserious essayed charac-ter of the undertaking, I 2

81

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, 'CDm'pDndingly, whon f,mal" are pi,-tured ,ngag,d in a teadhlDnaily mal, t"k, amal, mav (as It were I pmnth,,'" theacllvity,IDDking Dn appealsingly, cDndm,ndlngly, Drwhh wDnd,,,

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The Family

The nuclear family as a basic unit ofsocial organization is well adapted to therequirements of pictorial representation-All of the members of almost any actualfamily can be contained easily within thesame close picture, and, properly posi-tioned, a visual representation of themembers can nicely serve as a symboliza-tion of the family's social structure,

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THE FAMILY 37

85-8 Turning to mocked-up familiesin advertisements, one finds that theallocation of at least one girl and at leastone boy ensures that a symbolization ofthe full set of intrafamily relations can beeffected- For example, devices are em-ployed to exhibit the presumed specialbond between the girl and the motherand the boy and the father, sometimes inthe same picture:

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3a GENDER ADVERTISEMENTS

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89-99 Although in commercial scenesa unity is symbolized between fathers andsons and between mothers and daughters,there is a suggestion that different typesof unity might be involved. In a word,there is a tendency for women to bepictured as more akin to their daughters(and to themselves in younger years) thanis the case with men. Boys, as it were,have to push their way into manhood,and problematic effort is involved:

90

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Girls merely have to unfold:

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96

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100-14n Often the father (or in hisabsence, a son) stands a little outside thephysical circle of the other members ofthe family, as if to express a relationshipwhose protectiveness is linked with, per-haps even requires, distance:

- 101

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THE FAMILY 39

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The Ritualization ofSubordination

115-24 A classic stereotype of defer-ence is that of lowering oneself physicallyin some form or other of prostration,Correspondingly, holding the body erectand the head high is stereotypically amark of unashamedness, superiority, anddisdain, Advertisers draw on (and en-dorse) the claimed universality of thetheme:

116

115 117

(continued)

, 'A" Intmstlng contmt Is to b, found Intum-of-th,-"ntulV pomalt poses of couples,whmln th, ,ffect was often achlmd of

dlsplayl"g the man as the centlal figulC and th,woman as backup suppOIt, som'what I" th,manneI of a chief lleutenanL I cite fcom Lesy(19731:

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Perhaps th, contrast between past a"dcUIC'nt pOItcalts betokens a chang' lessIn undeIlylng social organlwlo" thac incons'ntio", of expICsslo" with '" th, plctulCformal.

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.124

THE RITUALl2ATION OF SUBORDINATION 41

122

125-39 Beds and floors provide placesin social situations where incumbent per-sons will be lower than anyone sitting ona chair or standing. Floors also are associ-ated with the less clean, less pure, lessexalted parts of a room-for example, theplace to keep dogs, baskets of soiledclothes, street footwear, and the like.And a recumbent position is one fromwhich physical defense of oneself canleast well be initiated and therefore onewhich renders one very dependent on thebenignness of the surround. (Of course,lying on the floor or on a sofa or bedseems also to be a conventionalized ex-pression of sexual availability.) The pointhere is that it appears that children andwomen are pictUred on floors and bedsmore than are men.

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140-67 Although less so than in some,elevation seems to be employed indic-atively in our society, high physical placesymbolizing high social place. (Court-rooms provide an example.) In contrivedscenes in advertisements, men tend to belocated higher than women, thus allowingelevation to be exploited as a delineativeresource. 14 A certain amount of cantor.tion may be required. Note, this arrange-ment is supported by the understandingin our society that courtesy obliges mento favor women with first claim onwhatever is available by way of a seat.

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"In such Pictures as I haveof actudl scenes,the "m' ',nd'ncv hold,.

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THE RITUALIZATION OF SUBOROINATION 43

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THE RITUALI2ATION OF SUBORDINATION 45

168-72n Women frequently, men veryinfrequently, are posed in a display of the"bashful knee bend." Whatever else, theknee bend can be read as a foregoing offull effort to be prepared and on theready in the current social situation, forthe position adds a moment to any effortto fight or flee. Once again one finds aposture that seems to presuppose thegoodwill of anyone in the surround whocould offer harm. Observe-as will be seenthroughout-that a sex-typed subject isnot so much involved as a format forconstructing a picture. One female in apicture may perform the gesture andanother serve as the support that allowsthe performance. 50 a two-role formula isat issue, not necessarily two sexes:

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"Contrast a different kind of knee b'nd,

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173-86 Havingsomewhatthe samedistribution in ads as the knee bend are

canting postures< Although a distinctioncan be made between body cant and headcant, the consequences seem to be muchthe same<The level of the head is loweredrelative to that of others, including, in-directly, the viewer of the picture. Theresulting configurations can be read as anacceptance of subordination, an expres-sion of ingratiation, submissiveness, andappeasement.

173-8 Body cant:

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THE RITUALIZATION OF SUBORDINATION

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187-91 Smiles, it can be argued, oftenfunction as ritualistic mollifiers, signalingthat nothing agonistic is intended orinvited, that the .meaning of the other'sact has been understood and found ac-

ceptable, that, indeed, the other is ap-proved and appreciated. Those who wari-ly keep an eye on the movements of apotential aggressor may find themselvesautomatically smiling should their gaze be"caught" by its object, who in turn mayfind little cause to smile back. In addi-tion, a responding smile (even more so anappreciative laugh) following very rapidlyon the heels of a speaker's sally can implythat the respondent belongs, by knowl-edgeability, at least, to the speaker'scircle. All of these smiles, then, seemmore the offering of an inferior than asuperior. In any case, it appears that incross-sexed encounters in American soci-ety, women smile more, and more expan-sively, than men, 17 which arrangementappears to be carried over into advertise-ments, perhaps with Iittle consciousintent.

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192-206 Given the subordinated arindulged position of children in regardadults, it would appear that to preseoneself in puckish styling is to encoura:the corresponding treatment. How mU(of this guise is found in real life is ,open question; but found it is in adv,tisements.

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207-16 The note of unseriousnessstruck by a childlike guise is struck byanother styling of the self, this oneperhaps entirely restricted to advertise,ments, namely, the use of the entire bodyas a playful gesticulative device, a sort ofbody clowning:

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217-23 The special unseriousness in.valved in childlike guises and clowningsuggests a readiness to be present in asocial situation garbed and styled in amanner to which one isn't deeply orirrevocably committed. Perhaps reflectedhere is a readiness to tryout variousguises and to appear at various times indifferent ones. In any case, in advertise.ments, at least, there seems to be anunanticipated difference between menand women. Men are displayed in formal,business, and informal gear, and althoughit seems understood that the same indi.vidual will at different times appear in allthese guises, each guise seems to affordhim something he is totally serious about,and deeply identified with, as thoughwearing a skin, not a costume. Even inthe case of the cowboy garb that urbanmales affect recreationally, little sensethat one's whole appearance is a larkwould seem to be present. Women in adsseem to have a different relationship totheir clothing and to the gestures wornwith it. Within each broad category (for.mal, business, informal) there are choiceswhich are considerably different onefrom another, and the sense is that onemay as well tryout various possibilities tosee what comes of it-as though life werea series of costume balls. Thus, one canoccasionally mock one's own appearance,for identification is not deep. It might beargued, then, that the costume.like char.acter of female garb in advertisementslocates women as less seriously present insocial situations than men, the self pre.sented through get.ups being itself in away an unserious thing. Observe that theextension of this argument to real lifeneed not involve a paradox. It is acommon view that women spend muchmore of their time and concern in shop.ping for clothes and preparing for appear.ances than do men, and that women setconsiderable store on the appreciative ordepreciative response they produce there.by. But, of course, so does an actor in apart he will never play again. A concernover carrying an appearance off does notnecessarily imply a deep and abidingidentification with that appearance. (Thisargument fits with the fact that women'sstyles change much more rapidly than domen's.)

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THE R,TUALlZATlON OF SUBORDINATION 51

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224-43 Adults play mock assaultgames with children, games such aschase'and.captUre and grab.and.squeeze.The child is playfully treated like a preyunder attack by a predator. Certain ma'terials (pillows, sprays of water, lightbeach balls) provide missiles that canstrike but not hurt. Other materials pro.vide a medium into which the capturedbody can be thrown safely-beds, snowbanks, pools, arms. Now it tUrns out thatmen play these games with women, thelatter collaborating through a display ofattempts to escape and through cries ofalarm, fear, and appeasement. (Figure.dancing provides occasion for an institu.tionalized example, the partners who areswung off their feet never being men.) Ofcourse, underneath this show a man maybe engaged in a deeper one, the sugges.tion of what he could do if he got seriousabout it. In part because mock assault is"fun" and more likely in holiday scenesthan in work scenes, it is much represent.ed in advertisements:

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THE RITUALIZATION OF SUBORDINATION 53.

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244-6 A male pictured with a femalesometimes appears to employ an extend-ed arm, in effect marking the boundaryof his social property and guarding itagainst encroachment. A suggestion is thatthis miniature border patrol is especiallyfound when the female at the same time

is engaged in a pursuit which accords herauthority.

244

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---

247-69 There seem to be four main

behavioral arrangements of pairs of per-sons which provide what is taken to be aphysical expression that the two are a"with"-that is, together as a social unitwith respect to the social situation inwhich they are located. (In all four cases,note, the work these dyadic tie-signs doin defining the relationship between fig-ures in a picture would seem to be muchthe same as the work they do in realsocial situations.)

247-9 First, a matter of micro-ecology: sitting or standing close andalongside, with or without touching. Thisarrangement is symmetrical in physicalcharacter and social implication, nodifferentiation of role or rank being initself conveyed:

247

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250-3 The "arm lock" is the basic

tie-sign in Western societies for markingthat a woman is under the protectivecustody of the accompanying man. Al-though most commonly sustained be-tween hushand and wife, no sexual orlegal link is necessarily advertised throughit; father and grown daughter, man andbest friend's wife may also employ it. Thesign is asymmetric both in terms of itsphysical configuration and what it indi-cates. However nominally, the womanshows herself to be receiving support, andboth the man's hands are free for what-ever instrumental tasks may arise:

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254-60 The "shoulder hold" is anasymmetrical configuration more or lessrequiring that the person holding be tallerthan the person held, and that the heldperson accept direction and constraint.Typically the arrangement seems to bedyadically irreversible. When employedby a cross-sexed adult pair, the sign seemsto be taken to indicate sexually-potentialproprietary ship.

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Gender Commercials

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Transcript of Gender Commercials