by ERVING GOFFMAN
f
CONTENTS
65   Editor's Introduction / Sol Worth
69' Gender Display
79   Picture Frames
92   Gender Commercials
PUBUCATiON  OF THE SOCIETY fOR THE AWTHROPQLOGY  OF VISUAL COIVIIUUi&UCATipW
I Reproduced in this paper are some commercial still I photographs—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. My assumption is that anyone whose picture appears in media print .figs almost certainly cooperated in the process and therefore—like a professional .modd—has placed this appearance in the public domain, foregoing the protection from social analysis that persons, at least living ones, can strongly claim regarding pictures taken for home consumption.
The pictures reproduced were selected at will from newspapers and current popular magazines easy to hand—at least to my hand.' They were chosen to fit into sets, each set-to allow .the displaying, delineating, or mocking up of a discrete 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 some verbal text.
SI Some comments first concerning how pictures can and I can't be used in social analysis. My^arm-is'thSt'the themes that can- be. delineated through- pictures have a very mixed ontologieal status and -that any attempt tolegisiate as to the order of fact represented'in these themes is likely to be optimistic: ' '
(1) The student of commercial pictures can draw a ^ random .sample from a magazine's particular issue, or from a defined period of issue, or from a specified list of magazines, and disclaim characterizing other issues, periods, or magazines, even more so other sources of pictures, such as newsprint, postcards, and the like, not even to mention actual life itself. Specifiable representativeness, then, is a way that a collection of pictures could .qualify2—and a way the pictures about to' be analyzed do not. (Of course, findings based on ,a systematic sample very often get their weight-from the fact that the reader can be trusted to generalize the findings beyond their stated universe, statistical warrant for which.would require another study, which, if done, would induce a stili broader overgeneraiization, and so on, but that is another matter.) Observe--that this .sort of representativeness pertains to picture's as s'Uch and'doesn't'teAWu.5. what-we very often want to know, namely-}what-aspects-'of
1 And to that of a fellow student, Michi is'hida. 2For a recent exampie, see Robinson (1976).
reaMife pictures provide us a fair image of, and what social effect-veowtrrtereial picturing -has-jupon tbe-.'lJfa . tftat Ay puKpopletA^piaarred—a limitation also of the purposely selected pictures displayed here.
(2) Since there is little constraint on what I elect to identify as a theme {a^'gerrderism"}, or which pictures I bring together in order to display what is thus identified, or on the way! order the stills within a given series, it could be taken tharahything could be depicted that I can manage to suggest through what appears to be common to a few pictures. Success here requires nothing more than a small amount of perversity and wit.and a large batch of pictures to choose from. The larger the initial collection, the more surely the analyst can find.cjanfirrning examples of what he thinks he has found in one picture or would in any case like to depict-a case of representativeness declining as the data base increases. So effective depiction of a theme cannot in itself prove anything about what is found in pictures or, of course, in the world. Indeed, something like the method I use is employed by artful compilers of photegr-aptric funny books, -. camera pranksters who match" gesticulatory pictures of famous citizens against animals and plants apparently engaged  in  similarly  characterizable posjures,  or who superimpose ^ballooned  though^^awer^ltatements, these formulated toMJefine the situation as it never was in actual life, committing the protagonists to respons^s~oT"a wildly scurifous. kind. So, too, the texts accompanying the-p.ictures, are cast in the style of generalization-by-pronouncement found in the writings of fv^m&&^bo4y>:Airi§ms^ strayed ethologists, and lesser journalists.
(3)'The particular matters I want to consider raise three distinct and general methodological questions that should
the first two will here be at issue, these two allowing me to » exploit without a major research investment the very special advantages of working with photographs, which advantages are as follows:
(i) There is a class of behavioral practices—what'might be ' called "sjm&™b&hwmm$''—whose physical forms are fairly-well codified even though the social implications or meaning of the acts may have vague elements, and which are realized in their entirety, from beginning to end, in a brief period of-time and a small space. These behavioral events can be, recorded and their image made retrievable by means of audio; and video tapes and camera. (Tape and film, unlike a stilly provide not only a recoverable image of an actuai instance o(f the activity in question, but aiso an appreciable collection of. these records. More important, audio and video recordings off very 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 of I a subject matter and a recording technology places the] student in an entirely novel relation to his data, forming th'el practical basis for microanalysis. This special research! situation should not be confused with the use of recording! technology to document a news story, provide a feef for a! community, limn in the contours of a relationship, depict the! history of a nation, or any Other matter whose meaning is\ not linked to a fixed physical, form which can be realized in ■■ the round in a recordable space and time. . \
(IT) Pictures from any source are now cheap and easy-'-t©
92 SIUDi£S»¥H£^WR©lp^
reproduce in uniform slide form. A collection allows for easy arranging and rearranging, a search and rnock-up, trial and error juggling, something between cryptography and doing jigsaw puzzles, a remarkable aid both to uncovering patterns and finding examples, whether mere illustrations or actual instance records.
(iii) The student can exploit the vast social competency of the eye and the impressive consensus sustained by viewers. Behavioral configurations which he has insufficient literary skill to summon up through words alone, he can yet unambiguously introduce into consideration. His verbal glosses can serve as a means to direct the eye to what is to be seen, instead of having to serve as a full rendition of what is at issue. The notion of a "merely subjective response" can then be academically upgraded; for clearly part of what one _ refrains from studying because the only approach is through verbal vagaries has a specific nature and is precisely perceived, the vagary being a characteristic of one's literary
^incapacity, not one's data.3
(iv) A set of pictorial examples (whether illustrations or instance records) of a common theme provides more than a device for making sure that the pattern in question wilt be clear to the viewer. Often one or two examples would suffice for that. Nor does the size of the set relate to the traditional sampling notion of showing how prevalent were cases of a particular kind in the sample and (by extension) in. the sampled universe. Something else is involved, different
pi^Q^laKgXra^pj^
textual baekg^
■dispaBiities^veto It is the
\depth and breadth of these contextual differences which somehow provide a sense of structure, a sense of a single organization underlying mere surface differences, which sense is. not generated simply by reference to the numerical size of the-set relative to the size of the sample. Whereas in traditional methods the differences between items that are to be counted as instances of the same thing are an embarrassment, and are so in the degree of their difference, in pictorial pattern analysis the opposite is the case, the casting together of these apparent differences being what the analysis is all about Indeed, something is to be learned even when an advertiser in effect performs analysis backwards, that is, starts with the same models and the same sales pitch and. then searches out different possible scenes as vehicles for them and it-all this in the hope of building product interest through a mixture of repetition and novelty.  For in
The ear as well as the eye provides an impressive competency, and here phoneticians (and lately those interested in conversational^ analysis} have made an exemplary effort to formuiate notation systems that can be printed on paper yet avoid the* limitations of ordinary orthography, thus providing a bridge between sounds and publications. The problem is that although trained students can produce the same transcription of a given spate of sound, the formulation they produce will equally apply to expressions which they would hear as significantly different. Given a recording to listen to, a linguist's transcription can serve as a very adequate means of directing the ear's attention to a particular sound and with that the full competency of the ear can be academically exploited. But written transcriptions without recordings do not solve the problem. (Nor, ! believe, does it help much to package a tape in the jacket of a book, along with encouragement of do-it-yourself analysis.) The printing of the analysis of videotape records presents still-greater problems.
purposely setting out to ring changes on a set theme, the advertiser must nonetheless satisfy scene-production requirements such as propriety, understandability, and so forth, thereby necessarily demonstrating that, and how, different ingredients can be choreographed to "express" the same theme. Here, certainty, it is entirely an artifact of how advertisements are assembled that a set of them will exhibit a common underlying pattern, and here the student is only uncovering what was purposely implanted to this end in the first place. But how the advertiser succeeds in finding different guises for his stereotypes still instructs in the matter of how the materials of real scenes can be selected and shaped to provide a desired reading. —-x (4) The pictures I have un-randomly collected of gender-. relevant behavior can be used to jog one's consideration of three matters: the- gender::behavioral styjes: found: in actual life, the ways in' yjyhich.rad.yertiserncnts .might present. a>
\
t&l!&^W&^^HWfrim^.^ithou^ri my primary interest,is .actual j&]M§&d$]^t!&> the pictures are accompanied by "textual glosses that raise questions of any order that might be stimulated by the'pictures. In any case, what will mostly be shown and discussed is advertisers-' views of hov/;. woroeq can., be;■ pE#itabjM;>fflcJUKsd My unsubstantiated generalizations have the slight saving grace that they mostly refer to the way gender is pictured, not the way it is actually performed.
(5) By and large, I did not look for pictures that exhibited' what seemed to me to be- common to the two -■ sexes, whether just in pictures or in reality as well. Nor for pictures that dealt with sex differences which I assumed were widely and well-understood. The vast amount of what is—at ..'least to me—unremarkable in advertisements is thus vastly underrepresented. (Something of the same bias actually informs every ethnography; it is differences from one's own world and unexpected similarities that get recorded.) But * given these limitations, once a genderism was identified as ^ one worth mocking-up, almost all sex role exceptions and ^ reversals I came across were selected. It is to be added that -* although the advertising business is focused (in the U.S.A.) in J} New York, and although models and photographers' are "«* drawn from a very special population indeed, their productjs U3 trejJed^as_QMbing-out-of-the-or^dinary byviewers, somethinjpj-j* '"ofajy naturaJ-^ntTrief.' altfTough~ThTrjTctures shown here" J^, . cannot be taken as representative of gender behavior in real_ p life or even representative of advertisements in general or H I particular publication sources in particular, one can probably make, .a...significant negative statement about them, namely, that -ja-> p-leffires they a(% not be$b&¥$<F'$?*v.ei&Mm. ^and •innaturak Also, in the case of each""stilt, &y"Wa"gin"ingthe Jgr»--sexeTswitched and'imagining the appearance of .what results, ly one can jar oneself into awareness of stereotypes. By keeping 1p this switching task in mind, the reader can generate his own &
jglosses and obtain a cue to the possibl^merit of mine.
(6) A further caveat. Advertisements overwhelmingly and' candidly present make-believe scenes, the subjects or figures depicted being quite different from the professional models who pose the action.' Obviously, then, a statement about, /'say, how nurses are presented in ads is to be taken as a I shorthand way of saying how models dressed like nurses and ^set in a mock-up of a medical scene are pictured. (A fee could persuade a real nurse to pose in an ad about nursing or
GENDER ADVERTISEMENTS 93
allow a "caught" photograph of her in action to be used, but ordinarily advertising agencies find that a real nurse in a real
hjgspital unsatisfactorily typifies her kind.) I will on occasion employ this simplification, speaking of" the subjects of a picture as though they were instantiations, namely^ recorded Jmages of the real thing. The complication is that posing for Tn ad almost invariably involves a carryover of sex, female models appearing as female figures, and male models as males. (So, too, there is a carryover of broad ranges of age-grade.} It follows that any discussion of the treatment of gender in ads happens to strike where a sense is to be found in which model and subject are one. (n statements about sex-stereotyping, then, there is special warrant for falling back upon simplified reference. An advertiser's contrived scene featuring a "nurse" does not presentus with a_ photographic record ot a nurse, mat is, an actual P'^uJ^^fa~ reaLnurse, but nonetheless prelentsjjswith one of a reafr' wornan. at least in the common senseHrieanTfJg ot "rgal/-1 After the studio session is over, the model does not go on being a "nurse," but she does continue to be a "woman."
(7) Finally, a word about the arrangement of pictures in each series and other details. !n general, subject matter proceeds from children to adults and from actual pictures to overtly contrived commercial ones. (An implication is thus implanted that ritualized behavioral practices found in a variety of contexts in real life come to be employed in a "hyper-rituaitzed" form in ads featuring women.) Depictions disaffirming the arrangements argued here, i.e., depictions of sex rota reversals, are placed at the very ends of the series to which they belong and are marked off with a special, border. It shtould also be noted that throughout females in a "feminine" stance will be seen to take up this position relative to another woman, not merely relative to a man, strongly suggesting that gender stereotypes-at least photographic ones—involve a two-slot format, the important issue being to fill the slots with role differentiated subjects, not . necessarily with subjects.of opposing sexual identity.
The pictures themselves have all been reproduced in black and white for reasons of cost. Although it would have been somewhat more accurate to reproduce the color ones in color, I feel that not much has been lost. Each picture has been numbered. Except for the final letter (denoting order in the series), the number corresponds to the one appearing before the relevant verbal text; the text itself immediately precedes the series of illustrations to which it refers. Pictures as well as text have been footnoted, and pictures as well as text appear in footnotes. The photographs have been arranged to be "read" from top to bottom, column to column, across the page.
III Having considered reasons why my selection of 11 commercial pictures need not be taken seriously, ! jA'ant 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 sparkling-version of that product in the context-of glamorous events.
/The implication is that if you buy the one, you are on the way to realizing the other—and you should want to. Interestingly, a classy young lady is likely to be in the picture adding her approval of the product and herself to its ambience, whether the product be floor mops, insecticides, orthopedic chairs, roofing materials, credit cards, vacuum pumps, or Lear jets. But ail of this is only advertising and has little to do with actual life. So goes the critical view of these exploitive arts. Which view is itself naive, failing to appreciate what actual life has to do with.
Whatever point a print advertiser wants to make about his product, he must suffer the constraints of his medium'in making it. He must ^peesent. something that will be. meaningful, easily so, yet all he has space to work with will be type arid one or two still photographs; typically eon tain i.rtg .protagonists whose words-.(if any seem to be spoken) are unavailable. And although textual-materia! outside of the picture brackets will provide a reading of "what is happening,"* this is commonly a somewhat duplicated version; the picture itself is designed to tell its little story without much textual assistance. ■>
How can stills present the world when in the world persons are engaged in1 courses of action, in doings through time (not frozen posturings), where sound is almost as important as sight, and smell .and touch figure as well? Moreover, in the world, we can know the individuals before f us personally, something unlikely of pictures used in/ advertising.
Some of the solutions to this problem are obvious. A scene can be simulated in which figures are captured in those acts which stejrgolypkall^^jjtorni^e.. the sequence from which Lhgy^-are. taken--presurnab'y because these acts are identified as happening only in the course of, and momentarily during, an extended action. Thus viewers are
/led to read backward and forward in sequence time from the moment of vision.5 Another solution-is to/draw: on^sc-enes that-are- themselves- silent- and static in- real life:-.steeping* pensive- posesy-window; •shopping,- - and, importantly, the off-angle fixed looks through which we are taken to convey our overall alignment to what another person—one not looking at us directly—is saying or doing. Another solution is to'position4he characters in thepicture microecologically-so that-theirr placement relative to one another will provide an indsxj::ei.-<m9$tpi«ig'''Of'ti,i«rr'pre»aned social positron relative to-one-awotheivAnd, of course, there is the use "ofScenes and characters which have -come,.to be stereo typically identified y^'-^^p^<^^4iM'^m^i^- by the. widest-range, of vteweiv-'-thi»'-"ew^^ recognizabili-ty. ■ in-
cidentally, advertisers overwhelmingly select positive, approved typifications (perhaps so their product will be associated with a good world as opposed to being dissociated from a bad one), so that what we see are idealized characters using ideal facilities to realize ideal ends-while, of course, microecologicaliy arranged to index ideal relationships. Finally, advertisers can use celebrities as models, for although these personages are not known personally they are known
4'about.
Qualifications regarding the phrase "real woman" are presented in Goffman (1974:284-285).
A point suggested to me some years ago by David Sudnow (see Sudnow 1972),
94    STUDIES IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION
Interestingly, it is not merely commerciai advertisers who have recourse to these pictorial methods. ^Governments and nonprofit organizations empioy the same devices in order to convey a message through pages, posters, and billboards; so do radical groups and so do private persons with photography as a hobby or a calling. (It is rather wrong, alas, to say that only advertisers advertise, indeed, even those concerned to oppose commercial versions of the world must pictorialize their arguments through images which are selected according to much the same principles as those employed by the enemy.)
J want to argue now that the job the advertiser has of dramatizing the value, of his product is not. unlike the job,,a s9^^&i^^M^kd^%i^iU^iQSii!iA' situations with ceremonial ; and with ritual signs facilitating the orientation' of p?k-tyiW$®i^^J'*Mtih%f' Both must use the limited '-'visual" resources available in social situations-to,tell a story.; both must transform otherwise opaque goings-on into easily readable form. And both rely on the same basic devices: intention-displays, mieroecoiogieal mapping of social structure, approved typifications, and the gestural externalization of what can be taken to. be jnner response. (Thus, just as a Coca-Cola ad might feature a well-dressed, happy looking family at a posh beach resort, so a real family of modest means and plain dress might step up their level of spending during ten days of summer vacation, indeed, confirming that a sejf-realizing,, display is involved' by making sure to photograph themselves onstage as a well-dressed family at a posh summer resort.) This is not to deny, of course, that the displays presented in stills are not a special selection from displays in general. Advertisers, by and large, must limit themselves to soundless, scentless appearances and one-shot moments of time, whereas actual ritual need not be restricted in these particular ways.
Which raises the issue of "social situations," defining these . as arrangements in which persons are physically present to one another. Stills may, and often do, contain a solitary figure, ostensibly not in a social situation at-all. But if the scene is to be read by the viewer, then the subject must give appearances and engage in doings that are informative, and these informings are just what we employ in actual social situations in order to establish our own stories and learn about the stones established by others. Solitary or not, figures in stills implicitly address themselves to us, the viewers, locating us close at hand through our being allowed to see what we can see of them, thus generating a social situation in effect. And indeed, the photographer often clinches matters by requiring solitary subjects to simulate a
gestural response to a phantom hovering near the camera, a forcible reminder of the place we the viewers are supposed to inhabit. Observe, the solitary subject not only "externalizes" information that will give us an understanding of what it is that can be taken to be going on, but also quite systematically fails to exhibit taboo and unflattering self-involving behavior, even though these are just the sort of acts that are likely to occur when the actor is assured he is alone. (So perhaps a byproduct of commercial realism will be the reinforcement of censored versions of solitary conduct.)
When one looks, then, at the presentation of gender in advertisements, attention should be directed not merely to uncovering advertisers' stereotypes concerning the differences between the sexes—significant as these stereotypes might be. Nor only examine these stereotypes for what they might tell us about the gender patterns prevalent in our society at large. Rather one should, at least in part, attend to how those who compose -(and pose" for) pictures can choreograph thejnaterials available in social situations in order to achieve their end; namely, the -presentation of a scene that is meaningful.-whose meaning can he read at a flash. For behind these artful efforts one may be able to discern how mutually present bodies, along with nonhuman materials, can be shaped into expression. And in seeingjvhat picture-makers can make of situational materials, one can begin to see what we ourselves might be engaging in doing. Behind infinitely varied scenic configurations,.one might be able to discern a single ritual idiom; behind a multitude of surface differences, a smalt number of structural forms.
Let me admit that these arguments about the relation of ritual to commercial pictures might seem to be a way of making the best of a bad thing, namely, using easily available ads to talk about actual gender behavior. But I am not interested here in behavior in general, only.-in. the displays thaTTridividuals ma into social situations, and
surely this is part of what advertisers try to inject into the scenes -they ■ .compose ■ around the product' and then photograph:- Commercial pictures are in the main entirely po'sed, "mere pictures," at best "realistic." But, of course, the reality they presumably reflect distortedly is itself, in important ways, artificial. For the actuality here at issue is how social situations -are~employed as the sceTuTreTource for constructing visua]ly-ac^essJble-, instantaneous portraits of our claimed humarvnature-. Posed pictures can therefore turn out to be more-substantial than one might have thought, being for students of a community's ritual idiom something like what.. a- ■ written text is. for students of its spoken language. .
GENDER ADVERTFSEMENTS 95
IV
f RELATIVE SIZE
M One way in which social weight-power, authority, rank, office, renown—is echoed expressively in social situations is through relative size, especially ■.hjjgh:^ This congruence is somewhat facilitated among males through occupational selection favoring sjze-a form of circularity, since selection often occurs in social situations where size can bean influence. In the case of interaction between parents and their young children, biology itself assures that social weight will beindexed by the physical kind.
In social interaction between the" sexes, biological dimorphism underlies -the probability that the male's usual jjupejjoritv of status ovexjfe_femajg will be expressible in his greater girth and ■height Seiectiye~lrsaTTng~^ ensure that very nearly every couple will exhibit a height difference in the expected direction, transforming what would otherwise be a statistical tendency into a near certitude. Even in the case-of mere clusters of persons maintaining talk, various forms of occupational, associa-tional, and situational selection markedly increase the biologically grounded possibility that every male participant will bo bigger than every female participapt.•
Now it seems that what biology and social selection facilitate, picture posing rigorously completes:
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Indeed, so thoroughly is it assumed that differences in- size will correlate = with, differences in social, weight 'that'-relative size-can be routinely used as a means of ensuring ■• that'-the- picture's story will be-understandable at a glance;
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when women- are pictured taller than
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not' only subordjnati status; _blfi[aßoTho^
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96    STUDIES IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION
1-3 The theme of relative size is sometimes employed as a basis for symboliza-tion, that is, designing a picture whose every detail speaks to a single thematic issue: ■ ■■■
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II THE FEMININE TOUCH*
Or
11-1 Women,,more than" men, are pictured using: their, fingers and hands to trace the outlines of an object or to cradle it or to caress'its surface (the latter sometimes under the guise of guiding it), or to effect a "just barely touching" of the kind that might be significant between two electrically charged bodies. This ritualistic touching is to be distinguished from the utilitarian kind that grasps, manipulates, or holds:
Mm;
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(continued)
Here and elsewhere in connection with the role of fingers {see Vl-2 and'VI3, pp. 125-126), I draw directly on observations made by Michi ishida, to whom I give thanks.
GENDER ADVERTISEMENTS 97
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98    STUDIES IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION
It«2 Because nothing very prehensile is involved in these ritualistic touchings, the face can be used instead of a hand:
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11*3 Seif-touching can-also be. involved, readable as conveying a sense of one's body being a delieate-and-precious thing:
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GENDER ADVERTISEMENTS 99
II FUNCTION RANKING
JjL_g.ur society whenaman and a 'woman collaborate face^EoTice in~aHun-
y dertaking, the-man—it would seem—is iikefy to 'perform the executive rbie.
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[( sented in advertisements, in part, no : dou bt^To~facT1rtaTFlfrteTp r^BIfTtylira glance.  " ~" ~~
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7The  irony  has  been   noted   that an
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appreciable amount of the advertising aimed at f    '•■^ '
selling supplies for women's household work k **
employs males in the depicted role of in-      __ ..i—   * *——---— .
structing professionals  or employs a male IIM f
celebrity to tout the efficacy' of the product (see Komisar 1972:307).
100    STUDIES IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION
111*2 It is also, pictured outside of oc-cupjlionaL
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: BChalfen (1975:94) reports that in his American sample: "The male head of household used the camera most of the time. In a few cases, a teenage son, who was learning about cameras and filmmaking, took over this responsibility."
111-25
111-2/
(continued)
GENDER ADVERTISEMENTS 101
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\lll*3 Function ranking is also pictured Vmong children, albeit apparently with the understanding that although the little actors are themselves perfectly serious, th,eir activity itself is not, being rather something that touchingly strikes an ahticipatory note. In brief, "cuteness" is involved:9
III »3 b
9
A useful study of gender stereotypes in the illustrations of children's books is provided by Weitzman et al. (1972), for which I am methodologically grateful.
111*4' Al! instruction seems to involv^ some sort of subordination of the instructed and deference for the instructors These expressive features of the learning situation are reinforced by the linking of learning to age-grade subordination throughout most of the individual's learning career. In our society, one form of learning seems especially associated with childsstatus, the "kinaesthetic" form,10 involving a molding physical contact between instructor and instructed. Men seem to be pictured instructing women this way more than the reverse:
IÍI-4
1 The notion of kinaesthetic learning derives from Bateson and Mead (1942:85-86). This book brilliantly pioneered in the use of pictures for study of what can be neatly pictured. The work stimulated a whole generation of anthropologists to take pictures. However, very little analysis was-and perhaps could be—made of what these students collected. Somehow a confusion occurred between human interest and the analytical kind. Dandy movies arid stills were brought home of wonderful people and fascinating events, but to little avail. Much respect and affection was shown the natives and little of either for the analytical use that can be made of pictures.
102    STUDIES IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION
Hi°5 Whenever an adult(jeceives body-addressed help or service from another"^) the resuming action Is likely to involve collaboration of. hands. The recipient guides the action and/or takes over at its terminal phases. (Examples: passing the salt or helping someone on with his coat.) In this way, presumably, the recipient's sense of autonomy is preserved. It is also preserved, of course, by his acquiring those skills through which he can efficiently tend to his own bodily needs. Infants and children, however, must suffer their hands being bypassed while an adult gets on with the job of looking after them.'1 It is understandable, then, that when adults are pictured in real scenes being spoon fed, they are pictured guying the action in some.; way, presumably so the self projected by the act of being fed will not be taken as a reflection of the real one.
Wilkin-; ami tlip .Uni!..:)^: Hni]>ii>i
lll-5o
Admittedly there is the popular notion that members of the aristocratically inclined classes traditionally engaged personal servants to obtain body-connected care that members of the middle classes would want to provide for themselves, ashamedness here being a support of democracy. Of course, correlated with personal servicing was the non-person treatment of those who provided it.
It appears.thatwome^arftiQ^^
•"fr^"men than glvingjLioJtheB^'rtd-arfe-.....
' not   depicted "markedly   Buying, their response:*
II[-5 d
III-5 f
GENDER ADVERTISEMENTS 103
/IJt*6 Which raises the questions of how / males-are-pTctured' when' hi ~th"e" domains
of -the -tradffion^vaaSpi^y^rwJ--^m.-.petenee......'erf "TwSiies^-thej; kitchen, • .the
nursery and the living" room, when..it >is
being cleaned: One answer, borrowed
from"ttf^arRf^oTs1t^
is to picture the male en.pged 'in no ..c^ntributfag"^.......this-, way
avoiding either subordination or... con-Y tam mation^ith'a ^Fecaale?"'..tasik:
111-6 c
m-7<7
111-7 6
i \
l!i-7c
(continued)
104    STUDIES IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION
lll-7s
111-7/
'"'8 ^subtfer^techniq^Jsjtojdjmyjtfxe... male' to pursue the alien activitygmder _the_d irecJLap^ajsjr^ can do^hjjjteW
doing were itse)gb^iJy.3.y.--otl>eing-a-lark "ofXaare.. a smiliLOP^e-face- of the., doe r or the mtch^^ii^tlng^thS'Ssenthl\y uriserious_eisay.ed..Gh-ai=acter'B'f the undertaking?2' /
lll-8o
(continued)
Correspondingly, when females are pictured engaged in a traditionally male task, a male may (as it were) parenthesize the activity, looking on appraisingly, condescendingly, or with wonder:
III-8 fn a
GENDER ADVERTISEMENTS 105
Iii Iii
11
ru-s 6
IV THE FAMILY
The nuclear family as a basic unit of social organization is well adapted to the requirements of pictorial representation. All of the members of almost any actual family can be contained easily within the same close picture, and, properly positioned, a visual representation of the members can nicely serve as asymboliza-tion of the family's social structure.
IV-1 Turning to mocked-up families in advertisements, one finds that the allocation of.;at least one-girl and at least one boy ensures that a symbolization of the full set of intrafamily:relations-can be effected. For example, devices are employed to exhibit the presumed special bond between' the girl and the mother and the- boy and the father; sometimes in the same picture:
1 K*^ft-i^fv^
(continued)
106    STUDIES IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION
IV'2 Although in commercial scenes a unity- is symbolized between fathers and sons and between mothers and daughters, there is a suggestion that different types of unity might be involved. In a word, there is a tendency for women to be pictured- as. more akin to their daughters (and to themselves in younger years) than is the case with men. Boys, as it were, have, to. push their way into manhood, and problematic effort is involved:
/
\
sir
up
m
n
H
'11 U
lV-2d
war Mr^Yr?
'Xlg^ls-Canieia-ActioiT
IV-2 b
1V'2 c
Girls merely have to unfold:
JMtntHL mart camfarthMc thnn WMrine nffHilrtf!
IV-2 e
/ 1
•a r4
(continued)
GENDER ADVERTISEMENTS 107
II
m
fV-2 5
IV-2 i
IV-2 ft
1V*3 Often the father (orin his absence, a son) stands a little outside the,physical c ircl e of the o ther mem bets of the fam il y, as 'if ■ tOMexpress-v:;a«irelatf,Qnship..whose protectiveness is linked with, perhaps even requires, distance:
IV-3 a
IV-3 6
IV-2 ;
IV-3c
(continued)
108    STUDIES IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION
An interesting contrast is to be found in turn-of-the-century portrait poses of couples, wherein the effect was often achieved of displaying the man as the centra! figure and the woman as backup support, somewhat in,the manner of a chief lieutenant. I cite from Lesy (1973):
^If—
ti* A
IV-3 to a
IV-3 f/7 c
IV-3 fn d
5Perhaps the contrast be-I tween past I and current portraits less betokens a change in underlying social organization than in conventions of expression within the I picture for-
lv-3 fn e
GENDER ADVERTISEMENTS 109
is «di«; ci^iu «v runes
o stop going up?"
IV-3 /
V THE RITUALIZATION ORDINATION
OF SUB-
V'1 A classic stereotype of deference is that of lowering oneself physically in some form or other of prostration. Correspondingly, holding the body:.ereC;|,:arid/> the head high is stereo typically a mark of unashamedness, superiority, and, .disdain. Advertisers draw on (and endorse) the claimed universality of the theme:
110    STUDIES IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION
V-1 h
v-iy
V»2 Beds and floors provide places in social situations where incumbent persons will be lower than .anyone sitting on a chair or standing; Floors also are associated with the. less-clean, lesspure,iess-exalted parts of a room—for example, the place to keep dogs, baskets of soiled clothes, street footwear, and the like. And a recumbent position is one from which physical defense of oneself can least well be initiated and therefore one which renders one very dependent on the benignness of the surround. (Of course,^ lying on the floor or on a sofa or bed J seems also to be a conventionalized ex- i pression of sexual availability;) The poinf ; here is that it appears that children and I women are pictured on floors and beds j more<thanare men.
V-2 6
V-2c
V-2 e
(continued) GENDER ADVERTISEMENTS lit
V-2 ^ V2 A
The Girl Who Has Everything Plus
V-2 /
V"3 Although  (ess so than in some, ^elevation seems to be employed indica-tively in our society, high physical place symbolizing high social place. (Courtrooms provide an example.) In contrived' scenes in advertisements, men~Tend-to~be"' JQcagnnTisfier th an' Women ,~th~us ai so wing eleyatic^^o-be■ expioited a^-a'delineaOve' J$j®liirc©A,*~Acertain amount of contort /fen may be required. Note, this arrangement is supported by the understanding in our society that courtesy obliges men to favor women with first claim on \yhatever is available by way of a seat, 'j
V-3b
(continued)
14 !n such pictures as I have of actual scenes, the same tendency holds.
112    STUDIES IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION
V-3/
GENDER ADVERTISEMENTS 113
114    STUDIES IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION
V«4 Women frequently, men very infrequently, ' are< posed. in a disolworiiTe r'bashnii..kne,e bend," Whatever else, the | JcQfee. bend..can be read as a foregoing-ef-full effort to be. prepared and.^~Jtha_ "re^y^'fr?^^^ for _
jr^^^^i^^^tsmxaament to-any effort I tOi^hfooCiiflee^Qnce again one finds a "p^ureTTat "seems to presuppose the" goodwill of anyone in the surround who could offer harm. Observe—as will be seen throughout—that a sex-typed subject is not so much involved as a format for constructing a picture. One female in a picture may perform the gesture and another serve as the support that allows the performance. So a two-role formula is at issue, not necessarily two sexes:
V-4 b
GENDER ADVERTISEMENTS 115
V-5 Having somewhat the same distribution in ads as the knee bend are canting postures. Although a distinction can be made between body cant and head cant, the consequences seem to be much the same. The level of the head is lowered relative to that of others, including, indirectly, the viewer of the picture. The resulting configurations can be read as an acceptance "of subordination, an expression of■ingratiation, submissiveness> and appeasement:
V«5 i Body cant:
V'5 i b
15 From Darwin (1872:53, Fig. 6).
V-5 i f V-5 ii c
(continued)
116    STUDIES IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION
3 , 1 O
V-5 ii r"
t      1 *\ Nv-v;
fir*1 '
V-5 ii /j
V°6 Smiles, it can  be argued, often function as ritualistic mollifiers, signaling thatK:-,riothiriig'-"agOri!strc is intended., or invited, that the meaning of the other's act" has'- been/understood and found acceptable, that, indeed; the other is approved  and -appreciated. Those who warily keep an eye on the movements of a potential aggressor may find themselves automatically smiling should their gaze be "caught" by its object, who in turn may find little cause to smile back. In addition, a responding smile (even more so an appreciative laugh) following very rapidly on the heels of a speaker's sally can imply that the respondent belongs, by knowl-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-sexed encounters in American society, women smile more, and more expansively, than men,16 which arrangement appears to be carried over into advertisements,   perhaps with  little conscious intent.
IS
■Hi
V-6o
(continued)
V-5 ii 3
16 See the (1973:49).
comments    in Weisstein
GENDER ADVERTISEMENTS 117
V-6 e
V«7 Given the subordinated and indulged position of children in regard to adults, it would appear that to present oneself in packish'-styling-is toencourage the corresponding treatment. How much of this guise is found in real life, is an open question; but found it is in advertisements.
118    STUDIES IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION
V-7 k
\A8 The note of uiiserioiisness struck by a childlike guise is struck by another styling of the self, this one perhaps entirely restricted to advertisements, namely, the use of the entire body as a playful'' gesticulative device; a sort of body .clowning-;
V-8c
(continued)
GENDER ADVERTISEMENTS 119
V-S f
\S A
ssssm
HB
HC
V-9 The special unseriousness involved in childlike guises and clowning suggests a readiness to be present in a social situation garbed and styled in a manner to which one isn't deeply or irrevocably committed. Perhaps reflected here is a readiness to try out various guises and to appear at various times in different ones, Tn~any case, in advertfsementsTat
least,
there seems to be an unanticipated difference between men and women«jMen_are~ displayed in forma!, business, and in-. foWaT^f, and alth^
V-S g
Ttood thai the ■ same..; indiyidual^-wiH-iit different times appear ini'-al^-rfiieisfe-' ipuisesf _ ""each guise seems to afford him something " he is totally serious _ab_au.t,_and-deeply"" id en tiffed with,' as thou gh jvearing a s kin, no'ra"Costume:^ve'n'"!ri' the case of the cowboy garb that urban males affect recreationaily,  little sense that one's whole appearance is aJark_,would seem to be present Women in ads seem to have a different relationship "to their clothing " "arrdto the gestures worn with it. Within ~ea"cfr~6road category (formal, busmess~ informal) there are choices which are considerably different one from another, and the sense is that one may as well try out various possibilities to see what comes of it.^As though life were j series of costume ban^TTTTuvoTie^caFoccasion-Ifliy modon?5 own appearance, for identification is not deep.^Jt m|gjr^jbe_. argued, Jh^,_^M--^&^^ums^Lks^. ■^h-araEE^
Trtents !ocates-"women-as'-st|ess':*seriously. ■ presentTff "social' sftuattoris':than- meri, the ' seff-prcsCTrtt!ththrotrgh'get-ups~bein If / in' a way ah" unserijKis Ihmg^Observe t.haK T!Te~extensionofthis argument to real life need not involve a paradox. It is a j common view that women spe.nd much 1 more of. their....time and., concern in , shopping for clothes and.preparing for 1 appearances than  do men, and that women . set considerable store on the appreciative or depreciative-.response they , produce thereby. But, of course, so does an actor in a part he will never play again. A concern over carrying an appearance off does not necessarily imply a deep and abiding identification with that appearance. (This argument fits with the fact that women's styles change much more rapidly than do men's,)
(continued)
V
STUDIES IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION
UtlfN CASUALS,
IliiBllii^iil
V-9(
V-9f
tenu too mum lor «om<
»1_    *.      ^*srf -
»1
ft
>
fi
V-9<?
rQno'5r minus ATitncu
f °    «   r * i
J1 a. L Cf
LI
V-9 A
V*10 Adults play (mock assault games with children,(*games such as chase-and-capture and grab-and-squeeze) The child is playfully treated like a prey under attack by a predator. Certain materials j (pillows, sprays of water, light beach—-balls) provide missiles that can strike but not hurt.  Other materials provide a medium into which-the captured body can be-thrown safely—beds,.snow banks, pools, arms._Nowjt turns out that men—^: play these gameffhvith women, the latter - collaborating- through ■ a "display   of -aUernpts to "escape and . tfirough -cries-of. a\armr~f&fa*ty&<$PP£&zm^Qti. (Figure daTiclng~provides occasioTTTor an institu-""^ tionalized example, the partners who are swung off their feet never being men.) Of course, underneath this show a man may be engaged in a deeper one, the suggestion of what he could do if he got serious about it. Jn part'because mock assault is "fun"- and more likely in holiday scenes than in work scenes, it is much represented in advertisements:
V-10<7
V-10i>
(continued)
GENDER ADVERTISEMENTS 121
V-10/ V-10/J
(continued)
122    STUDIES IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION
V>10o
V-10 r
VTJ\ A male pictured- with a female .•sometimes appears to employ an. ex-■ tended arm;, iri effect- marking■ the boundary • of his social • property and guardthfit&against encroachment. A suggestion is that this miniature border patrol is especially found when the female at the same time is engaged in a ursjxHVwiich accords her authority.
GENDER ADVERTISEMENTS 123
V*12 There seem to be four main behavioral arrangments of pairs of persons which provide what is taken to be a physical expression that the. two are a "with," that is, together as a social unit with respect to the social situation in which they are located. (In all four cases, note, the work these dyadic tie-signs do in defining the relationship between figures in a picture would seem to be much the same as the work they do in real social situations.)
V*12 i First, a matter of fniiroecology: sitting or standing close and alongside, with . or withoyt ,■ touching. This arrangement is symmetrical in physical character and social implication, no differentiation of role or rank being in itself conveyed:
124    STUDIES IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION
V*12 ii The "arm lock" is the basic tie-sign in Western societies for marking that a woman is under the protective custody of the accompanying man. Although most commonly sustained between husband and wife, no sexual or legal link is necessarily advertised through it; father and grown daughter, man and best friend's wife may also employ it. The sign is asymmetric both in terms of its physical configuration and what it indicates. However nominally, the woman shows herself-to be receiving support, and both the man's hands are free for whatever, instrumental.tasks may arise:
V-12 ii c
(continued)
V-12 iij The "shoulder hold" is an asymmetrical configuration' more or less requiring that the person,holding be taller tha^-'the-vpersoa^heldi^and^that-ifee^held person accept direction and constraint. Typically the arrangement seems to be dyadically irreversible. When employed by a cross-sexed adult pair, the sign seems to be takenvt6'')ridicatesexualiy-pbfential proprietary ship;
■BHHBSEBI
V-12 iii d
V-12iiio
V-12HU
t        Was r f&fvVr* *t jr*V
GENDER ADVERTISEMENTS 12S
V»12 iv Finally, hand-holding. When employed between adult male and female, hand-holding appears to be taken to indicate a sexually potential/exclusive relationship.17 A relatively symmetrical tie-sign presumably expressing relative, equality. Physical asymmetry Is to be detected in the tendency for the male to hold the female hand, this allowing the indication that he is presumably free to let go quickly should an emergency arise and free to guide and direct. The physical fact that the back of his hand is likely to be facing what is upcoming can faintly symbolize protectiveness:
V-12 iv b
The directing potential of hand-holding can be made apparent in ads:
V-12 iv d
particular are considered in Goffman (1971:188-237).
V-12 ivf
So also another theme, that of the male providing a safe tether:
126    STUDIES IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION
VI LICENSED WITHDRAWAL
Women, more than men, it seems, are pictured engaged in involvements which remove, them?1 psychologically from, the social situation at large, leaving them unortented in it and to it, and presumably, therefore, dependent on the protectiveness.-andv-goodwill of others who. are (or might come to be)..present.,.
VM When emotional response causes an individual to lose control of his facial posture, that is, to "flood out," he can partly conceal the lapse by turning away from the others present or by covering his face/especially his mouth, with his hands. Realization of the kind associated with the young is involved, for the act cannot conceal that something is being concealed, and furthermore requires momentary blindness to everything around oneself—this being a particularly empty and maladaptive response when the withdrawal is itself a response to a real threat.
VIA i Remorse:
VH i *
1
VM i e
VM i f
VM ii Fear:
vH ii a
(continued)
GENDER ADVERTISEMENTS 127
VI-'. .
128    STUDIES IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION
Vhi iv Laughter:...
EÁDY! AIM! TEE HEE!
VH iva
VI-1 iv e
Vl*2 just as covering the mouth with the hand can be an attenuation of covering the face; so a finger brought to the mouth" cSníbTran "'a'ttih'U'ation'-of "covering it with the hand. But here another ritual-ization seems more common: ■ the attenuation of sucking or biting the finger. The impression is given that somehow a stream of anxiety, rumination, or whatever, has been split off from the main course of attention and is being sustained in a dissociated, unthinking fashion. In any case, the face is partly covered as though one could see but not be seen and were therefore free to engage hand and face outside the stream of face-to-face address:
Vl-2t
(continued) GENDER ADVERTISEMENTS 129
VI-2 f
"3«.
VI-2 /
(continued)
VI-2/I
130    STUDIES IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION
V!-2o
(continued) GENDER ADVERTISEMENTS 131
I
VI -5 o
v>6 In real social situations and in pictured ones, the--'individuaf.:;ga|i^tb' draw his gaze "from: the scene at large (with the dependency and trust that this implies) and lock it in such a way as to give the impress!on of having only minor dissociated .= concern with what is thus seen, even as his mindhas wandered from ■■evfir^^ng^^^ituatiort^psyeh'olygi^I-Iy,:he is(^aw'ay.'(Doodling and middle distance loofe are examples, although it should be kept in mind that these two practices can also figure in another arrangement,, the one in which the individual aurally attends to what is being said by another while making it apparent that nothing he can see is competing for attention.)
Vl-6 b
----
(continued)
134    STUDIES IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION
An interesting object on which to lock an away look is the hands, for this focus not only can convey some sort of self-enclosure; but also can require a downward turning of the head, submissiveness being.. ■a*vposs"ibler,"-eo'nsequerit' interpretation:
Vi-6g
JH5BM
lita™
Vl*7 In advertisements women are shown mentally drifting from the physicalscene around them (that is, going "away") while in close physical touch with a.male, as though his aliveness to the surround and his readiness to cope with anything.-vthat;.míght^presentBÍtself - were enough for both of them. (At the same time, the male may well wear a wary, monitoring look.) Thus, "anchored drifts." Various points of visual focus are found.
Vl«7 i Middle distance:
„^^^^
KS.
Vl-7iŕ>
i^filiiliSiPSiiSiillii
»»■■^■■09
VI-7U
VI-7 i rf
VI-7 i ŕ
Vl-7\f
f.  í' - • -
f,    í *
i    1 *
Vi-7 i </
(continued)
GENDER ADVERTISEMENTS 135
(continued)
136    STUDIES IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION
V!-7 iiic
GENDER ADVERTISEMENTS 137
VI-8 Maintaining a telephone conversation necessarily means some withdrawal of attention from the immediate scene at hand, with attendant lack of orientation to, and readiness for, events that might occur therein. This can be controlled by limiting the . length of calls and one's involvement in what is talked about. In advertisemeutev-^men^^areK^sometimes shown ■.luxuriating.-an. a.: call) immersing themselves in a 'dreamy and presumably prolonged way.
VI-8 c
Vl*9 In advertisements, women are not only posed lying on the floor or in a bed, but also at the same time bending their legs as though that part of the body were being employed in a dissociated way, as in doodling, except here the dissociated behavior is large scale, as might therefore be the attention it withdraws from the scene at large:
IF FROM 6 TO 9 INCHES iN JUCT3;D^S;OR^U?rj
Vi-9c
VMO It has already been remarked that in ads women, more than men, appear to withdraw themselves from the social situation at hand through involvements, including emotional response. Significant here are the: responses of -pleasure, delight,'-laughter,-:and glee^-statesof being transported by happiness. Perhaps the implication is that a woman—like a child with an ice cream cone—can find some sort of final satisfaction in goals that can be fully realized in the present.20 In consequence, a consummatory "flooding out":
1 ml
_(continued)_VHP a_
2 0
A . similar argument is suggested by Komisar (1972:306-307):
if television commercials are to be believed, most American women go into uncontrollable ecstasies at the sight and smell of tables and cabinets that have-been lovingly caressed with long-lasting, satin-finish, lemon-scented, spray-on furniture poiish. Or they g!ow with rapture at the bfinding whiteness of their wash—and the green-eyed envy of their neighbors. The housewife in the Johnson's Wax commercial hugs the dining room tabie because the shine is so wonderful; then she polishes herseif into a corner and has to jump over the furniture to get out. Bold detergent shows one woman in deep depression because her wash is not as bright as her neighbor's.
Observe that in advertisements, instead of our being shown a woman's flood of pleasure upon receipt of a present from a man, we may be shown the scene that might have just preceded that one, namely, the "Guess What?" scene, wherein the man holds something beyond the vision of the woman (sometimes by obliging her to cover her eyes} and teasingly invites her to guess what her life is about to be enriched by, the prospect of which is seen to throw her into a state of joyous torment. Another version has the giver spring the surprise without warning, in consequence of which the recipient momentarily loses all self-control, breaking into a flutter of pleasure. These teasing uses of indulgence are, of course, commonly employed by parents in connection with their children, and are to be considered alongside of another playful threat to equilibrium, one already touched on, namely, mock assault.
138    STUDIES IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION
Vi'lOe VMO/
/   A corollary is that when a male and /    female are pictured in a euphoric state, '     the. female is likely to be exhibiting a more expansive expression than is the male, which in turn fits with the argu-V    ment already made and illustrated that in \   our society women smile more than \ men—both in real scenes and in com-\mercially contrived ones:
(continued)
GENDER ADVERTISEMENTS 139
VHOo
VM1 it is possible to look in on a social situation from a distance or from behind a one-way panel—a "participation shield"—and be little seen oneself, in which case one can, in effect, partake of the events but not be exposed to scrutiny or address, A splitting up thus results between some of the gains and some of the costs of fape-to-face interaction. 1 might note that when one's participation is thus shielded, simultaneous maintenance of dissociated side involvements would seem to be facilitated, since these could hardly intrude between oneself and one's availability to the others in the situation-one not being available at all.
.1 ,, j
A ritualization of participation shielding occurs, when one presents oneself as if on the""edg&™ofiv:.th&ssituation^iors;otherwise shielded from it physically, when in fact one is quite accessible to those in it. Still further ritualization is found in ■■commercial posings.
VM1 i  At the edge:
VMtifl
VI-11 ib
(continued).
140    STUDIES IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION
VI-11 \ fnc vi-11 iic
GENDER ADVERTISEMENTS 141
VI'11 iii Fftim"''behih'd"lntrn"i!st
Vf-11 iii c
VI-11 iv From behind a person (with the consequent opportunity to overlay distance with a differentiating^expressjon, in the extreme, collusive betrayal of one's shield):
VI-11 ivc
142    STUDIES IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION
GENDER ADVERTISEMENTS 143
Fit
m It sl
$,
;;|
VI-11 iv r
VI-11 ivx
VI-11 iv u
VI-11 iv;:
■  I    ' *
VI-11 iv vi/
It should not be assumed that mere physical placement is involved here. Men are routinely pictured in a rear position in a manner implying anything but coyness and dependence,(see, for example, the pictures in IV-3 and V-11). As typical in these matters, the same verbal description of relative "physical" position could be equally applied to cover radically different effects. For the 'effective reading of his text, the writer depends upon effective, viewing by his readers—words here serving to point, not specify.
VH2 Snuggling: among primates the very young turn, or are turned, into their mothers' bodies for comfort and protection, sometimes further cut off from the surrounding situation by enclosure within her arms. Perhaps the suckimg'position is trW-prototype, although for a chiid any adult in. a parental role seems qualified as something to snuggle into.23 As the child grows tip, the insulation=;o.mis«Rractice objectively provides from the surrounding scene decreases progressively; eventually the withdrawal achieved this way can only be ritualistic. Whatever the biologi-cal:;röo.tSr.ofethis snuggling practice, it is a resouree'K.-.in,-,„the .fejJTUi}atinj^,..pf, commercial.pictures.
VM2 i Children:
VH2U
(continued)
23An ethblogical position on these postures is presented in Eibl-Eibes'feidt (1972:120-124). I am very grateful to Professor Eibl-Ebesfeldt for permission to reprint these three pictures (V-7o, VM'IH'j; and VI-1 iii£>) from Love and Hate.
144
STUDIES IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION
VM2iic
(continued)
GENDER ADVERTISEMENTS 145
VM2iii Sitting:
VM2iiirf   ' VM2iii/r
(continued)
146    STUDIES IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION
VI-12 iii /
V I -1 2 iv c
(continued)
' GENDER ADVERTISEMENTS 147
Vi-12 v c
148
STUDIES IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION
vi-i:
blue .shirt isiilt wh*jHHittei1 *obt\
VI -1 2 v /
VI-13 Nuzzling—apparently an attenuated form of snuggling—involves employment of the face and especially the nose as a sort of surrogate or substitute for tucking in the. whole body. Nuzzling, then, would seem to constitute a form of partial withdrawal from full availability to the situation at large. What one finds, in pictures at least, is that women nuzzle children but men apparently do not. Indeed, women are sometimes pictured nuzzling objects.^. And, of course, women are pictured nuzzling men.
1 "S»
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13 a
VI-13 c
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VI-13 d
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(continued)
GENDER ADVERTISEMENTS 149
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VM4 The process whereby an individual snuggles into another seems anything but.impersonal, and yet is (I feel}'related ' to sbmething that has an impersonal cast, namely, the-ase-of ■another's'body as if it were something that could be used at will,- without'apparent -reference to its possessor, as an object to lean on or rest one's-limbs-*0nj^in--shorty as a physical resource, not a socially responsive one. In many cases, note/such leaning use of another seems to be an attenuated, very ritualized, form of snuggling. Note also that a non-sexual implication is present in the contact,1 and that, in advertisements at *least«'"Women (much as do children with respect to adults) apparently have Iicense"to use more of a -"man's.,,body in this u til itar4an»way^ than - the. reverse. The assumption seems to be that a woman is lessKlikelyKtosffihavefsexual in ten t ■ than > a mahj'-and that- her use of his body.-.is ther©fore4ess^uspect-than- h isuse of hers. (Of course, an added, factor is the understanding that he will be able to bear her weight much easier than she his.). Note, the configurations here considered involve individuals in a personal relationship;-typically a sexually potential/one. Among the less close, the license to touch follows a different pattern. Men can punctuate their, verbal, "interaction with, women by showing support, protective-ness, good will, and parent-like affection,-through the laying on of the hand, a license apparently less available to women (and other subordinates) in their dealings with men (see Henley 1973).
VI-14 a
ISO    STUDIES IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION
VI-14 e
(continued)
Vl-H f
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v>15 A very standardized two-person asymmetrical configuration observable in real life and often in pictures is the "grief embrace." Ail combinations of sex are found in the two roles, except, apparently, that women are not pictured providing this sort of comfort to men.24 Whether in life or in pictures, one is provided here with a nice example of formalization-the reduction of multiple configurations to a rather set ritualistic maneuver:
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VI-15 a
(continued)
VI-15 A
24This distribution is not, I think, the basic one in our society. For there are many ritual practices of a supportive, bonding kind that women can extend to women or men, that men can extend to women, but that men can't extend to men. Kissing and terms of endearment such as "honey," "dear," "love," are examples, indeed, a wide range of supportive practices may have a common, natural social ihistory, beginning as something adults extend to children and then moving on through the following sequence of accretions; women-to-women, women-to-men, men-to-women, rnen-to-men.
GENDER ADVERTISEMENTS 151
Vf-T5 c
VI-15 d
VM6 The grief embrace appears to manifest itself in an attenuated, hyper-ritualized form, namely, arm support given as evidence of sonie soft' of commendation or' mora! approval. Again, in commercial pictures, women do not seem to be shown giving this support to men.
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(continued)
152    STUDIES IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION
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GENDER ADVERTISEMENTS 153
/\F Under display have been "natural" expressions of /   V   gender insofar as these can be represented in com-(   mercial advertising .through, .visually....accessible...behavioral style. I believe that upon examination these expressions turn out to be illustrations of ntual-hke bits of behavior which portray an- ideali qonce-ptjori of the two sexes and their' structural relationship to each other, accomplishing this in' part by indicating, again ideally, the^aJigmrient of me-actor in' l\the soiiaUrujatipc,
Commercial photographs, of course, involve carefully performed poses presented in .the style of being "only natural." But it is argued that actual gender expressions are artful poses, too.
From the perspective of ritual, then, what is the difference between the scenes depicted in advertisements and scenes from actual life? One answer might be "hyper-ritual-PTzatiort." The standardization, exagge rati on, and si mplifica-tion that characterize:rituals; in^ne^^^ posings found to an extended degrce'xSflelT.l^i^edTas jiabyjshness, mockery, a*nd" other forms of unseriousness. Another answer is found in the process of editing. A commercial photograph is a ritualization of social ideals with all the occasions and senses in which the ideal is not exhibited having been cut away, edited out of what is made available. In ordinary life we conspire to provide the same kind of "natural" expressions, but-we can only do this by means of behavioral style or at particular junctures in our course of activity—moments of ceremony, occasions for giving sympathy, sudden access to friends, and similar junctures in the daily round, as determined by a schedule we know little about as yet. So both in advertisements and life we are interested in colorful poses, in externalization; but in life we are, in addition, stuck with a considerable amount of dull footage. Nonetheless, whether we pose for a picture or execute an actual ritual action, What we are- presenting is- a
commercial,-an ideal repie^entatioh'imo^r the auspices of.its characterizing the~way things really are, When^Tlnarnrrreat life'"ttg}rte~a~CTgarette forlTwornan, the. presupposition is that females are worthy objects, physically limited in some way, and that they should be helped out in all their transitions. But this "natural" expression of the relation between the sexes, this little interpersonal ritual, may be no more an actual reflection of the relationship between the sexes than is the couple pictured in the cigarette ad a representative couple. Natural expressions are commercials perforjned to sell avejikyLflfthe world under conditions no less
questionable and treacherous than the ones that advertisers' faceT ~
By and large, advertisers do not create the ritualized /'expressions they employ; they seem to draw upon'the same corpus of displays, the same ritual idiom, that is the resource of all of us who participate in social situations, and to the same end: the rendering of glimpsed: action readable. If anything, advertisers.conventionalize our conventions, stylize what is already- a stylization, make frivolous use of what is already something considerably cut off from contextual ..controls-.- Their hype is hyper-ritualization.
REFERENCES CITED
Bateson, Gregory, and Margaret Mead
1942 The Balinese Character. New York: New York Academy of Science. Chalfen, Richard
1975 Cinema Naivete: A Study of Home Moviemaking as Visual Communication. Studies in the Anthropology of Visual Communication 2:87jäi03.
Chance, M. R. A. P<
1962 An Interpretation of Some Agonistic Postures: The Role of "Cut-Off" Acts and Postures. Symposium of the Zoological Society of London 8:71-89. Darwin, Charles
1872 On the Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. London: John Murray. Eibl-Eibesfeldt, Irenaus
1972 Love and Hate. Geoffrey Strachan, trans. New York: iHolt, Rinehart and Winston.
Goffman, Erving
1971 Relations in Public. New York: Basic Books. 1974  Frame Analysis. New York: Harperand Row.
■ Henley, Nancy
1973 The Politics of Touch. In Radical Psychology. Phi! Brown, ed. Pp. 421-433. New York: Harper and Row.
Komisar, Lucy
1972 The Image of Woman in Advertising. In Woman in Sexist Society. Vivian Gprnick and Barbara K. Moran, eds. New York: New American Library.
Lesy, Michael
1973 Wisconsin Death Trip. New York: Pantheon. Robinson, Dwight E.
1976 Fashions in Shaving and Trimming of the Beard: The Men of the Illustrated London News, 1842-1972. American Journal of Sociology 81{5):113M141.
Sudnow, David
1972 Temporal Parameters of Interpersonal Observation. In Studies in Social Interaction. David Sudnow, ed. Pp. 259-279. New York: The Free Press.
Weisstein, Naomi
1973 Why We Aren't Laughing Any More, MS 2:49-90. Weitzman,  Lenore   j.,   Deborah   Eifler,  Elizabeth  Hokada, and Catherine Ross
1972 Sex-Role Socialization in Picture Books for Preschool Children. American Journal of Sociology 77(6):1125-1150.
154    STUDIES IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION