SOC212H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Body Modification, Clothing Sizes, Erving Goffman
Lecture 11: Bodies
Physical appearance
• Appearance is important
- Factors into how we judge others (judgement) and how people judge us in our appearance (interaction)
• Pereptios of deiat appearaes hage oertie
- Contrary to social norms (quite a negative connotation however)
• Voluntary appearance
- Result of a choice in clothing, tattoos, makeup, etc
• Involuntary appearance
- Limited or no choice (height, visible disabilities, etc)
• Blurred boundaries over time and place
Body Projects
• Schilling, 1993
• Body projects – ways we adapt, change or control our bodies (4 different ways)
- Camouflaging – normative processes (link up your appearance to resemble social norms/blending in)
- Extending – overcoming pereied physical limitation (building up to counteract short height)
- Adapting – removing or repairing (parts of the body/physical appearance)
- Redesigning – reconstruction
What do bodies tell us?
• Objective – characteristics of the person (height, etc)
• Subjective – characteristics of society, social relationship and self (tattoos, clothing, etc)
• You can make assumptions about the characteristics of a person by looking at their bodies
- This can be objective element rather than subjective
Body projects
• Body modification
- Form of redesigning
- Tattoos, piercings
- Illustration changes over time – back in the old days, people would go see circus to see women with tattoos
but now it is quite the norm
• Body size/weight
- Form of adapting
- Pervasive in medicine, media, education, commercial industry (weight loss $167 billion industry)
- We can see this in daily interaction
Body modification
• History
- In Christian era, body modification had to with religious affiliation
- Durig Europea oloializatio, it as see as priitie sie idigeous folks ould do this eotiess
◼ Appreciated but othered/subordinated
- Late 18-19th century, it was seen in carnivals
find more resources at oneclass.com
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- 1950s, tattoos were linked with naval masculinity (working class)
• Pervasiveness within popular culture
• Undergraduate students
- Now, 22% have tattoos and 51% have body piercings
- Canada – 22% of adult Canadians have tattoos (in US, 21%)
• Gender differences
- Women are more likely to have tattoos than men
- In Canada, 24% of adult women have tattoos while 20% are men
• Age differences
- Younger people (18-34) are more likely to have tattoos 36%, (35-54) 24% and (55+) 8%
• Provincial differences
- BC is 28%, QC is 25% AB is 23% MB is 20% and ON is 19%
• This parallels in US also (age and gender differences)
• Tattoos and Piercing Rights Agency (STAPAW)
- Support tattoos and piercings at work
- 42% adult Americans have tattoos and 38% Canadians
- Limit discrimination of tattoos and piercings at work
What do modified bodies tell us?
• We make assumptions about people based upon how they look (often come down to tattoos and piercings)
• Characteristics of the individual
- Risk – they may be more risky in terms of psychological elements and their behaviors
- Motivation – it can come down to beauty, fashion, art, aesthetic or identity formation or body control or
asserting your individuality
Dramaturgy
• Goffman theory – understandings of the self through interaction
- People live their lives as actors performing on a stage
• Looks at micro sociological accounts of social interactions (face to face interactions between people)
• Viewed the self and social interactions through metaphor of theatre
- Our social interactions are what actors do on stage – present differently depending on the situation
- Socialization consists of learning how to play our assigned roles from other people
- We enact our roles in the company of others who enacted their roles in the interaction with us
- Whatever we do, whenever we do it, we are playing out some role in the stage of life
- People act differently depending on who is around them
• Dramaturgical approach
- Impression management
◼ A perso’s efforts to create specific impressions in the minds of others
◼ Our desire to otour or aipulate others’ ipressios of us o the frot stage
- Front stage – everything in your everyday life, where we spend most time and deliver our lines and perform
- Back stage – priate area, do’t eed to at, a e real seles ad pratie ad prepare for retur to frot
• You can have both going on at the same time (in a classroom)
- Front stage – present yourself as paying attention
- Back stage – i our id, ou’re orried about what you have to do
• Social setting in impression management – physical space where interactions will occur
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Factors into how we judge others (judgement) and how people judge us in our appearance (interaction: per(cid:272)eptio(cid:374)s of (cid:862)de(cid:448)ia(cid:374)t(cid:863) appeara(cid:374)(cid:272)es (cid:272)ha(cid:374)ge o(cid:448)erti(cid:373)e. Contrary to social norms (quite a negative connotation however: voluntary appearance. Result of a choice in clothing, tattoos, makeup, etc. Limited or no choice (height, visible disabilities, etc: blurred boundaries over time and place. Body projects: schilling, 1993, body projects ways we adapt, change or control our bodies (4 different ways) Extending overcoming (cid:862)per(cid:272)ei(cid:448)ed(cid:863) physical limitation (building up to counteract short height) Camouflaging normative processes (link up your appearance to resemble social norms/blending in) Adapting removing or repairing (parts of the body/physical appearance) This can be objective element rather than subjective. Illustration changes over time back in the old days, people would go see circus to see women with tattoos but now it is quite the norm: body size/weight. Pervasive in medicine, media, education, commercial industry (weight loss billion industry) We can see this in daily interaction.
