SOC 2 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Femininity, Body Hair
Lecture 9: 2/8/18
Front (aka front stage)
• The part of the performance that functions in a general and fixed fashion to define the
situation for the audience
• Consists of things that performer uses to prove legitimacy of performance
Backstage
• Places beyond audience’s view
• Backstage activity: anything that is/should be out of the audience’s sight
• Ex. something that a kid does is hilarious, but wrong -> parent must hide the
laugh to be able to discipline child
Parts of the Front
• Setting: relatively permanent backdrops for performances
• Personal front: the expressive equipment identified with a performer that we expect to
follow him/her
Parts of personal front
• Appearance: things that convey social status
• Race, age, gender, class status, clothing
• Manner: things that convey interactional role that performer expects to take in situation
• First date: holding the door for date
• Appearance and manner coincide
• Ex. if date dresses up, we expect them to be flirtatious
• Can be conveyed through objects (props) that can affect performance and
project relevant symbolic information
• Props are not symbols -> are not universal meanings; they are
manipulative based on the situation
The Performed Self
• Do all audiences matter?
• Depends on the audience
• Hierarchies of audiences (certain ones are more important than others based on
setting)
• Friends and family are important in most settings even when they are not
physically there: “what would my friends/family think of me if I ___?”
• What selves that we perform
Performance of Status
• Situated status: roles that get taken up and set aside as the occasion demands
• Ex. polite customer/worker; good student
• Master statuses:
• Roles socially constructed as more important and stable
• Ex. partner and child relationship
Performing Gender
• The basic idea:
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