The Codes of Gender-Ritualization of Subordination

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Written and directed by MEF Executive Director Sut Jhally, The Codes of Gender applies the late sociologist Erving Goffman’s groundbreaking analysis of advertising to the contemporary commercial landscape, showing how one of American popular culture’s most influential forms communicates normative ideas about masculinity and femininity.

In striking visual detail, The Codes of Gender explores Goffman’s central claim that gender ideals are the result of ritualized cultural performance, uncovering a remarkable pattern of masculine and feminine displays and poses.

It looks beyond advertising as a medium that simply sells products, and beyond analyses of gender that focus on biological difference or issues of objectification and beauty, to provide a clear-eyed view of the two-tiered terrain of identity and power relations.

"It was an interesting concept and a generally good insight in gender and media, but I feel like he drolled on and I found myself falling asleep when he was speaking. And, it seemed like a production a university student would make, what with the lack of music, the monotonous narration and the weird orange background.

It's a good topic to discuss, but just presented in a rather boring way, in my opinion. They should have gotten someone more lively when they spoke.

As for the content, it speaks of the power of hegemony. Women and men alike consider the sexually available, fragile, child like, submissive female to be "sexy." I won't lie, I do find it sexy. But that's because of where I live, my gender expectations and how I operate within the code. It's changed somewhat now, but generally, the code still applies.

I would have liked to see more analysis of the impact of images of men on men themselves. I feel like there's the adverse affect of making me STRIVE to be like them, physically, but still the emphasis on strength. Whereas with women, to be sexy, it means to be weak."

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"Thought it was pretty good, its pretty much on par with a lot of stuff on the vigilant citizen website especially when talking about the objectification of women and the sexualisation of children. One thing I dont understand is the parents of these children, how could any parent be comfortable with their child being dressed up as an adult and posing in sexual ways. Things like that are pretty damaging to a person not just that its like they are saying its ok and its normal when its just so wrong. Certainly opened my eyes to another dimension of how the media advertises, thought the research it was based on was pretty spot on!!"

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http://alyssasblog.wordpress.com/2009/03/08/ritualization-of-subordination/

Ritualization of Subordination

I realize that the last post that I wrote about magazine covers probably did not delve into enough detail about Erving Goffman’s five categories  that he uses to put women into when dealing with different advertising methods.

My next posts will hopefully inform you a little more about the different categories. This post is about the ritualization of subordination. To recap, Erving Goffman is a Canadian and American sociologist who did research on the way women are portrayed in advertisements.

The category ritualization of subordination means that women are constantly being portrayed lying down on their sides or their backs, physically positioning them closer to the ground, instead of standing up tall and holding their bodies erect, like men often times do. By lowering themselves, this symbolizes being less in control of oneself.

Often times, models will be positioned to lie on beds, couches, floors or anything that can be lounged on, to show their sexual availability. Other ideas that stem off from this category of ritualization of subordination are the knee bend and the body or head cant.

This is a photo of a Petra Nemcova, a model, television host and author, positioned sexually on a couch, displaying Goffman's idea of ritualization of subordination. Photo is from everystockphoto.com.

The knee bend is a pose often performed by models instead of standing up firmly. The head cant is when the head is bent to the side and the body cant is when the body is bent.

In Provocateur: Images of Women and Minorities in Advertising, a book written by Anthony Joseph Paul Cortese, he quotes Goffman saying “People in charge of their own lives typically stand upright, alert and ready to meet the world. In contrast, the bending of the body conveys unpreparedness, submissiveness and appeasement”.