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    President Nixon teased a newspaper woman about wearing slacks to the white House. Ruben navarrette: Nixon made it clear that he prefers dresses on women. He says the incident points to the power of the president to force an individual into a sexual one.

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    GoffmanFooting

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    President Nixon teased a newspaper woman about wearing slacks to the white House. Ruben navarrette: Nixon made it clear that he prefers dresses on women. He says the incident points to the power of the president to force an individual into a sexual one.

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    92 views18 pages

    Goffman Footing

    Uploaded by

    melanie_dean_1
    President Nixon teased a newspaper woman about wearing slacks to the white House. Ruben navarrette: Nixon made it clear that he prefers dresses on women. He says the incident points to the power of the president to force an individual into a sexual one.

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    3 FOOTING Consider a journalistically reported strip of interaction, a news bureau release of 1973 on presidential doings.! The scene is the (Oval Office, the participants an assemblage of government offic- ers and newspaper reporters gathered in their professional capaci- ties for a political ritual, the witnessing of the signing of a bil: WASHINGTON [UPI]—President Nixon, a gentleman of the old school, teased a newspaper woman yesterday about wearing slacks to the White House and made it clear that he prefers dresses on ‘After a bill-signing ceremony in the Oval Office, the President stood up from his desk and in a teasing voice said to UPI’s Helen ‘Thomas: “Helen, are you still wearing slacks? Do you prefer them ‘actually? Every time I see girls in slacks it reminds me of China.” Miss Thomas, somewhat abashed, told the President that Chi- nese women were moving toward Western dress. “This is not said in an uncomplimentary way, but slacks can do something for some people and some it can’t.” He hastened to add, “pat I think you do very well. Turn around.” ‘As Nixon, Attorney General Elliott L. Richardson, FBI Director Clarence Kelley and other high-ranking law enforcement officials smiling [sic], Miss Thomas did a pirouette for the President. She was wearing white pants, a navy blue jersey shirt, long white beads and navy blue patent leather shoes with red trim. 1. Grateful acknowledgment is made to Soman, where this paper fist appeared (25[1979}-1~29) 124 Footing Nixon asked Miss Thomas how her husband, Douglas Cornell, liked her wearing pants outfits. “He doesn’t mind,” she replied. “Do they cost less than gowns?” “No,” said Miss Thomas. “Then change,” commanded the President with a wide grin as other reporters and cameramen roared with laughter. [The Evening Bulltin (Philadelphia), 1973) This incident points to the power of the president to force an individual who is female from her occupational capacity into a sexual, domestic one during an occasion in which she (and the many women who could accord her the role of symbolic repre- sentative) might well be very concerned that she be given her full professional due, and that due only. And, of course, the incident points to a moment in gender politics when a president might unthinkingly exert such power. Behind this fact is something much more significant: the contemporary social definition that ‘women must always be ready to receive comments on their “ap- pearance,” the chief constraints being that the remarks should be favorable, delivered by someone with whom they are acquainted, and not interpretable as sarcasm. Implied, structurally, is that a ‘woman must ever be ready to change ground, or, rather, have the ‘ground changed for her, by virtue of being subject to becoming momentarily an object of approving attention, not—or not merely—a participant in it The Nixon sally can also remind us of some other things. In our society, whenever two acquainted individuals meet for business, professional, or service dealings, a period of “small talk” may well initiate and terminate the transaction—a mini version of the “preplay” and “postplay” that bracket larger so- cial affairs. This small talk will probably invoke matters felt to bear on the “overall” relation of the participants and on what each participant can take to be the perduring concerns of the other (health, family, etc.). During the business proper of the encounter, the two interactants will presumably be in a more segmental relation, ordered by work requirements, functionally specific authority, and the like. Contrariwise, a planning session among the military may begin and end with a formal acknow!- edgment of rank, and in between a shift into something closer 125 Forms of Talk to equalitarian decision-making, In either case, in shifting in and out of the business at hand, a change of tone is involved, and an alteration in the social capacities in which the persons present claim to be active. Finally, it might be observed that when such change of gears ‘occurs among more than two persons, then a change commonly occurs regarding who is addressed. In the Nixon scene, Ms. Thomas is singled out as a specific recipient the moment that ““unserious” activity begins. (A change may also simultaneously occur in posture, here indeed very broadly with Mr. Nixon rising, from his desk.) The obvious candidate for illustrations of the Nixon shift comes from what linguists generally call “code switching,” code here referring to language or dialect. The work of John Gumperz and his colleagues provides 2 centzal source. A crude example may be cited (Blom and Gumperz 1972:424): ‘On one occasion, when we, as outsiders, stepped up (0 a group of Tocals engaged in conversation, our arrival caused a significant alteration in the casual posture of the group. Hands were removed from pockets and looks changed, Predictably, our remarks elicited 2.cade switch marked simultaneously by a change in channel cues (le, sentence speed, rhythm, more hesitation pauses, etc. and by a shift from (R) [a regional Norwegian dialect) to (B) fan officia, standard form of Norwegian] grammar. But of course, an outsider isn’t essential; the switch can be em- ployed among the ethnically homogeneous (ibid., p. 425) Likewise, when residents [in Hemnesberget, northern Norway] step up to a clerk's desk, greetings and inquiries about family affairs tend to be exchanged in the dialect, while the business part of the transaction i carried on in the standard. Nor need one restrict oneself to the formal, adult world of gov- ernment and business and its perfunctory service relationships; the schoolroom will do (ibid, p. 424): Teachers report that while formal lectures—where interruptions are not encouraged—are delivered in (B) [an official standard form of Norwegian], the speaker will shift ¢o (R) (a regional Norwegian Footing dialect] when they want to encourage open and free discussion among students. By 1976, in unpublished work on 2 community where Slovene and German are in active coexistence, matters are getting more delicate for Gumperz. Scraps of dialogue are collected between mothers and daughters, sisters and sisters, and code shifting is found to be present in almost every comer of conversational life, ‘And Gumperz (1976) makes a stab at identifying what these shifts mark and how they function: irect or reported speech selection of recipient interjections repetitions personal directness or involvement ‘new and old information emphasis separation of topic and subject discourse type, ég,, lecture and discussion More important for our purposes here, Gumpesz and his cowork- ers now also begin to look at code-switchinglike behavior that doesn’t involve a code switch at all, Thus, from reconstituted notes on classroom observations, the Gumperzes provide three sequential statements by a teacher to a group of first-graders, the |, statements printed in listed form to mark the fact that three different stances were involved: the frst 2 claim on the children’s immediate behavior, the second a review of experiences to come, and the third a side remark to a particular child (Cook-Gumperz and Gumperz 1976:8-9): 1. Now listen everybody. 2. Atten clock we'll have assembly. We'll ll go out together and goto the aaditorium and sit in the rst two rows. Mr. Dock, the principal fs going to speak to.us. When he comes in, sit quietly and listen carefully 3: Don’t wiggle your legs. Pay attention to what f'm saying, The point being that, without access to bodily orientation and tone of voice, it would be easy to run the three segments into a

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