Erving Goffman

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Lecture 9

• Erving Goffman
• Messing around with Sex

2
Things

• Springs comingsunset tonight 527 (on our first
  class only one month ago, sunset time was 453)
• Handout on Midterm Paper Guidelines
• Today Office Hours after class until 1230 in
  Burke 314 also email me if you wish
• FEBRUARY THE MATERIAL aspects of Bells
  Ecological Dialogue Because ideas are powerful
  things, as we have discussed last month, we will
  now turn our attention to how those ideologies of
  gender, sex, and nature are physically
  represented in the social and natural worlds.
  Drawing from a multitude of disciplines, we will
  apply contemporary sociological theory to better
  understand What are some material consequences
  of some taken for granted belief systems
  (including ideals and values) of humans in
  nature? The more you work by Bells ecological
  dialogue, the more things become clear.

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Today

• Presentations (10 minutes)
• Discuss Mid-term Paper Monday, March 3 Mid-term
  Paper Due (in class OR stamped by 400 pm in
  Sociology-Criminology Department) (15 minutes)
• Lecture (35 minutes)
• Erving Goffman consider how we interact
  regarding gender and sex preferences
• Messing around with Sex Choosing Gender/Sex of
  Baby

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Presentations

• and remember the next people on the list need to
  pick up their artifacts after class. Let me know
  if you seem to have missed your presentation (go
  by the last name of the people who presented
  today as you are presenting alphabetically)

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Midterm Paper

• DUE Monday, March 3 Mid-term Paper Due (in class
  OR stamped by 400 pm in Sociology-Criminology
  Department)
• Handout (next few slides)

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30 - Mid-term Paper and Creative Element (25
Paper 5 Creative Element)

• Hard copy of paper due MONDAY, MARCH 3, 2007 by
  400 pm it may be submitted directly to me or to
  the Sociology Department (Late Paper Mark 2
  points per day will be deducted until the end of
  the 5th day late when a nasty zero will be
  given as a final paper mark.)
• Purpose Apply a sociological concept(s) we have
  discussed in class to an issue of your choice in
  order to unpack any obvious and obscure
  human-and-nature connections. First, explore any
  local consequences related to your topic, then
  examine any wider-world implications.
• Methodology Use Michael Bells ecological
  dialogue format in any way you choose. (please
  see other side) No hypothesis or proving
  anything, please. It is best to begin from a
  research question in this class rather than a
  research statement. Start with I wonder if you
  wish. Seat yourself in the paper if you want to
  do so.

7

• Creative Element Do it on a regular sized piece
  of paper and attach it to the end of your paper.
• I know all of you can do this. Dont freak out
  over this part even if you feel that you dont
  have a creative bone in your body.
• This can be in any form as long as it clearly
  relates to your topic it can represent either
  one component of your research OR several parts.
• It may be on display at the Coffeehaus in March.
• If you absolutely cannot achieve this section of
  the assignment, please let me know as soon as
  possible and I will ask you to extend your paper
  by a few pages instead of doing the creative
  element.

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(No Transcript)
9
Grading the Final Paper

• 10 WRITING clarity, (what are you saying?),
  grammar, spelling, punctuation
• 10 FORMAT consistent with official formatting
  style? (such as APA)
• 10 INTRODUCTION introduce the topic and main
  issues what can readers expect?
• 45 SECTIONS (1. Local and 2. Wider World) be
  concise, bold and imaginative
• 20 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
• 5 CREATIVE ELEMENT - recall the posters I
  showed you from last term? You can choose to do
  them in miniature although you may make large
  posters if you wish.

10
Are You Beginning a Sociological Investigation?
Ask yourself

• What is the main statement? What is its message?
  Who is speaking?
• What is the intended meaning? Who is the intended
  audience?
• What is otherwise obvious?
• In whose interest is it? Unpack the
  distribution of power.
• Who/what will suffer or be isolated/oppressed/segr
  egated?
• What arguments contradict the message?
• Where is the message socially located? And, what
  else is there?
• What are the forces that have made it and kept it
  there?
• What are related phenomena, then and now?
• How does all of this resonate with your own
  experiences?
• Trust your own experiences this can inspire
  entry into writing ?KJHenderson

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Ecological dialogue

• Local World/Micro

• Wider World/Macro

MATERIAL
PRACTICAL
Gender and Sex/uality Environmental Implications
Gender and Sex/uality Environmental Implications
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So, how do you write a creative research paper?

• Organize those bits of information on pieces of
  paper and place them on the ecological dialogue
  circle such as that below, or in any other way
  meaningful to you. Move those ideas around on the
  circle. You will begin to think of your topic in
  new waysnew questions will arise. Pick only a
  few ideas to work with. Although everything seems
  important, let most of it go for this short
  paper.
• Go to the library or online and find some journal
  articles on your topic and apply those ideas and
  your own to the sub-topics on your ecological
  dialogue circle. Start writing about what you are
  finding. Include your own views. What new ideas
  came to you?

• Choose a topic it will likely be quite broad at
  first. It doesnt need an obvious gender
  connection dont force gender where it doesnt
  want to go. Google the topic. Jot down what
  you already know about it what are your
  experiences with the topic? Here is where you
  will likely find your pop culture sourcesvideo
  clips, websites, articles in magazines,
  newspapers or on the radio, TV shows, video
  games, art museumsbasically, anything thats not
  in the SMU library.

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Any other questions/comments regarding the
paper?

• Remember to email me
• I can give you some research questions to start
  off with
• I can send you some journal articles and websites
  to help you begin

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Lecture

• Goffman and then the readings for today

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Erving Goffman

• Big name in sociology some of his texts
• Exploring the Interaction Order
• Interaction Ritual Essays in Face to Face
  Behavior
• Stigma Notes on the Management of Spoiled
  Identity
• Forms of Talk
• Encounters Two Studies in the Study of
  Interaction
• Relations in Public Microstudies of the Public
  Order
• Asylums Essays on the Social Situation of Mental
  Patients and Other Inmates
• Frame Analysis An Essay on the Organization of
  Experience
• Where the Action Is Three Essays
• Behavior in Public Places Notes on the Social
  Organization of Gatherings
• Gender Advertisements
• Socan you guess why he might be able to help us
  understand the ideas and materials behind dating
  and mating and reproducing?

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Erving Goffman 1922-1982

• Born June 11, Manville, Alberta
• BA Sociology, University of Toronto 1945
• MA and PhD Sociology and Social Anthropology,
  University of Chicago 1949/1953 (MA thesis on
  Big Sister PhD thesis on social structure of
  a Shetland Island Presentation of Self in
  Everyday Life)
• Then worked in California and Pennsylvania
• Mainly worked from ethnography, observation, and
  participatory observation to understand otherwise
  routine social actions.
• (photo www.mindhacks.com)

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Goffman and the Interactionist Tradition

• Adapted from your reading on Goffman on my
  Personal Webpage
• (photo chicagowildernessmag.org)

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Interactionist Tradition

• Associated with University of Chicago where
  interdisciplinarity was encouraged. -- For
  example, psychological underpinnings of Mead
  empirical traditions of Park and Thomas.
• Interactionists were the radicalists of social
  thought at the time in how they aimed to surpass
  the empirical methods of the day, such as surveys
  and interviews, in order to produce knowledge
  that might actually improve peoples lives rather
  than simply add to the academic body of
  knowledge.
• Herbert Blumer laid the groundwork for Goffman
  Blumer was interested in the symbolism of
  interaction

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• Goffman believed we are products of SOCIAL
  INTERACTION.
• Universal human nature is not a very human
  thing. By acquiring it, the person becomes a kind
  of construct, built up not from inner psychic
  propensities but from the moral rules that are
  impressed on him sic from without (The
  Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, 1967, p.
  45).
• Do you feel gender and/or sex is constructed? Is
  messing with the sex/gender of a baby related to
  a moral code of some kind?

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Goffman believed that we could understand the
social world (macro) by assessing face-to-face
interaction (micro).

• This meant that he believed we could take things
  we already knew and re-order them this would
  lead to sociological discoveries. He was said
  to have begged, borrowed, and stolen from
  existing theories! (multidisciplinarity)
• This re-ordering is what Michael Bell is also
  asking us to do in order to raise new questions
  about how we use the natural world around us.
• Dramaturgy (web.clas.ufl.edu)

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• Persona a mask worn to project a particular
  image to an audience.
• Performance the activity "given off" by an actor
  for their audience
• Stage the makeup of the situation the location
  where a performance unfolds
• Setting the physical layout or background where
  interaction occurs, including "props
• Scene the action taking place within a specific
  setting (just like for a drama or play)
• Actor/Character/Performer a person in a given
  role, performing the duties that are consistent
  with that role
• Audience the people for whom we perform our
  roles-- note the audience members are also
  actors to each other
• Scripts our internalized categories and "labels"
  that we project when interacting can be very
  explicit, like when people who have certain jobs
  are expected to literally say specific lines...
  or like when you are in a relationship and one
  person says "i love you," you're expected to
  reply, "i love you, too.
• Backstage the "behind the scenes" (ex. in a
  restaurant, the kitchen is the "backstage")
• Impression Management how a person manages their
  peers impressions of how we act in interactions
• Dramatic Realization an attempt to make ones
  better qualities noticed when they might
  otherwise go unnoticed (ex. on a date, making
  sure to point out and talk about your
  achievements at school, sports, work, etc. to
  make a good impression.)
• Idealization portraying yourself to others in
  order to closely resemble the values of society
  (emphasizing your positive qualities to make
  yourself look better)
• Negotiation the process by which roles are
  established makes interaction possible
• Mystification the air of superiority that occurs
  when you conceal parts of yourself to create
  distance
• Accounts an explanation for ones actions or
  behaviors (aka excuses)

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Well be applying some of Goffmans concepts over
the next 4 classes

• Goffman Handout to be used in Lecture 12

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Choosing Gender/Sex of Baby

• READINGS FOR TODAYS CLASS
• (1) CP Shettles, L.B. and Rorvik, D.M. (2006).
  How to choose the sex of your baby The method
  best supported by scientific evidence (pp. 57-65,
  119-123). New York, NY Broadway Books.
• (2) SMUO Gonzalez, A.Q. and Koestner, R. (2005).
  Parental preference for sex of newborn as
  reflected in positive affect in birth
  announcements. Sex Roles, 52 (5-6), 407-411.

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• Many believe the sex of babies is pre-determined
  G/god-given

• Do you think it is natural to mess with the
  gender/sex of potential children?

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Consider some Materials of Gendered/Sexed Births
26

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27
Lets start to look at some ways ideas are
represented in material forms in our society

• Link to 100 Sex Selection
• How many material things (things you can see,
  hear, feel, touch, taste) and ideals are
  represented in this video clip?

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MATERIAL IDEAL

• Latest technology
• Hollywood sign and famous people
• Two genders represented
• Reproductive medicine (PGD)
• Requires years of training (university teaching
  hospitals laboratories equipment)
• Fertility institutes
• Example of couple who had success - testimony
• Featured on many TV shows
• Remarkable 100 success is in the mission
  statement never gone wrong
• Based in beautiful Los Angeles
• All records are extremely firewalled and under
  video surveillance
• Travel and lodging arrangements in Mexico, USA
• Flexible payment arrangements

• Most/All parents shown/physicians represented as
  ideal white, SNAF (D. Smith)
• We will lookwe will resolve commitment
• world recognized/worlds largest/worlds most
  successful
• Most advanced care with continued commitment
• Board Certified procedure
• Prevention from passing on undesirable genetic
  diseases
• Highly specialized techniques done by
  scientists PhD Scientists international
• Choice is made available to parents, regardless
  of race, creed, sexual orientation, ethnicity
• Reproductive choices
• Most precious gift
• All records are confidential
• Long awaited boy or girl balances family

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• CONSIDER how GENDER / SEX preferences looked back
  in Henry the 8ths time

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First Reading

• CP Shettles, L.B. and Rorvik, D.M. (2006). How to
  choose the sex of your baby The method best
  supported by scientific evidence (pp. 57-65,
  119-123). New York, NY Broadway Books.
• webink to reading
• The Shettles Method first arose in the 1960s40
  years ago.
• (Male Y/Female X)
• Based on 3 criteria
• Timing of Intercourse
• Want a boy? Inseminate 2-3 days prior to
  ovulation so the fast-swimming sperms arrive
  first.
• Sexual Position
• Want a girl? Inseminate via a shallow penetration
  where the environment is more acidic. Want a
  boy? Inseminate via more deeper penetration where
  the environment is more alkaline.
• Orgasm
• Ejaculation makes the environment more alkaline,
  favouring a male child conception.

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• What is the main message of the article? In whose
  interest is choosing the sex of a baby?
• Is choosing your babys sex Pro-nature or
  Anti-nature? Neithersomething else? Playing
  G/god?
• What are some social implications of the
  technology available that permit the choosing of
  babies sex? Think about religion, family as an
  institution
• How could choosing the sex of babies impact on
  natural environments in the future if the gender
  role ideals continue as they are right now?

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Second Reading

• SMUO Gonzalez, A.Q. and Koestner, R. (2005).
  Parental preference for sex of newborn as
  reflected in positive affect in birth
  announcements. Sex Roles, 52 (5-6), 407-411.

• Reverse the conventional girl and boy
  terminology to create counter-culture birth
  announcements. What happens? Why?
• Create two completely gender-free birth
  announcements.
• Create two completely sexuality-free birth
  announcements.

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Readings for Next Class

• (1) SMUO Meston, C.M. and Buss, D.M. (2007). Why
  humans have sex. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 36
  (4), 477-507.
• (2) SMUO Rankin, D.J. and Kokko, H. (2007). Do
  males matter? The role of males in population
  dynamics. Oikos, 116, 335-348.
• PLEASE PICK UP ARTIFACTS FOR NEXT WEEK