Emerson’s discussion of how medical practitioners and patients behave during a gynecological examination in Behavior in Private Places exemplifies Goffman’s analysis in his Presentation of Self in Everyday Life about man a social actor who choose his acts depending on the specific situation. In Goffman’s arguments, man is a social actor and by nature has the ability to decide on what prop, customs and roles he would play in specific situations. Further, it is one of his main goals as an actor to act rationally and modify his behavior to adapt to the settings in front of him.
Goffman’s arguments are reinforced in Emerson’s presentation about how gynecological patients and the medical practitioner behave towards each other and the situation at hand. The gynecological examination is mainly centered on the physician touching the woman’s genital area. Touching the genital parts of another person connotes the presence of personal intimacy, however, in the case of medical examinations, people have to accept that this is part of the physicians professional work. As Emerson pointed out: “In the medical world the pelvic area is like any other part of the body; its private and sexual connotations are left behind when you enter the hospital." (Emerson, 249). The nature of gynecological examination rests on having the procedure done in a medical setting, more often, in a designated examining room. The doctor, the patient and the clinical assistants know what role to play during the process, with the woman needing to let go of her inhibitions and both the doctor and his assistants having in mind the typical response of the patient.
Based on the role played by the patient, the doctor and the clinical assistants during gynecological examination, one can say that the medical examination exemplified how social contact is done mainly through the interaction of one social actor towards another actors. In Goffman's analysis, there is a direct relationship between performance of man as a social actor and their role in life; that is, he appears to consider all the elements of acting such that an actor executes an act depending on a given setting. There is a constructed stage and the presence of props and choices that directs how he acts. That is, a social actor performs according to the given situation and the perceived role, like he is being looked at and observed by an audience, yet he also plays another role, that of being an expectator or observer of the audience. As Goffman pointed out:
appears before others, we must also see that the others, however passive their
role may seem to be, will themselves effectively project a definition of the
situation by virtue of their response to the individual and by virtue of any
lines of action they initiate to him (Goffman, 9).
Again, the above statement expresses a similarity of Emerson’s contention about the role of the parties involved in a gynecological examination. For example, in pelvic examinations, both the staff and the patient use contrasting language: the patient generally uses action, such as poking and touching, while never actually locating the specific part of her body. On the other hand, the staff refers to the physical examination using impersonal medical terms. A major aspect of this situation is that there is a predefined understanding among the parties involved as a means to give a sense of logical sense of understanding or coherency.
Emerson’s observation provided a substantial support to Goffman’s analysis. She observed that “situation differ in how much effort it takes to sustain the current definition of the situation” (Emerson, 247). Her claim is in line with the concept of Goffman’s dramaturgical analysis where he contends that there is an interconnection between the particular acts that people do. Goffman expressed that social interaction can be likened to a theatrical performance where each individual plays a stage role in front of the audiences, and this is the time where they can exude a positive aspect of their personality to manifest an ideal concept of themselves and highlight the desired impressions. Consequently, there is also the backstage, which refers to a private or concealed place that allow individuals to act freely and be themselves; they can behave without any inhibitions, setting aside their identity as perceived in the society.
However, while Emerson presented a substantial support to Goffman’s dramaturgical analysis, there is a deviation in some of their arguments. For example, Emerson’s discussion implies that people manifest a ‘played’ role in unusual circumstances, such as the case where a woman will be examined by a male gynecologist. During the procedure, she will have to think of the procedural examination of her genitals in the same manner like the examination of other parts of the body. It is during this unusual circumstance when people play a role to suit specific situations. In contrast, Goffman’s arguments denote that people, regardless of the situation, always tend to play a different role, “they seem to occur everywhere in social life, providing a clear-cut dimension for formal sociological analysis” (Goffman, 15).
Kozol’s discussion in Savage Inequalities and Pascoe’s presentation in Dude: You’re a Hag is similar in terms of their advocacy to demonstrate the existence of discrimination and inequality in the society. They are alike, specifically in using young people and the educational system as their base in coming with information that can be used to support their arguments. Further, both authors are also similar in terms of presenting the disparity that is prevalent among people from different race and social classes.
In their arguments, Kozol and Pascoe pointed out that how the government and the weakness of the educational institution have a direct role in causing the inequality. Kozol discussed that the disparity in different educational institutions throughout the country can be attributed to the unequal distribution of funds. That is, there are schools that receive the full support of the government, while there are those that have to experience lack of funds and inadequate funding. However, there is more than just the unequal distribution of funding because Kozol observed that schools that where there are large numbers of minorities received lesser attention, than those which are located in New York.
In the same way, Pascoe, in her discussion about the concept of masculinity among high school students, demonstrated that the educational institution plays an influential role in reinforcing gender inequality. For example, the author exemplified the case of River High where invoking the fag idea is used as a form of disciplinary mechanism (Pascoe, 316). As a result, the word fag eventually became a racial form of disciplinary mechanisms among teenage boys. In the same way that Kozol noted the disparity of funding in different educational institutions, Pascoe also noted that the fag idea is differently invoked among white boys' bodies than it is among the African American boy’s (Pascoe, 317).
Accordingly, the authors invoked different dimensions in their discussion of inequality. Kozol focused his discussion on the inequality that manifest itself through an inferior quality of education, existence of segregation, lack of staff and the apparent neglect of school’s physical condition. For example, Kozol narrated his observation in his visit to the East St. Louis schools where he saw that even the top school in the city, showed a “disturbing sense that one has entered a backwater of America” (Kozol, 264). His argument that inequality remains in the educational system is demonstrated in his narrative where he witnessed a complete lack of needed facilities. The students were not only lacking in books, computers and other necessary educational tools, they were also housed in poorly constructed buildings. Further, Kozol’s most disturbing findings was that the majority of the students in poorly funded schools belong to the minority groups, and that these students have to deal with the fact that they are receiving less than the schools intended for all-white students. Kozol argued that the inequality experienced in the educational system is manifested by the lack of attention and funding, and this was caused by the existence of racism as the main reason why minority schools do not receive the needed funding.
On the other hand, Pascoe provided her analysis of inequality by showing how the idea of masculinity served as a means to discriminate among young men. She demonstrated that the existence of the strict system of heteronormativity in the educational institution encourages the development of discrimination and inequality, not only in terms of gender but also in terms of race. In order to prove his point, Pascoe goes to the extent of interviewing a number of students in River High, which is a local high school in Northern California.
In the course of his research, Pascoe found that the ‘fag’ term is used among the teenage boys’ as a form of a joke, as a means to build relationships, and to lessen the existence of social fretfulness. It was a form of a reprimand where the boys avoid demonstrating that they are a fag, and prove that they are masculine by acting to be so.
Pascoe also noted that the fag discourse somewhat demonstrate a form of racialize concept. She found that white boys and the African American boys have a different conceptualization of the word ‘fag’, which was consistently referred to as a specter of the whites. Nevertheless, the research indicated that African American boys do not engage much in teasing their peers as fags, but tends to tease each other for acting like a white boy or for being one.
Works Cited
Emerson, Joan. "Behavior in Private Places: Sustaining Definitions of Reality in Gynecological Examinations." Recent Sociology (1970): n. pag. Web.
Goffman, Erving. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Anchor Books, n.d. Print.
Kozol, Jonathan. "Savage Inequalities in America's Schools: Life in Mississippi: East St. Louis, Illinois." Social Structure, Institutions and Everyday Life. N.p., n.d. Print.
Pascoe, C. J. "Dude, You're a Fag: Adolescent Masculinity and the Fag Discourse."Dude You're a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School. University of California, 2011. Print.
