CHAPTER FIVE: STAGED AUTHENTICY

“The modern disruption of real life and the simultaneous emergence of a fascination for the “real life” of others are the outward signs of an important social redefinition of the categories of “truth” and “reality” now taking place. (pg. 91) CHAPTER FIVE: STAGED AUTHENTICY

"All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players.” • The theatre analogy for human societal life is one that has been put forth again and again • Shakespeare's As You Like It, contains one of the most famous quotes of English Literature, although, clearly, he's not the only one to make this observation… AS YOU LIKE IT

The Walt Disney Company, for example, taking Shakespeare quite literally, reminds guests that they are "all characters in the theme show" • Disney refers to its employees as “cast members” and when they are in front of guests, they are “on stage” CAST * THEME SHOW * ON STAGE

Erving Goffman, one of the most famous sociologists of the twentieth century, decided to challenge Shakespeare a bit, and wrote, “All the world is not, of course, a stage, but the crucial ways in which it isn’t are not easy to specify" • With that, he set out to analyze modern human society according to certain "roles" that people are taught, starting in early childhood ERVING GOFFMAN

Goffman’s roles are used extensively in the study of marketing as they relate to consumer behavior and consumer purchasing • (In marketing courses, you’ll often find Goffman’s roles in context with Freud’s ego, id and super-ego) CONSUMER BEHAVOIR

Humans are actors each playing many roles; in a series of performances controlled and managed in conformity with the definition of the situation • Part of this definition involves the allocation and the acceptance of roles; people are simply the roles they play in different situations and so it is meaningless to talk about the enduring qualities of people ERVING GOFFMAN

In leisure studies, one encounters "role-related leisure," which is not true leisure, and has its basis in Goffman's concepts • The example of a parent watching a child’s baseball game is used commonly enough, and it works from both the perspective of the adult and the child ROLE-RELATED LEISURE

Goffman was interested in the fact that it was no longer sufficient simply to be a man or order to be perceived as one - now it is often necessary to act out reality and truth • Butler builds on this indicating that sex is a biological trait, but that gender is a performance • Gender performance in tandem with one’s sex is used in society to create assumptions about sexuality, values and personality GOFFMAN

For example, the notion of a “butch woman” is derived from a masculine “performance” coming from a female body • The notion of roles is supported in the sciences by noticing that normative ideas of gender vary tremendously across cultures – showing body hair on women is not considered supportive of a “masculine” trait in many parts of the world GOFFMAN EXAMPLE

Goffman also looked at social institutions and took the common sense division of such places and called them simply “front regions” and “back regions” • (Obviously basic hospitality theory of institutional structure follows the Goffman model, although in a simplified form)

While the design of tourist attractions supports the basic distinction between front and back regions, the division is primarily a social one that exist in most public institutions • Goffman recognized three groups: • Those who perform • Those who are performed to • Outsiders

Those who perform; • Access to both back and front regions • Those who are performed to: • Access to front regions • Outsiders: • Excluded from both regions – they neither perform in the show, nor do they observe it GOFFMAN

A back region, closed to audiences and outsiders, allows concealment of props and activities that might discredit the performance out front • In other words, sustaining a firm sense of social reality requires some mystification GOFFMAN’S BACK REGION

The necessary mystification is double edged – we almost don’t want to know what really happens, but people are almost always curious • Let’s take the pig (ham) for example… BACK REGIONS

In pre-modern society, many people lived in direct contact with almost all of the necessary components of their lives • You wanted ham for dinner, you had the pig there on the farm, you picked it out, killed it, gutted it, cut it up and cooked it • Children weren’t shielded from this, and in fact, one part of learning the role of being a man was to be able to kill a pig (or chicken or whatever) SWINE

Modern man wants ham, you go to restaurant and have it served to you ready to eat – or, heaven forbid, you go to the grocery and actually purchase a ham (and even then you can have it pre-cooked and/or sliced) • You never know that this ham used to be a pig – breathing, rolling in mud and probably terrified when it was sent to the chute OINK

And we won’t even talk about the chickens and ducks LOSING TOUCH WITH REALITY

So, in order for this reality of the supermarket ham to exist, there must be some mystification of the “back region” of how that pig got to you • (We’ll not dwell too much on the fact that most pigs are force fed on farms, killed at a young age, genetically altered, full of steroids, and even in the supermarket, pig meat is injected with nitrates to make it more pink – more hamlike than even real ham should be) MYSTIFICATION

Modern man’s global dependency has led to all sorts of situations like this where to uncover the back regions might make the “reality” of the products we buy, the places we go, seem too “real,” too harsh to deal with – we wouldn’t want to be a part of it and still call ourselves sensitive, civilized people MYSTIFICATION AND MODERN MAN

Because of our modern social structure, merely having a back region generates the belief that there is something more than what meets the eye – even when there are no secrets to hide • The phrase “skeletons in your closet” is just another way that this notion has been expressed – out of the way, back places hide secrets CURIOSITY KILLED THE…

This can be seen in individual social contacts – back regions are intimate and allow people to exist as they really are, front regions are the “show” we give to everyone else • In interpersonal relationships, you might find this as “being real with someone” or “letting your hair down” THE REAL

In touristic space and experiences, the tourist constantly seeks “the real” • Tourists want to be “one of them” or be “at one with them” or go “behind the scenes” – this is a desire to enter the back regions of places they visit THE REAL

Modern man also feels this same urge in his life as a tourist – the desire to go discover what should be hidden • The news, for many of us, takes us behind closed doors and into the offices of people we normally wouldn’t have access to – we love to watch 60 Minutes expose some government cover-up or a local reporter talk about a restaurant that was shut down due to a health inspector’s report THE REAL

Modern man also uses back regions as a type of solidarity • There are certain things women talk about in groups of women that they won’t say in front of men – it is a social back region • Fraternities purposely created back regions in the from of secret rituals • To enter those back regions can be exciting for “those who are performed to” THE REAL

Much of this is already apparent from what we have learned in class – society and tourist attractions are not always what they seem • What chapter five does is go further to explain that what is taken to be reality is in fact a show based on reality • This then indicates that there may be more than just a front region and a back region REALITY

Take the odd example of a school tour of a bank: • School children (outsiders) are allowed further in than regular patrons (those who are performed to) • The kids get to see the bank vaults and bank president’s office, etc. • Yet, there is a staged quality to the proceedings that lends to them an aura of superficiality – although the kids may or may not pick up on that THE AUTHENTIC

This example and the one of Copenhagen’s La Cuisine, represent a new type of social space that Goffman and other sociologists had no name for • This space was neither back region or front region – it was a staged back region that “those who are performed to” are allowed to experience THE AUTHENTIC

Think of this new social space as a parallel to ads you see on TV for make up that is designed to make your skin look “natural” • It’s a staged presentation ofsomething that should beauthentic – but we’re soworried about people seeingour real selves, we have to“perform” reality THE AUTHENTIC

While the stages of the continuum may in fact blur or overlap, theoretically it is possible to distinguish six separate stages TOURIST SETTINGS CONTINUUM

The front region of Goffman’s social space • While some tourists are content with this level of exposure, most want to get behind this space • Again, think of how attractive it would be to market a “In-Front of the Scenes Tour” – it wouldn’t appeal to anyone really STAGE ONE

This is a touristic front region that has been decorated with elements of the back region • In a seafood restaurant, for example, you may have fishnets decorating the walls, plastic lobsters or there may be bollards or ropes that look like something from a dock STAGE TWO

A front region totally organized to look like a back region • Simulated moonwalks for television audiences • Reality TV • Stage three and stage four can be very hard to tell apart STAGE THREE

A back region that is open to outsiders or those who are performed to • Magazine exposes on the private lives of celebrities • Official revelations of the details of secret diplomatic negotiations • There is an element of performance to this • Again, these can be hard to distinguish from stage three – especially if stage three is well done STAGE FOUR

A legitimate back region that has been cleaned up or altered a bit because “tourists” are occasionally allowed in • Orchestra rehearsal STAGE FIVE

An actual back region according to Goffman • A space that motivates touristic consciousness and curiosity STAGE SIX

A young Arab pulled a chair up to our table. He had rugs to sell, but we insisted we were not interested. He unrolled his entire collection and spread them out on the ground. He wouldn’t leave. I could see beneath his robes that he was wearing well-tailored navy blue slacks and a baby blue cashmere sweater TOURISTS AND INTELLECTUALS

CHAPTER FIVE: STAGED AUTHENTICY