User:Jrc5680/sandbox

Feminine Touch
Feminine touch is defined by Erving Goffman as females frequently posing while “using their fingers and hands to trace the outlines of an object, or to cradle it or to caress its surface(...). This ritualistic touching is to be distinguished from the utilitarian kind the grasps, manipulates or holds” ( Goffman,1976:29). This can be seen in the magazine called Shape I found lying around my parent’s house. This magazine is your typical beauty advising arrangements on paper. There were so many examples of feminine touch, it was hard to pick just one. You can see on the first picture of lip balm, the feminine hand holding it is very delicately presenting the product. This delicacy might be a reminder to the viewer that women are delicate creatures that must be tended to ( this is far from the actual case). The next photo depicts “ Next Gen Skin Gadgets”. You can see a beautiful woman putting on a modern looking visor. She is ever so lightly touching the sides of the device. Next you can see a woman lying down, lightly holding a twig in one of her hands. I’m not sure why they even added that bit of green to be lightly placed in her hand in the photo, unless it was to emphasize a sense of vulnerability and lack of manipulation of her environment- all while using the feminine touch concept. The next photo we see the large word “Party” with beautiful manicured hands holding some hors d’oeuvres. They seem like they just slipped into the woman’s hand. You may notice how polished her hand looks, it adds a sense of elegance and poise without even showcasing the rest of her body. I feel this photo is a good example of feminine touch and the expectations of women of today’s society ( to be poised, perfect, polished). The last photo shows a couple of ladies holding some glasses in that same poised way. Their fingers are spread out with perfectly manicured hands. They are barely holding the glass in a grip- rather it seems like the glass was placed into their hand gently. This is another great example of feminine touch. The next photo is from an up and coming business magazine INC. My fiance receives a subscription of this - so it was lying around our apartment. It is marketed to young entrepreneurs and unsurprisingly I found a great example of the masculine touch- which Goffman does not define exclusively, but does make mention of it within the feminine touch definition. Masculine touch is when a male has a firm grip on an object- he is gripping or manipulating his environment in a way that conveys he has control of the situation. You can see this in the Chase ad. The man is physically working on something and we can see him firmly grasp the netting. He is a man of action. He knows his business and is confident in it. These are the ideas that this advertisement is conveying I also find it immensely interesting that a fashion magazine and a business magazine would have the two different touches ( the fashion one being feminine and the business one being masculine) portrayed. I feel there is some work to do to break these advertising stereotypes, but recognizing them in the first place is a good place to start.