http://culturedecanted.

com/2014/08/27/semiotics-of-the-birdcage/
http://magnet.xataka.com/en-diez-minutos/isis-ha-lanzado-una-app-paraninos-esto-es-lo-que-puedes-aprender-con-ella

THE SEMIOTICS OF THE BIRD

CAGE
The birdcage as a symbol and metaphor has been used across many human cultures. Moving from
when we lived in hunter-gatherer societies until ultimately we took it with us into new urban
environments. Its a remarkably culturally pervasive symbol and its easy to draw many transcultural
and historical comparisons.
The focus of this investigation is primarily how we use the birdcage motif in modern western culture.
However, in order to understand the birdcage we also need to understand the broader context
of cages in society. Furthermore, looking at how we semiotically use the birdcage in communication;
from a psychological perspective to explore the cage as a container-metaphor that forms how we
think.
For anyone that read my last post on our love/hate relationships with cities, they might see a
continuation of thinking here. I was interested in rats in a maze across the last two posts Ive made
as an analogy that people use to explain modern living. The end point of my last post the new
Danish Zoo, Zootopia was a concluding observation in some ways it is a reversal of the traditional
zoo model. While this has centralised viewing similar to Jeremy Benthams Panopticon Prison, it
doesnt evoke the always observed nature that that design intended or the lack of natural
environment that many contemporary zoos have. This is a cage-less design for the animals
(although we walk into a cage to see them).

DO WE THINK WERE CAGED?

If you do any type of qualitative projective work with people that live in cities, you get similar
analogies and metaphors peppering their language, in how they talk about living in cities or moving
through them. This is not to suggest that everything they think about city life is negative, but that the
compounding effects of struggling to maintain individuality and a sense of independence amongst
so many people results in some consistencies in urban experiences. Being one of the masses,
within the condensed nature of city-living results in direct comparisons to things we cage in order to
express how they feel about their lives: I feel like a rat in a maze, were stacked like battery hens
in my apartment block or cities are getting crowded, were like sardines in a can.

A shopping cart flipped upside down forms a cage that I use to protect myself from consumerism.

Jarod Kintz
If brands reflect back our dreams, aspirations and fears, perhaps a quick look at two campaigns for
leading brands might be informative here. They both revolve around the idea of freedom; firstly,
there is the iconic Harley Davidson campaign Live Cage Free. Hop on your horse and escape.

Merrells Lets Get Outside if only bills were wings

Ill explore some other advertisements further in, but it is surprisingly easy to find examples of the
cage as an advertising metaphor; reflecting that not being caged is both resonant and motivating.
The use of the birdcage is not limited to advertising. E.g. its interesting to reflect on a
recentinstallation art piece in Sydney, Australia, where birdcages were hung as part of a streetscape art project. While the goal was to source innovative and exciting ideas to temporarily
transform our City laneways with engaging artworks and inspiring ideas, this juxtaposition appears
to be evoking the exact opposite caged life and an absence of freedom or naturalness in the city.

READING FORWARD

This discussion has two parts:

1.
2.

Looking more broadly at the cage from a psychological and historical perspective.
Semiotically looking at what the birdcage as a type of cage means in Modern western
culture this is primarily by decoding its use in advertising.

WHY DO WE FEEL CAGED IN THE

MODERN WORLD?
Warner (1994) has suggested that there are two main discourses of modernity: the discourse
of Liberation and the discourse of Disciplinization. The modernity project focuses around ideas of
liberty, plurality and individual autonomy. He defines this discourse as:
The modern condition, it is often held, is characterized by freedom and democracy, and it is
safeguarded by institutions that are based on the same principle of free aggregation. The most
important of these institutions are the democratic polity, the market economy and the autonomous
pursuit of truth, called science. While this has been the master discourse of modernity, an

alternative, critical interpretation quickly emerged, counterposing the image of disciplinization by

modern institutions to that of liberation.

The cage as a metaphoric symbol speaks to the disciplinisation of freedom. My observation of the
cage metaphor is by no means original. In 1930, Max Weber, the sociologist, coined the term iron
cage to refer to the increased rationalisation inherent in the development of Western capitalism
societies:
Puritanism has played a part in creating the iron cage in which modern man has to exist an
increasingly bureaucratic order from which the spontaneous enjoyment of life is ruthlessly
expunged. The Puritan, Weber concludes, wanted to work in a calling; we are forced to do so
George Ritzer believes that modern society has taken this a step further, discussing Webers iron
cage he believes:
A society characterized by rationality is one which emphasizes efficiency, predictability, calculability,
substitution of nonhuman for human technology, and control over uncertainty. The model of
rationalization, at least in contemporary America, is no longer the bureaucracy, but might be better
thought of as the fast-food restaurant. As a result, our concern here is with what might be termed
the McDonaldization of Society.
Whilst there are benefits to the predictability and specialisation of what is available to a society,
this uniformity also rubs against discourses of freedom and self-expression. Rationality leads to
efficiency as a goal, and that in itself becomes an increasingly pressured goal that we have to live
up to. In the process of rationalisation we feel dehumanised which is what cages do
psychologically.

WHEN WE THINK THROUGH CAGES,

THE CAGE IS A CONTAINERMETAPHOR
So, if we accept that humanity might feel caged in ways by the success of our modernity project,
this raises psychological considerations. Its interesting from a semiotic perspective to understand
how and why we use cage symbolism, more specifically, the birdcage. Taking a step back, all cages
can be defined as container-metaphors. The role of metaphoric thought is defined by Lakoff and
Turner:
A Metaphor is a tool so ordinary that we use it unconsciously and automatically it is
irreplaceable: metaphor allows us to understand ourselves and our world in ways that no other
modes of thought can. ( Lakoff and Turner 1989: xi).

Not all metaphors are equal, some stick in our minds with a more natural fit:
Not all metaphors, however, are created equal. Some metaphors are not so easily modified or
manipulated to serve rhetorical purposes. Within the broad universe of metaphors, some seem
more natural than othersalmost as if they are not being chosen at all.

A container-metaphor evokes a sense of a vessel this is one of these pervasive and sticky
metaphors. We use this type of metaphor on a regular basis across a wide range of thinking, e.g.
When we talk of arguments, it is in terms of containment: Your argument doesnt have much
content, or Your argument is empty, or That argument has holes in it, or That argument wont
hold water, etc. If arguments can be either hot-or-cold, Zoltn Kvecses has been able to identify
that English, Japanese, Chinese, Hungarian, Wolof, Zulu, Polish, and others, possess the
metaphor an angry person is a pressurized container to various degrees. So, the way we make
sense of the world, with some contextual cultural differences, is the same irrespective of the
language used. This is not just how we perceive negative emotions; more positive emotions such as
happiness or love are also evoked through the container-metaphors across both eastern and
western cultures. Cross culturally there appears to be a common usage by different cultures of
the body as a container for our emotions. We can talk about societies as being contained, eg. when
we think of a happy society, they are in harmony and tranquil; when they are not they are at boiling
point. This suggests that some of the potency of the cage as a container-metaphor is that it
connotes a very emotional and visceral response in our thinking.
When we look more specifically at cages, as a specific variation of container-metaphor, there are
many different types. Given that in this investigation Im primarily interested in the birdcage, Ill only
briefly discuss some ways that cages are used in different contexts.
Cages have both restrictive and protective functions in how they are used. The moredominant
meaning is restrictive: A structure of bars or wires in which birds or other animals is confined.
Cages restrict freedom in the way that they limit movement. However, cages are different from other
types of imprisonment in that they allow both the imprisoned and keeper to see each other. The
imprisoned is permanently aware of what is on the other side the allure of freedom.
Paul Duro, in discussing the rhetoric of frames as a meaning construct in our thinking makes the
point that frames create their meaning, as much in what they contain but also in what they keep
out. The protective cage is something that keeps the danger on the outside of the cage. Perhaps
the most sensational version of this is the shark cage; to something more accessible such as an
electric light bulb cage, or even the human heart within a rib-cage. All of these illustrate that cages
can be defined by what they keep out, as well as what they restrict within.

Insanity is relative. It depends on who has who locked in what cage.

Ray Bradbury
When we talk of political boundaries, the cage is a frequent metaphor. Graeme Morton, et al
explores the concept of Scotland being a gilded cage in its development; the cage has been linked
to discussions on British immigration; it has been used by Rashid Khalidi as a metaphor for his story
of the Palestinian people; or in Australia for the credibility of political promises. There are many
more examples from political narratives, the consideration here is that we can see both the
protective and restrictive aspects of the cage symbolism through these examples in how we talk
about society and politics. How we talk about our societiescollectively can be contained within
the cage metaphor.

MAIN TYPES OF CAGES WE FIND

TODAY
Cages still connote animals as a primary thought. There are many active causes that argue
for the more humane treatment of domestic, commercial and zoo animals. Global attitudes
towards caged animals are not the same; there has been an increasing trend to perceive cages as
negatives in the Western world.

When we think of caged animals, it was the Roman Empire that set the standard for caged fightingmatches as entertainment. The colosseums were spectacles of cruelty that involved caged animals
and men.

This tradition of cage-fighting survives today in a more relatively pantomimic form inprofessional
wrestling:
Cages are one of the oldest form of enclosures used in professional wrestling. According to some
historians, the first Cage Match of any kind took place on June 25, 1937 in Atlanta, Georgia. This
match took place in a ring surrounded by chicken wire, in order to keep the athletes inside and any
potential interference out of the action.
The WWE has four types of cage match competitions each with their own rules, customs and
myths. Although, its clear that some of the Roman traditions continue with illegal underground
fighting still occurring today, e.g. fight fans were paying $300 a night to watch men fight in illegal
cage matches around Melbourne, Australia in 2013.

INCARCERATION
Prisons are the temples where devils learn to prey. Every time we turn the key we twist the knife of
fate, because every time we cage a man we close him in with hate.
Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram

The word jail or gaol has its etymological roots in the Latin cavea cage. However, we dont
use the word cage, as this is out-of-step with a more redemptive and progressive society that
believes in the rehabilitation of its prison population. Calling a jail room cells draws a comparison to
the monks cell, a place for contemplation and improvement. Although, the word cell does derive
from the Latin for room cella, the role of churches in jails does suggests this association.

There is still a tradition in judicial systems of referring to a defendants cage. M. Cherif

Bassiouni has suggested that the reason for these originated from the middle-ages, The original
rationale for doing it was the fear that criminal defendants would attack or intimidate witnesses or
judges. Or from another perspective, a way of saying guilty till proven innocent.
Perhaps the cruelest use of the cage was in a practice known as Gibbeting, where the offender
was hung in an iron cage to die and be testament, through example, to the rule of law. This was
famously part of the comedic introduction to Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean.

One of the most famous political use of this punishment was in Mnster, Germany, where the
gibbets still hang in the centre of the city today.

As part of the reformation responses across Europe, the gibbets were the mortal
punishment of the Anabaptists Leaders:

The rule of the Anabaptists arose as a result of the radicalization of the Reformation movement in
Mnster. In March 1533, Mnster had become a Protestant city, and now found itself under attack
by the Catholic Bishop, who was also its established temporal ruler. In the course of the conflict, the
radical Anabaptists gained ever more support; in February 1534, they won the majority on the city
council and declared Mnster to be the New Jerusalem.

The siege around the city became ever tighter, and no outside support materialized, so that finally,
through treachery and after several failed attempts, the Bishop was able to retake the city on 24
June 1535.

The three iron cages suspended from the tower of St. Lamberti held the mortal remains of the
leaders of the Anabaptist movement who were executed on the Prinzipalmarkt on 22 January 1536
after undergoing prolonged torture.
The authoring-group Luther Blisset/Wu Ming tells a gripping narrative of this event in their
collaborative historical novel Q.
The final English use of this gibbeting was in 1832:

1832 August 3, William Jobling, for the murder of Nicholas Fairless. The body was gibbeted on
Jarrow Slake on August 6, and at night on the 31st it was stolen and secretly disposed of by some
persons unknown.
Today incarceration of living people is big business almost industrialised in some nations. The US
has more than 2.2 million people behind bars and this is increasing. At the end of 2012, There are
4,575 prisons in operation in the U.S., more than four times the number of second-place Russia at
1,029.
Earlier this year a New York artist turned his rooftop studio apartment into a jail cell, offering
inmates an incarceration experience for $1 a night. As an accommodation offer, it is somewhere
between penal-tourism and a unique Airbnb experience.

The artist accounts that:

Most of August is already booked and September seems to be filling up fast. The artist says his
latest piece, which is meant to double as a psychological experience, represents how he felt when
he arrived to the states as an immigrant because in his mind, everyone is living in a cage.

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE

BIRDCAGE
God loved the birds and invented trees. Man loved birds and invented cages
Jacques Deval
It appears that we have always had a fascination with birdcages or perhaps, birds-in-cages. One of
the earliest bird cages was built the Paquime Indians, Casas Grandes River, of the Pre-Columbian
Puebloan community that around 900-1340AD who were breeding scarlet Macaws, with a
dedicated house to this function. The early Greeks, Romans, Byzantium all have examples of birdsin-cages in literature and on pottery.
We have started to confine in prison the animals to which nature had allotted the sky
Pliny

By the time of the Roman Republic there was an increasing trend towards status displays
of collection amongst the aristocracy. The role of caged-birds and status is something that
continues in birdcage symbolism to today. Frederick Jones believes that caged birds in houses was
something that was uniquely Roman:
from the late Republic on, there is Roman evidence for the caged-bird as a feature of domestic
interior ornament in both prose and verse, in a diversity of genres, and there is also a limited
amount of evidence from Roman art. This phenomenon is something new and distinctively Roman,
as was the toga, the genre of verse satire

Moving into the 13th Century, we can find bird cages in fanciful scenes, in MS Bodley 764

Richard Randall believes that The interest in strange and colourful birds and animals in medieval
western Europe was an expression of the fascination with the unusual, with monsters, with the
weird and exotic. At this time, they increasingly are mentioned as part of the costs and accounts of
castle inventories through Europe.

Birdcages continued to be a status symbol through the 17th and 18th Centuries in both the West and
East.

One way of thinking about their presence is that they did speak to the worldliness of their owners.
Although as accepted status-symbols, their presence might have been motivation enough, like
many cultural trends. Most paintings of the time show them as objects of prominence and note
within compositions. In a world without radio, it might have been a way of creating a different
ambience in a house. Its also likely that there were more practical reasons to have birds in cages,
outside of aesthetic considerations. They were also a portable larder Bird cages were hawked by
peddlers along the streets, as were the birds themselves, and cooks kept birds fattening in them
outside their larders.
Birdcages are a global art form; it is easy to identify many different traditions of early birdcages:

There are many sites dedicated to the more modern forms of bird cages on the internet; so many
that its not necessary to labour this discussion with examples of their pervasiveness across
cultures here. Although, we can make two miscellaneous observations on their role:
1.

Firstly, that many western cultures have largely stopped keeping birds in cages for food on
a personal level; while this is still a tradition in the East. This might impact on how Western cultures
perceive the birdcage as a status item more than a practical one.
2.
Second, that their use as a canary in a cage functioning as a mine alert for toxic gasses
stopped in 1986.

This is not to suggest that we no longer cage birds. The United Nations estimates that there are
more than 21 Billion chickens on the planet today, with the vast majority of those being in cages.

The allure of exotic birds is part of a billion dollar illegal business today.

The illegal wildlife trade is now the fourth most lucrative transnational crime after drugs, arms and
human trafficking. It is estimated to be worth between 10 and 20 billion dollars each year. Prince
William, 12 February 2014

Although a lot of this trade is for harvested body parts of animals for largely Asian markets of
natural remedies. Many countries such as Australia and South American nations struggle to control
this illegal trade in birds.

WHAT DOES A BIRD CAGE

SYMBOLISE?
Across many belief-systems and religions, the bird is symbolic of the soul. So a caged bird speaks
to an unhealthy inner life or soul. This was a thought that was expressed by Carl Jung, in evoking a
sense of the caged spirit:
What use now is his lofty perch and his wide horizon, when his own dear soul is languishing in
prison?
This sense of lost freedom is close to the dream analysis of birdcages, where the bird is symbolic of
our inner freedom; when we give freedom to the bird in our dreams we feel lighter. When we think of
birds, many of our idioms speak to their freedom: free as a bird,birds eye view, early bird gets the
worm, et al or etc?. Although, Frederick Jones believes that even a caged bird is connotative of
freedom:
The bird, even when caged, remains a symbol of freedom and a stimulus for thinking about the
relationship between freedom and human society.

WHY BIRDS?
Do birds convey a special symbolism here? While Ive been focusing on a Bird Cage, there are
also established traditions of Butterfly cages or farms or Fish Cages. However, there does appear to
be a natural connection with birds that lends themselves to cages in the cultural record.

The reason that birds resonate so strongly has been explored by Leonard Lutwack:

of all wild animals, the bird has always been closest to humankind because so much of its life
can be readily observed and appreciated. Flight and song make birds exceptionally noticeable in
every sort of environmentthe very attributes that make them familiar to us, flight and song; still
retain an air of mystery that sets birds apart from other animals. [This] familiarity and transcendence
[has] given birds a wider range of meaning and symbol in literature than any other animal.

Perhaps it is this identification with them that has led to more architectural forms of cages
suggesting they are like people. Although, this also reflects a projection of our own urban living
that our houses are cages, as discussed above.

A central consideration, is that this close human connection does appear to be driven more by the
sounds they make than the appearance of birds alone. In Southeast Asia, we can see cultural
festivals that celebrate this nature of song.

Its not just song, as a social-animal, we have a particular fascination with the only animal that can
talk like us.

Which has been a common theme of humour in popular culture

At the other end of high culture, Mozart had a special relationship with an inspirational pet starling.
On 27th May, 1784 he purchased his starling and three years later buried it with much pomp and
ceremony.

Mozarts starling was a European Starling. This was a bird that Shakespeare revered for their voice
and song; as a result 200 were introduced in the 1890s to support theatre productions in NYC.
Escaping their cages, their population in the USA exceeds 200 million today.
The human qualities of the bird can also be seen in how we describe collectives of different
species of birds. Those that are more renown with human like voices or thinking have more
human like and emotional descriptions: a parliament of owls, a party of jays, a pitying of turtledoves,
a brood of hens, a company of parrots, a colony of penguins, a charm of finches, an exaltation of
larks, a congregation of plovers etc.

THE SEMIOTICS OF THE BIRD CAGE

TODAY
To summarise this discussion, cages resonate with us because they speak to the main discourses
of modern life: freedom and discipline. We use container-metaphors across a wide range of
thinking, many of these emotional. Cages evoke a sense of either restricting our freedom or of
protection. Birdcages have many possible connotations but we can make some observations:
1.

There is a heritage of birdcages being associated with social status displays

particularly around the idea of collecting amongst the social elite.

2.

Birdcages are symbolic of a loss of freedom for the bird but also a frame of
appreciation of their natural wonder.
3.
They contain birds that are symbolic in their own right and humanity has a long tradition
of projecting meaning onto our feathered friends.
When we start to look at the use of the birdcage in modern western culture there are some very
distinct themes. Most of these revolve around the adoration of the pretty-bird as an object of status.
There is also a strong association of the female gender with birds. So, from a feminist perspective,
birdcages are symbols of oppression.
Animals often become explicit or implicit vehicles for commentary on the issues, because of the
ease in which they are metaphorically associated with certain human groups, especially those that
seemed to share their subordinate, dependent status
Louise E Robbins

WOMEN IN BIRD CAGES

There are many brands that replace the pretty bird with a model in the cage as an object of desire.
They employ the cage as a frame to their projected status and desirability; and at the same time
symbolically evoke the glamour and attractiveness of the bird.
Clearly, the bird as a metaphor for femininity is very present here. The slang for women in many
western cultures is chicks or birds. While this can be used positively by women as in the Dixie
Chicks, it can also be derogatory by men as dismissive, chick flicks or chick lit. Overly mothering
women are referred to as mother hens. It is idiomatic to use animals as analogies, women eat like
sparrows, men eat like pigs. In French, the slang for prostitute isgrue which means the bird Crane
both having one leg up waiting.
In fact, the term we use for alcoholic drinks where young men and women court is called acocktail.
There are many possible origins of this word, with origins believed to be in Britain and the USA,
from being the cocked tail of a horse, to the cock tailings of the stop cock of a cask. Another
explanation is that the Cocktail originating from a Cockerel chasing tail. That we think of women as
birds can be seen in fashion especially high-end fashion since birdcages are status symbols for
the wealthy from Roman times. If we look at the history of fashion, we can see that womens fashion
has looked more ornithomorphic amongst more elite social groups on both sides of the Atlantic. This
might have contributed to the origins of this social

There is, of course, a subtext here that early fashion involved literally caging women.
Thesecrinoline dresses were cages that appear in the 1840s, with up to 8 petticoats over them.
They apparently illustrated people of a particular social mobility.

Today much of the ornithomorphic fashion trends centre on fascinator head pieces as highly
stylised headdress evoking the plumage of birds. This can be observed ethnographically at
theLexus Marquee The Birdcage at Australias Melbourne Cup.

Of course, the irony here is that in nature, it is the male that gets all dressed up and works hard for
the females attention; and it is the female that is either drab or natural depending on your
perspective.

BIRDS AS PREY
There are numerous comedic routines about thighs and breasts, through these poultry
associations, that frame women as objects for male consumption.

Or more negatively through images that evoke the cage dancers women as commodity.

This theme of the enslavement of women in cages has a long history, the tawdry movies from the
60s and 70s were examples of this.

We also find this thinking in mainstream advertising. The mens fashion brand University Row
Manhattan had a range of advertisements in the 60s that suggested that successful men had
captured women these are so stereotypical chauvinistic and sexist they almost appear appears to
be satire today.

The origins of this type of thinking might have come from the exotic promise of pleasure
palaces for the princes in the mysterious east. Where the Harems were called the Golden
Cage filled with attractive birds. The origins of the idea of the golden cage filled with beautiful and
exotic women at the beck and call of men come from confused understandings of the Ottoman
Harems. Its also possible to consider the Geisha traditions within this sphere although they are
not necessarily sexually subjugated as the women of Ottoman harems. That different cultures have
all developed similar conceptions of women/birds in cages speaks to a shared underlying containermetaphor at work.

Bird Cages are also used to evoke the singer the chanteuse, which historically performed for
men.

Alternatively, the bird cage has been used to suggest a time of liberation and growth (although still
in relation to men)

However, the cage does still evoke a sense of confinement with no way out, as is illustrated in this
powerful anti-prostitution campaign that alludes to the gibbet cage.

FASHION AND THE BIRDCAGE

Its interesting that the fashion world turns an indifferent eye to much of the negative birdcage
imagery. Clearly, there is still an allure and magic to evoking the pretty bird. The rare, exotic and
beautiful creature that is on display the eternal quest to be desirable. This must be resonating with
the consumers of these fashion trends as well. In fact, in fashion its easy to find cage imagery
across many platforms.

Although there is differentiation and awareness of symbolism here. The message of both Louis
Vuitton and Dolce & Gabbana is that their products are the beautiful objects of desire to collect and
not the woman. This speaks more broadly to the theme discussed above that birdcages are frames
for objects of status.

CHANEL AS CASE STUDY

Of all the luxury brands, Chanel has made the most frequent use of the birdcage metaphor and
symbolism (they have many other modes of advertisement). One of their most famous campaigns
was with the young Vanessa Paradis, perhaps not ironically depicted as a paradise bird; where the
actress and singer is literally lesprit de Chanel. The cumulative effect of the ad is to evoke
connotations of glamour, French culture and style that many competing luxury brands try to
associate with their products. Here, the bird as a siren of attention, where with a dab you can be
transformed to seduce others with your style and sexual appeal.

http://youtu.be/sGtmjZ9Yuj0

This symbolism has been used in how they have evolved their brand iconography. They have
produced jewellery that speaks to both the positive and negative facets of birdcage symbolism:
liberation and being caged. Although, a more charitably interpretation is that instead of being caged,
is that they are the focused object of desire.

Some of the more recent ads appear to be challenging the more negative side of the objectification
of women in cages. Here the woman cannot see that she is already an object of beauty and is free
of the cage. Although, the frame she is in still suggests luxury and a golden cage.

Another campaign that appears more negative and evokes the idea that this article started with, is
that our apartments are the cages we seek to escape from, especially from the heritage of their use
of the birdcage. Again the frame of the advertisement is that the model is one of luxury and wealth.

CLOSING THE CAGE: CONCLUSION

If we look at the concept of the Birdcage in terms of what meaning it creates, we can use a
semiotic-square to map the meaning axes of being caged. This provides us with four articulations of
the cage.

We can look at some of the advertising that is used here to populate this semiotic square

What we find is that all four articulations of meaning are present in modern discourse. There are
some considerations here. Since we think in container-metaphors, we think of our modern lives in
terms of being through the two modern discourses: freedom and discipline. The tension point being
how trapped we feel in the modern cities we engage with.
When the birdcage is treated as a symbol that evokes the verb of being caged (or negation of) we
find that it speaks to modern life. The positive is not to show the cage but being outside of the cage.
When the birdcage is an independent symbol, it has a main connotation of being a frame for
something beautiful, rare, glamourous, stylish, popular, colourful and entertaining. However, these
are characteristics that are very feminine in nature. We therefore tend to see two main expressions
of this:

1.

The birdcage as a frame for focusing attention on the woman as desirable and glamorous.

2.

The birdcage as a frame that objectifies woman and limits their equality.

The question is, with the fashion industry so consistently using this symbol, how is it framing how
we perceive women in society?
Perhaps the fashion industry are successfully performing a version of the Thaumatrope trick
developed by John Ayrton in 1825; its an illusion that the bird is in the cage and Im looking at the
wrong side of the issue.

I am no bird; no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will
Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre

SHARE THIS:

Twitter

Facebook33

Google

Tumblr

Pinterest90

Pocket

Print

Reddit

LinkedIn1

Email