| The IDEOLOGY OF CONDUCT ESSAYS ON LITERATURE and the HISTORY OF SEXUALITY Edited by NANCY ARMSTRONG LEONARD TENNENHOUSE Methuen New York and LondonThe beauty system* DEAN MacCANNELL JULIET FLOWER MacCANNELL In all societies, the arrangement between the sexes is an uneasy one involving tensions, separation, and segregation." Institutionalized ‘opposition between the sexes occurs in obvious ways as in some ‘Australian aboriginal groups where males speak a language forbid dden to females, or the urinary segregation of the sexes found in our society. There is also a et of oppositions that penetrate to the level of the subconscious so that males and females who associate intimately, sharing sex, toilet facilities, even language, can nevertheless inhabit separate phenomenal worlds and stumble around in guite different libidinal territories. Recent feminist writers have done much to remind us of our deficiencies in understanding the mind and social situation of women, But they may be closing the door on understand: ing the overall relationship between the sexes by pretending to open it. Feminists now speak of “hot pussy,” rape, even rape fantasies, and other formerly tabooed topics of female public discussion. But in 50 doing, they carefully step over the relationship between the sexes considered as a torality in its everyday expression. The discipline of social sciences blocks understanding of the arrangement between the sexes in a different way, by reducing relational matters to questions of gender or sex-role differences. The 206 The Beauty System social sciences simply repeat, on a more sophisticated level, the same program followed by people in everyday life: boys are like tis, girls are like that. The form of the relationship between the sexes is not studied directly and specifically, nor is it possible to do so without exceeding the limits of discipline theory and methods. In two pioneering studies, Gender Advertisements and “The arrangement between the sexes” (“ABS”), Erving Goffman directs our attention to this embarrassing gap in sociological knowledge, but he docs not claim to have filled it. To the contrary, Goffman remarks [Gender role performance competency] might be said to be essential to our nature, but this competency may provide a very poor picture of the overall relationship between the sexes. And indeed, | think it does. What the relationship between the sexes objectively is, taken as a whole, is quite another matter, not yer well analyzed... There is no relationship between the sexes that can be characterized in any satisfactory fashion.> If we explore the terrain berween the sexes, we find a pattern of expressive constraint in " masculine” self-portraitare, especially as this imaging is turned toward women. Men, in our Anglo-American ace supposed t0 be “cool.” This requirement operates on every detail of behavior, including language performance rules requiting men to flatten and draw out the ends of sentences in order to sound “masculine.” There are prohibitions and injunctions, not against “showing off,” but against appearing to be showing off. The man should wait for an opportunity to demonstrate his physical strength or co-ordination, and hope that his shit sleeves are rolled up when the opportunity comes; he should not seek out such ‘opportunities, or offer to show his muscles. He should be similarly cautious when it comes o other forms of sel-expression-for-women, ‘and dress, lest they be seen as intentionally produced for the purpose of being attractive to females. The woman his behavior, speech is supposed to be attracted to the man for his social achievements (owealth and power) and simply because he is a man, not because of any special effort on his part to make himself attractive to her. He must avoid verbal admissions of interest in a particular woman, unless this admission can also be read as unserious, instlting, and so. on. The main expression of masculine orientation toward wonIdeology of Conduct ‘matter whar female in no matter what situation, a license which sometimes extends beyond the vista behavior is a com -0 verbal insolence. This male nent of an enormous complex of cultural practices that can be called the feminine beauty system. Although the ‘men themselves would pur it in eruder terms, what they arc measur. ing is the degree to which the woman they are studying has subordi nated herself to the beauty system, that is the deg! to which she appears to be committed to making herself attractive to men. The feminine beauty system, including the masculine appraisal of it,and attraction, is the main feature ofthe cultural terran between the categories male” and “female” in our society. Theres no other cultural complex in moder society which touches upon individual bochavior that is as : ously conceived and executed, total, and minutely policed by collective observation and moral authority than are eminne beauty sandards, For example, andar for mother face paint color, body size and weight, breast shape, apper re expression, garment and accessory selection and co-ordination.* A close examination ofthe beauty system reveals it to bean ideology, ostensible reason for attempting to make oneself beautiful is st to lasing relationship. The rue hidden purpose ofthe feminine beauy systemisto transfer the power ofthe female libido to mensin-gencral not merely toward the end of maintaining male dominance over women, but “male” power in the abstract, or ‘masculine sign, even that which is directed against other males and nature. Institutionalized separation and segregation of the sexes is not the cause of gender disorders but only a part of the system, its maintenance equipment. In short, the contradiction at the base of the hheauty system is that prescribed feminine b altural power under a auty practives are be lieved to attract males, or bring the sexes closer together, while t real effect is to keep the sexes separate and unequal, even, or especially, as they seem to be coming together. THE MALE SET-UP Im our society, noted for its commitment to privacy, the assignment ‘of human infants to one of two “sex classes” is done at birth on the 208 The Beauty System k ic animals,” and itis immediately followed by an appropriate alignment to gender-marked language terms boy-githe-she,man-woman, and Soran (*ABS." soa). After the orginal inspection, the genitals ar the course of a man’s life when he will be asked to take it out and fof is sex: his seventh-grade physical education class, -y induction physical. Most of the time he will be show tas pr showers, his mili on the honor system, as when he takes his Scholastic Apt and is permitted to check the appropriate box “male” or In short, afte itals are covered, gender is imputec, mainly on he basis of arbitrary signs: blue blankets for boys, pink for girls, hair length, ete, Visible so-called “secondary” sex characteristics may be used after adolescence, but this is also largely a matter of imputation tis the actual as there is considerable overlap between the sexes Frocedures Without actually viewinganothe’s genitals wehave no al proof ofthe other's sox. Tis, of course is the way gexde, or Ivdesims” is born, rom all the lite details of signers chat displace, hide, and otherwise obliterate the actual Sex more properly “ rom the covered by the tokens of femininity. Ho ‘Women seem to sita different way to show their legs when they wear skirts instead of pants. You feel more like a woman. You look like a woman... . Inever wear (Diane von Furstenberg, 33 My conversion to pants atthe start of the Seventies was low but complete, accompanied by a sense of relief and relaxation, Susan Browamller, 8 Go back to the original moment of gender classification based on empirical observation, Of this original visual inspection, Goffman