Reading 9: Working at Bazooms: The Intersection of Power,



NotesReading 9: Working at Bazooms: The Intersection of Power, Gender, and SexualityI.The Intersection of Power, Gender, and SexualityA.Object of the article is to examine how the dynamics of power, gender, and sexuality operate in Bazooms workplace1.How these three elements shape and concurrently are shaped by management and customers2.How waitresses attempt to reshape these dynamicsB.Hypothesis that women are not “objectified victims” but active architects of gender, power, and sexuality in such settingsII.The Bazooms Workplace EnvironmentA.Method1.Application process and how waitresses are chosen2.Openly interviewed co-workers for 6 months3.The accounts of those girls who did not express contentment provided data for this experimentIII.Job-Based PowerA.Formal power1.Gender and power are reflected in the management structurea.With women constantly in subordinate positions, their dependency compromises their sense of job securityb.Management techniques of exerting power1.Disciplinary action based on “company rules”2.Co-opting time meant for motivating in a way that makes power relations explicitc.Male management’s right to exercise veto power over each worker’s appearance, attitude, etc.rmal power1.Management employs “interactional techniques” to sustain dominance and maintain the inferior status of womena.By referring to grown women as “girls”b.By the use of humiliating comments about appearanceIV.GenderA.Bazooms is a “gendered workplace”1.Behavior rulesa.Codes and guidelines shape gendered identities in the workplace1.The Bazooms girl guidelineb.A waitress must adapt to the company’s expectations by acting out her gender2.Appearance rulesa.Social control mechanisms1.The uniform incorporates a gendered meaning into the work2.Management constantly reifies femininity through rules and discipline3.Gender roles are always being defined and redefined in the workplace3.Emotional labora.Expected to become absorbed in her role, engaging in deep acting1.Induce or suppress feelings in deference for another’s2.Positioning women to become easy targets for verbal abuse and other displaced emotionsb.Can result in an estrangement from one’s own feelingsV.The Sexualized WorkplaceA.Women not only working as “women” but as sexualized womenB.Premised on women’s bodies and their role in male fantasiesC.Sexualized expectations of customers are played out1.These interactions socialize Bazoom girls, shaping their gendered sexual identities, expectations, and roles2.This socialization enhances masculine cultureD.Sexual harassment and “sex joking”1.A sexually permissive environment allows for degrading behaviors that are used as social distancing techniques to reinforce roles and maintain the inferiority of the waitressVI.AgencyA.Women respond to these dynamics when they have reached their limit by either resisting or manipulating their gender and sexualized roles1.Undermining and challenging the power structurea.Through the use of gossip as a form of resistanceb.Through the use of interactional techniques to test power boundaries2.Gender-based strategiesa.After a socializing process, waitress begins to redefine personal normsb.Choices of how to use the uniform are also examples of negotiating the Bazoom girl’s sexualized image3.Counteracting and co-opting sexual identitiesa.Counteracting by sharing personal details to change or downplay the sexualized imageb.Co-opting by embellishing the sexualized image as their own4.Negotiating of sexuality and sexual harassmenta.Setting personal boundaries in response to harassmentb.Turning incidence of sexual harassment into personal and economic gainsVII.ConclusionA.Women are actively shaping their own experiences at Bazooms and are not helpless performers or passive casualties ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download