ANALYSIS OF "THE SOCIOLOGICALLY EXAMINED LIFE" (part 33)

Resources for Creating Images

by

Charles Lamson

Consider what it takes to create a favorable image of one's self. We must be able to present the signs in the forms of speech, behavior, and material objects (such as clothing) that others can use to make inferences about us. All these resources came from social life. We must learn how to speak and act in ways that others will interpret as signs of competence, morality, or other good qualities. We must also acquire certain resources (skills, money) that will allow us to obtain other signifying resources, such as a good job, nice clothes, a car and a home, and so on. In other words, all the signs that we can muster to create images, impressions, and creditable selves are products of social life, as is the ability to use these signs in an impressive way.

Perhaps you are thinking sure signs come from social life, and so does the ability to use them. So what? The answer is this: In a society where there is a great deal of inequality, the resources and skills necessary to signify a creditable self will be unequally distributed. This means that not everyone can create a creditable self, at least with some audiences. It also means that some people will be able to create impressions of goodness by virtue of their power, rather than by the power of their virtue.

In Conclusion

We should try to be mindful, then, that images matter because they affect how we treat others and how they treat us; that images are not the result of personalities, but of how people define things, how people treat each other, and how much inequality exists between groups in a society; and that people in dominant groups can use their advantages to create images of their own competence and morality, while denying people in less-powerful groups the resources to create images of equal value. Part of being sociologically mindful is paying attention to how such images are created, how they affect people's chances for good lives, and how they help to maintain (or to change) the way the social world works.

*SOURCE: THE SOCIOLOGICALLY EXAMINED LIFE, 2ND EDITION, 2001, MICHAEL SCHWALBE, PGS. 139-140*

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