Proquest Dissertations

NOTE TO USERS Page(s) missing in number only; text follows. Page(s) were scanned as received. 16 This reproduction is the best copy available. ® UMI THE HOOTERS GIRL & THE CONUNDRUM OF CONNOTATIONS: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF THE USE OF THE CULTURAL TOOLKIT IN MANAGING STIGMA By Miriam Michelle Newton-Francis Submitted to the Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of American University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor ofPhilosophy In Sociology Chair: Dean of tile College of Arts and Sciences 2008 American University Washington, D.C. 20016 AMERICAN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY UMI Number: 3309126 INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. ® UMI UMI Microform 3309126 Copyright 2008 by ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 E. Eisenhower Parkway PO Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 ©COPYRIGHT by Miriam Michelle Newton-Francis 2008 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DEDICATION John and June Newton Daniel Francis Ming THE HOOTERS GIRL & THE CONUNDRUM OF CONNOTATIONS: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF THE USE OF THE CULTURAL TOOLKIT IN MANAGING STIGMA BY Miriam Michelle Newton-Francis ABSTRACT Although past research on culture as a toolkit offers strong evidence that individuals mobilize tools in order to deal with everyday social interactions, the ways in which they deploy those tools are not well understood. Most studies focus on how culture is involuntarily used rather than examining how social actors deliberately collect, assemble, and mobilize tools. Further, little research examines the existence of toolsets within the broader cultural toolkit that can be assembled and used in specific situations. To address this gap in the literature, this exploratory study examines how those who face stigma threat actively use culture to reveal, negotiate, and sometimes resist, negative meanings attached to them by different social audiences. The central argument is that actors actively and systematically use culture to manage social interactions in order to assess stigma threat and to unpack social situations to evaluate other actors that are party to the interaction in order to make decisions about disclosure of a potentially discrediting characteristic. 11 The Hooters Girl serves as the stigmatized population by which this examination is accomplished. This study utilized a qualitative approach through participant observation, reliance on key informants, and in-depth interviews with twenty-five women who are current and former Hooters Girls. The Hooters Girl was chosen because her occupational identity is received differently by different audiences: some audience members attach positive connotations to the Hooters Girl while others may stigmatize her. In this context, this dissertation also examines how the women experience the production of the Hooters Girls persona while simultaneously receiving meaning that others have attributed to the cultural object of the Hooters Girl. As such, I offer the new construct of"producer-as-receiver" to describe how individuals produce a particular object and then must deal with the varying reception among social audiences in every day interaction regarding the very thing they have produced. This study indicated that actors intentionally use their cultural toolkit to assemble a smaller toolset to manage stigma. This study contributes seven tools: actors use social reconnaissance to take inventory of the social setting, the actor excavates in order to draw out pertinent information in order to get a sense of the parties to the interaction, the actor will reveal the information or they will use the tool of veiling where they reveal information in increments, if the parties to the interaction react negatively, they will use the tools of nullifying and justifying to minimize the impact of revealing, and if the impact is not nullified or justified, they will use the tools of resignation to "let it go" or will use the tool of dissolving to end the interaction. This study advances our 111 understanding of the cultural toolkit by highlighting the ways in which individuals deliberately use them in particular social contexts. IV ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project could not have come to fruition without the support and guidance of my dissertation committee. I am indebted to Dr. Grant Blank, who has been an amazing chair and sounding board, for about six years, for the ideas that would lead to this dissertation. I thank him for his enthusiasm about the project and for believing in the conceptual framework and my abilities to bring it to completion. I also want to thank Dr. Gay Young for coming on board at the last minute, for her strong and confident leadership in the final stages of this process, and for also providing encouragement and valuable comments on the project. You are a wonderful intellectual "grandmother"! Dr. Dick Bennett has been a great champion of mine and has provided support and encouragement and a wonderful sense of humor to this process. Rounding out the committee is Dr. Mona J.E. Danner, whose support of my intellectual growth has spanned decades starting with a fateful meeting when I was an undergraduate and she just starting her tenure-track position at Old Dominion University. There are no words to describe my indebtedness to her for believing in this diamond in the rough. She is a great polisher! In the same way that I had a fateful meeting with Dr. Danner, I also had the same experience with Dr. Steve Hamilton whom I met when we were both starting the Ph.D. program at American University. He has been a constant support to me in coursework, in personal matters, and has tried to keep me sane and focused throughout the dissertation v process. I owe him much gratitude and am thrilled that we will be working together as friends and colleagues for many years to come. I'd also like to extend a big thank you to my closest circle of friends, whom I have known for about 15 years, for being a group who did not ask me specifically about the dissertation unless I wanted to talk about it. They provided shelter from this process when I desperately needed it. Oddly enough, these same friends provided the lifelines and tools necessary in order to complete it. Their contributions to this project are invaluable and my debt to them could never be repaid. I owe you big time! I also want to thank Dr. Salvador Vidal-Ortiz and Dr. Kristin Marsh who have been a positive source of encouragement in terms of keeping this all in perspective! Many thanks to Sandra Linden, who keeps the ship afloat. Also, thanks to the Appalachian College Association for the funding via the dissertation fellowship that allowed me to complete this project. My immediate family has always been a source of quiet strength for me. My parents have allowed me to explore a variety of avenues, some of them crazy and some of them not, without question and always with unconditional love. I thank them for allowing me the freedom to continuously explore, to make mistakes, and to constantly grow into my own person. Mostly, I want to thank them for always believing that I can accomplish anything, even when I do not believe this to be true. I'd also like to thank my husband, Dan, for his years of emotional labor, domestic labor, and paid labor, which allow me to seek out the various activities that nourish my soul. Finally, I want to extend a big kiss to my feline companion of 14 years, Ming. He has loved me unconditionally and has sat Vl faithfully on the keyboard as I feverishly typed the words that would comprise this dissertation. I love all of you eternally! Last, but not least, I want to thank the women who participated in this project for graciously telling me their stories, their experiences, their hopes, and their dreams. This dissertation would not be complete without their contributions. I hope that I have been a good steward of their voices. Vll TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................. v LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ......................................................................................... xii Chapter 1: ON CONNOTATIONS ................................................................................... 1 Backdrop of the Study and Research Questions ....................................... ? Significance of the Study .......................................................................... 8 Definition ofTerms ................................................................................. 12 Delimitations ........................................................................................... l3 Project Organization ............................................................................... 14 2: CONCEPTUALFRAMEWORK ................................................................... 17 Culture as a Toolkit or Repertoire .........................................................

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