Messages, Signs, and Meanings A Basic Textbook in Semiotics and Communication 3rdedition Volume 1 in the series Studies in Linguistic and Cultural Anthropology Series Editor: Marcel Danesi, University of Toronto Canadian Scholars’ Press Inc. Toronto Disclaimer: Some images and text in the printed version of this book are not available for inclusion in the eBook. Messages, Signs, and Meanings: A Basic Textbook in Semiotics and Communication Theory, 3rdEdition by Marcel Danesi First published in 2004 by Canadian Scholars’ Press Inc. 180 Bloor Street West, Suite 801 Toronto, Ontario M5S 2V6 www.cspi.org Copyright 0 2004 Marcel Danesi and Canadian Scholars’ Press Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be photocopied, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or otherwise, without the written permission of Canadian Scholars’ Press Inc., except for brief passages quoted for review purposes. In the case of photocopying, a licence may be obtained from Access Copyright: One Yonge Street, Suite 1900, Toronto, Ontario, M5E 1E5, (416) 868-1620, fax (416) 868- 1621, toll-free 1-800-893-5777, www.accesscopyright.ca. Every reasonable effort has been made to identify copyright holders. CSPI would be pleased to have any errors or omissions brought to its attention. CSPl gratefully acknowledges financial support for our publishing activities from the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP). National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication Danesi, Marcel, 1946- Messages and meanings : an introduction to semiotics /by Marcel Danesi - [3rd ed.] (Studies in linguistic and cultural anthropology) Previously titled: Messages and meanings : sign, thought and culture. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-55 130-250-0 (pbk.) 1. Semiotics. I. Title. 11. Series. P99.D26 2004 302.2 C2003-907010-7 Cover design by Hothouse Canada Page design and layout by Brad Homing 04 05 06 07 08 5 4 3 2 1 Printed and bound in Canada by AGMV Marquis Imprimeur Inc. All royalties from the sale of this book will be donated to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Clothes Nudity is the uniform of the other side; nudity is a shroud. Milan Kundera (I929- ) PRELIMINARY REMARKS Llke any other common object or artifact, we interpret dothes as signs, standing for such things as the personality, the social status, and overall character of the wearer. Once again, the semiotician’s basic method of asking what, how and why something means what it means applies to clothes. To get a concrete grasp of how clothes signify, imagine the following situation. Suppose you had an appointment for a job interview at the head office of a bank. In addition to appropriate grooming, the question of how you would dress is hardly a trivial one. It will depend, first, on whether you are male or female. This is because the dress code involved is gendered. So, let’s assume you are a male. What is the appropriate dress code for a “male head office bank employee”? Here are the lunds of options (clothng signifiers) that constitute ths code: Dress Code Selections and Options Shirt white or some other conservative color, long sleeves, no designs, preferably buttoned at the collar Tie conservative color that should match the suit, tied neatly around the neck with a standard knot; its use is becoming increasingly optional Jacket gray or blue, or some other color that does not stand out - 177 - 178 MESSAGES, SIGNS, AND MEANINGS Pants matching color Shoes black (preferably with shoelaces) There is, needless to say, some latitude to the options and selections you can make. But you know for certain that you cannot put on sneakers or wear a red shirt or yellow jacket, because if you did the chances are that you would not even get past the door of the job interviewer with whom you have an appointment. Although conformity with the dress code will not guarantee you a job in a bank, it will at least get you past that door. Dressing for the occasion is indeed a social requirement. Along with appropriate grooming practices, it is a primary means of presenting persona. Now, let’s switch the situation from the standpoint of gender. Suppose you are a female. What is the appropriate dress code for a “female head office bank employee”? Here are some of the kinds of options (clothing signifiers) that constitute the female code: Dress Code Selections and Options Blouse soft colors, preferably white Jacket gray, blue, or some other conservative color Skirt or pants color should match the jacket Shoes preferably with high or semi-high heels and a dark color Although there are some differences in the female dress code, there are also many similarities-many more than there once were. This suggests that the job type now cuts across gender categories. Indeed, dressing “unisexually” originated in social trends that date back to the counterculture 1960s, designed to symbolize equahty in the job workplace, in the family, and in society generally. In effect, this vignette was designed to impress upon you that clothes make the person. Clothing is more than mere bodily covering for protection. It is a sign system that is interconnected with the other sign systems of society through which we can send out messages-about our attitudes, our social status, our political beliefs, etc. Ths is why uniforms are required by special groups like sports teams, military organizations, religious institutions, and the like. And this is why we dress for occasions such as job interviews. CLOTHES 179 The purpose of this chapter is to examine what clothes mean. The branch of semiotics that focuses on the meaning of material objects and artifacts is sometimes called artfoctLia1 semiotics or, in the present case, simply clothing semiotics. CLOTHING VS. DRESS Because clothes are put on bodies, and because (as we have seen) bodies are signs of Selfhood, clothes can be defined as signs extending the basic meaning of bodies in cultural context. Clothes and the bodies they enfold are thus imbued with moral, social, and aesthetic significance. In ancient Greece the body was glorified as a source of pleasure; in ancient Rome it was perceived as a source of moral corruption. As a consequence, the two cultures represented the body in different ways. The Christian Church has always played on the duality of the body as a temple and as an enemy of the spirit. The perception of the body as something morally significant is typical of tribal cultures too. As the anthropologist Helen Fisher (1992: 253-254) observes, even in the jungle of Amazonia Yanomamo men and women wear clothes for sexual modesty. A Yanomamo woman would feel as much discomfort and agony at removing her vaginal string belt as would a North American woman if one were to ask her to remove her underwear. Similarly, a Yanomamo man would feel just as much embairassment at his penis accidentally falling out of its encasement as would a North American male caught literally “with his pants down.” As these considerations bring out, clothmg and decorating the body for social presentation is a basic form of Self-representation. It is also intrinsically intertwined with sexual, romantic, and courtship meanings. When a young Zulu woman falls in love, she is expected to make a beaded necklace resembling a close-fitting collar with a flat panel attached, whch she then gives to her boyfriend. Depending on the combination of colors and bead pattern, the necklace is a courtship device designed to convey a specific type of romantic message: e.g., a combination of pink and white beads in a certain pattern would convey the message You are poor, hut I love youjust the same (Dubin 1987: 134). At a biological level, clothes have a very important function indeed-they enhance our suivivability considerably. They are, at ths denotative level, human- made extensions of the body’s protective resources; they are additions to our protective bodily hair and skin thickness. As Werner Enninger (1992: 215) aptly points out, this is why clothing styles vary according to geography and topography: “The distribution of types of clothmg in relation to different climatic 180 MESSAGES, SIGNS, AND MEANINGS zones and the variation in clothes worn with changes in weather conditions show their practical, protective function.” But as is the case in all human systems, clothes invariably take on a whole range of connotations in social settings. These are established on the basis of the various dress codes (from Old French dresser “to arrange, set up”) that inform people how to clothe themselves in social situations. Predictably, dress codes vary across cultures. To someone who knows nothing about Amish culture, the blue or charcoal Mutze of the Amish male is just a jacket. But to the Amish the blue Mutze signals that the wearer is between 16 and 35 years of age, the charcoal one that he is over 35. Similarly, to an outsider the Russian kdbak appears to be a brimless red hat. To a rural Russian, however, it means that the wearer is a medical doctor. It is interesting to note, too, that clothing, like other types of signs, can be used to lie about oneself: con artists and criminals can dress in three-piece suits to look trustworthy; a crook can dress like a police officer to gain a victim’s confidence, and so on. To discourage people from deceiving others through clothing, some societies have even enacted laws that prohibit misleading dressing, defining who can dress in certain ways. In ancient Rome, for instance, only aristocrats were allowed to wear purple-colored clothes; and in many religiously oriented cultures differentiated dress codes for males and females are regularly enforced.