Social Complexities

Nick Paranto

           Discrimination against minorities can be seen by varying responses from different types of people, depending on their role or level of dominance in society, as well as their willingness to express their true feelings. Society is a complex web of feelings, making it difficult to distinguish one type of individual from another. In his essay “Behind the Official Story,” James C. Scott defined what public and hidden transcripts are and how they exist in society, as well as the reverberations that are seen in the transcripts when levels of power change. Beth Loffreda’s essay, “Selections from Losing Matt Shepard: Life and Politics in the Aftermath of Anti-Gay Murder,” and Susan Faludi’s essay, “The Naked Citadel,” analyze instances of domination in society as a result of identity differences and provide examples of stages where the public and hidden transcripts can be performed by role players for an audience. Laramie, Wyoming and the Citadel are environments where performances have taken place. These stages reveal that there are many layers of public and hidden transcripts in society that stem from multiple levels of domination and subordination, which can create a hazy definition of an individual’s identity. The actors involved in these on-stage performances are expected to fulfill their given roles, but in doing so, may actually be representing the feelings of a larger American society.

           Public and hidden transcripts determine the ways that people act in society when placed in the presence of other individuals. Public transcripts describe “the open interaction between subordinates and those who dominate” (Scott 522). In essence, the public transcript is the way that people behave towards others, including what they say, their gestures, or their countenance that occur within their relationship of power. The derivative of the public transcript is the hidden transcript, which can be defined as a “discourse that takes place ‘offstage’…consist[ing] of those speeches, gestures, and practices that confirm, contradict, or inflect what appears in the public transcript” (Scott 524). The hidden transcripts can be seen as the way that individuals feel when placed outside of their power relations. Subordinates and dominants often have separate hidden transcripts where the groups may, amongst themselves, discuss their feelings towards the other party. People tend to act differently around some people than they do others, suggesting the idea that not all public and hidden transcripts are the same, and that there are actually multiple layers of transcripts in society.

            It is evident in society that people may act differently depending on the company that they are in, hinting at the existence of multiple layers of public and hidden transcripts. For example, Aggy, a “normally taciturn and deferential black cook” (Scott 524) acted reserved in front of her master, but freely vented her frustration to a white governess from New England, and most likely rehearsed her outburst among the slaves in their quarters or at the common clandestine religious services (Scott 532). This woman made sure that she was respectful to her owner who was in a position of supremacy relative to her. However, Aggy entrusted most of her beliefs with the white governess, and revealed all of her opinions in the company of her fellow subordinate slaves. Multiple types of public and hidden transcripts that are noticeable with Aggy can also be viewed in Matt Shepard’s death as well as at the Citadel. Following Matt’s murder, one young woman from Laramie commented that “‘there was a tremendous outpouring of support – the vigils, the parade – and a lot of those people…if they had known that Matt was gay while he was alive, would have spit on him’” (Loffreda 319). In her opinion, many people were acting outside of their character in response to Matt’s death, and probably felt very differently than what they were portraying. This discrepancy of transcript appears at the Citadel as well, where one alumnus of the school commented that by integrating girls into the school “the cadets would [face] ‘a different form of intimidation – not wanting to be embarrassed in front of a girl’” (Faludi 137). According to this man, cadets would have acted differently in front of ladies their own age than they would have in front of female “waitees” or professors at the Citadel, or fellow cadets, thus emphasizing that multiple transcripts existed at the Citadel as well. Transcripts usually stem from power, so when multiple transcripts constitute society, as is generally the case, it is likely that many levels of power are present also.

            Since transcripts evolve because society is composed of both dominant and subordinate individuals, there must be multiple levels of power in order to achieve the many layers of transcripts that are apparent within society. Matt Shepard was an individual who epitomized the theory that power existed on many levels in society. Jay, a gay Native American, stated it best: “‘Well at least now one of them’ – whites – ‘knows what we live through every day’” (Loffreda 328). In giving his thoughts on the murder, Jay claimed that the commonly-dominant whites may finally realize what oppression and discrimination feels like. Matt was a white male, the ideal dominant figure, yet at the same time he was gay – a social status deemed to be subordinate. He had both dominant and subordinate social characteristics, confirming the thought that there are indeed levels of power between the dominant and subordinate extremes. Intermediate levels of power were also exhibited at the Citadel, an institution that appears to portray males as the power-holding group and gives females the subordinate role. “Knobs” complicate this clear-cut system by falling somewhere in between males and females in terms of the power that they possess (at least according to the Citadel’s standards). Knobs were often subject to hazing by upperclassmen, but at the same time one cadet claimed that “‘the great majority of guys here are very misogynistic’” (Faludi 135). Most of the students that attended this institution discriminated against women, yet knobs – members of the Citadel’s student body – were, themselves, discriminated against. This contradictory grasp on power, as a result of multiple transcripts and level of social power, not only at the Citadel, but in Laramie as well, assists in creating a blurred distinction of identities in society.

            The multiplicity of transcripts and power relations makes it extremely difficult to grant individuals specific identities and to place them in a particular sector of society. Matt Shepard’s death made people realize that they cannot properly create a stereotype for gay men. Typically, it is thought that gays are big, burly men who wear tight pants and leather, yet “Matt appeared boyish, pensive, sweet, charmingly vulnerable in oversized sweaters – a boy who still wore braces when he died, a boy who looked innocent of sex” (Loffreda 327). Matt looked almost like a small, sympathetic child who was unfairly beaten up as a result of his innocence. At first sight, most people would not have thought Matt to be gay. Because he did not look the part and was made up of both powerful and subordinate traits, society misinterpreted his social status and caused an uncertainty in his identity. The disturbance of social status is further tainted at the Citadel, where the cadets must complete early morning housekeeping chores such as making beds, dressing each other, sweeping, and taking out the trash (Faludi 159). As it is portrayed, the cadets are expected to fulfill domestic objectives while at the same time attempting to achieve their ultimate goal of becoming the “Whole Man.” It is interesting that most males are so outspokenly prejudice against women, yet they apparently subject themselves to performing these specified duties, traditionally reserved for women, every day. The abundance of transcripts and power levels make it nearly impossible to identify individuals, often making it confusing what their social roles should be.

            Given the existence of transcripts and power struggles, people are usually forced into identities (whether it accurately characterizes them or not) that they are expected to perform in society. As Scott states, there has been a form of “acting that has been imposed on the vast majority of people…[such as] the public performance required of those subject to elaborate and systematic forms of social subordination: the worker to the boss, the tenant to the sharecropper or landlord, the serf to the lord” (522). The role of the worker in relation to the boss is subordinate, so the worker is pressured by social guidelines to act in this nature; sharecroppers, landlords, and lords are given an identity of controlling power, so they assume this disposition. Regardless of whether or not these individuals want to act this way, the structure of society presses it upon them. Cadets are given the role of being strong men, even though this trait may not be defined by each man’s true belief. In attending the Citadel, “an institution who singular mission [is] ‘making men’” (Faludi 132), it is assumed that the graduates will be strong, virile men. The entire purpose of going to this school is to become an ultimate man, and knowing what is expected of them also makes the cadets anticipate the respect of others around them.  The power that the cadets assume because of their school ultimately determines the role that they will play in society. Another example of how power affects the role of individuals  is evident when, following Matt Shepard’s murder, popular American icons stood up and said that something be done about the hate crimes being committed across the country (Loffreda 322). These actors and actresses that took a stand most likely felt that since they controlled a large portion of society’s power of speech, it was their duty – their role – to make a statement supporting homosexuals. In this example as well as that of the cadets, it is evident that the participants take on the roles that society expects them to play, usually part of their public transcript, based on the identity bestowed upon them.

            Sometimes, the performance of a public transcript can be played out too long, and it may naturalize itself as part of the individual who is portraying it. When subordinates act from behind a mask, they will “eventually find that their faces have grown to fit that mask… [and that] the practice of subordination in this case produced, in time, its own legitimacy” (Scott 528). After a long enough time, subordinates may have partaken in a role of subservience to the point where they actually believe themselves to be subservient. A naturalization of performance does not only occur for the subordinate members of society, but it pertains to dominant individuals as well. For instance, cadets are known to have relationships with drag queens from the Treehouse. While it may seem sharply out of character for a cadet to be gay, these men actually see the drag queens as completing their masculine role. The cadets are supposed to be the manliest of men and only have relationships with the most feminine women, and in their minds, this need is fulfilled with the drag queens. One drag queen commented that her cadet lover told her: “‘You’re more of a woman than a woman is’” (Faludi 163). Although the drag queen may have been a male physically, her feminine performance eventually made herself and everyone else around her believe that she actually was an attractive woman. By performing a public transcript too long, individuals begin to believe the transcript themselves, which only further complicates the complexities of transcripts and power that can be found in society.

            Performances can often represent issues that are occurring in a larger society, as can be seen on the stages of Laramie and the Citadel barracks. The Citadel “has functioned more as a barometer of national anxieties than a garrison against them. The militaristic tendencies within the Corps seem to vary inversely with the esteem in which the American soldier is held in the larger society” (Faludi 141). It has been noted that during World War II when society supported the military, hazing was nearly nonexistent in the barracks, whereas during the Vietnam War where popular support was hard to find, harassment between cadets became a problem. This proves not only that the Citadel serves to portray what goes on in the world outside its walls, but that changing times cause changing attitudes, which in turn can change transcripts and power relations and create a confusion of social status. Laramie was also able to provide a stage on which actors could perform current events that were taking place outside of the town. While residents of Laramie insisted that, “‘Nobody expects murder here – nobody. This is not a place where you kill your neighbor, and we see each other as neighbors. This is a good place’”(Loffreda 317), they could not deny the fact that a brutal hate crime was committed there. The media represented the nation as being tolerant towards gays, but this was not the case because public votes prevented gays from gaining rights. Thus, Laramie was no different from the rest of the country: it served as a place where residents expressed their open-mindedness, yet failed to act on this idea and continued to oppress homosexuals. Once again, the variety of transcripts and levels of power that existed made it difficult to determine fact from fiction. Nonetheless, the Citadel and Laramie served as stages where performances were made that reflected the feelings of the remainder of the country as well.

            Laramie, Wyoming and the Citadel both function as stages, since they clearly foster performances taken on by actors. These scenarios successfully unveil the numerous layers of public transcripts, hidden transcripts, domination and subordination that are present within society. As is evident, the multiple layers that persist often make it difficult to give the actors proper identities, yet actors are still forced to take on a social role. It can be seen, especially at the Citadel, that these false characteristics may naturalize themselves on the actors, creating a plethora of social confusion. Audiences may also take note that these environments often represent issues existent in American society – not just on the stages alone. Because Laramie and the Citadel possess these distinct abilities to portray the thoughts and opinions of many people and expose the framework of society, they can be considered stages which reflect the growing social complexities of the American public.