In the Western port city of Houdieda, Yemen’s class system is evident in a slum area where the Akhdam community live. The term Akhdam translates to “servant” in Arabic and they are also known as “the marginalised ones,” as they are only given the poorest paid jobs and they are looked down upon. Reuters writes:

Yemeni Akhdam, or servants, are similar to hereditary castes, but are distinguished by their African features and the menial jobs they perform. Widespread prejudice places the Akhdam at the bottom of Yemen’s social ladder. Asked about the origins of the Akhdam, Yemenis say they are descendants of Ethiopians who crossed the Red Sea to conquer Yemen before the arrival of Islam some 1,400 years ago - making them outsiders in their own country. Most live in slum areas in the outskirts of the capital Sanaa and other main cities. They reside in small huts haphazardly built of wood and cloth, without basic services such as running water, electricity and sewage networks. 

Photos October 2012 via Reuters/Khaled Abdullah.

noahkalina: 66283 This photo is sociologically interesting. There is some kind of social exchange happening between these two people. It would be great to unpack this image using symbolic interactionism - the theory of reading the verbal and non-verbal signs exchanged during social communication. The best element of this photograph is that we don’t know what kind of exchange is taking place, but common sense might steer us to think that perhaps the person on the left is a backpacker or a homeless man asking the person on the right for change. There might also be a comment about class. The person on the right is immaculately dressed and holding what appears to be a phone in one hand, while reaching into their jacket with the other hand. Their body language is compact - seemingly threatened, anxious or uncomfortable with the exchange. The other person has an open and relaxed composure in comparison. What might be going on here? What does it tell us about how we learn to read body language and appearances? What does it tell us about power and fear of difference? High-res

noahkalina:

66283

This photo is sociologically interesting. There is some kind of social exchange happening between these two people. It would be great to unpack this image using symbolic interactionism - the theory of reading the verbal and non-verbal signs exchanged during social communication. The best element of this photograph is that we don’t know what kind of exchange is taking place, but common sense might steer us to think that perhaps the person on the left is a backpacker or a homeless man asking the person on the right for change. There might also be a comment about class. The person on the right is immaculately dressed and holding what appears to be a phone in one hand, while reaching into their jacket with the other hand. Their body language is compact - seemingly threatened, anxious or uncomfortable with the exchange. The other person has an open and relaxed composure in comparison. What might be going on here? What does it tell us about how we learn to read body language and appearances? What does it tell us about power and fear of difference?

Social psychologist Efrat Tseëlon is interested in feminist readings of fashion and culture. Tseëlon argues that while the English dictionary might define the practice of wearing masks and disguise as an attempt to conceal and misrepresent, masquerade is something different. Masquerade is not about portraying something false, but rather it is a way to understand the intricacies of identity. Masquerade draws its meaning through historical context, as the meaning of how we present our ideal selves in public has changed over time. Tseëlon  writes:

…disguise is meant to hide, conceal, pass as something one is not. Masquerade  however  is a statement about the wearer.  It is pleasurable  excessive, sometime[s] subversive. The mask is partial covering; disguise is full covering; masquerade is deliberate covering. The mask hints; disguise erases from view; masquerade overstates. The mask is an accessory; disguise is a portrait; masquerade is a caricature. But these distinctions are tenuous, as each also shares the attributes of the other, at least in some uses or historical contexts… Thus, whatever shade of meaning of masquerade one chooses to employ  it is obvious that through a dialectic of concealing and revealing masquerade serves a critical function. It calls attention to such fundamental issues as the nature of identity  the truth of identity, the stability of identity categories and the relationship between the supposed identity and its outward manifestations (or essence and appearance).

Tseëlon outlines how the cultural practice of wearing masquerade is ancient. In Western culture, masquerade can be found in the philosophical writing of Plato, who wrote about life as a puppet show. Masquerade appears in Shakespeare’s plays, where comedic situations involving masquerade allow individuals to adopt new identities and experience other genders. It is also famously personified in the annual Carnival of Venice, held in Italy. Masquerade has been used throughout Western history as a way to play around with ideas of what makes up our “true” self. Masquerade has been employed by women in particular, liberating them from restrictive gender and sexual scripts, if only for brief periods at a time.

The study of masquerade allows us to ask: is there such a thing as an “authentic” self? Do we easily transgress social norms behind the anonymity of costume, or do we mostly adhere to the rules set out for us? Who are we when we don’t have to live up to the preconceived ideas of how other people see us?

Photography credit: Venice 2012… by  JoesSistah on Flickr.

A worker from the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, with his face painted with tears of blood, chants slogans during a rally in front of a railway station in Seoul November 11, 2012. Thousands of workers who took part in the rally asked for an extensive revision of the labour law and demanded that the government provide temporary workers employment stability by converting their status to full-time workers. The worker’s headband reads, “Abolition of temporary workers system”.  Photo and text: REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji. High-res

A worker from the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, with his face painted with tears of blood, chants slogans during a rally in front of a railway station in Seoul November 11, 2012. Thousands of workers who took part in the rally asked for an extensive revision of the labour law and demanded that the government provide temporary workers employment stability by converting their status to full-time workers. The worker’s headband reads, “Abolition of temporary workers system”. 

Photo and text: REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji.