Cultural models of bodily images of women teachers

Bodily images of teachers reflect what is socially acceptable according to cultural models, which are “images or storylines or descriptions” based on a sociocultural group’s “taken-for-granted assumptions about what is ‘typical’ or ‘normal’” (Gee 1999: 59). Cultural models associated with schools, as institutions that uphold social values, are particularly useful in examining a society’s standards.

Two participants, Erin and Gabbie (pseudonyms), shared stories about their tattoos that reflected their personal lives. In a society where women might feel a level of social control over their bodies, tattoos can be personal expressions that highlight “power relations that surround the body” (Pitts 2003: 57). The cultural model of teacher image in the U.S. (i.e., a conservatively dressed and coiffed female) does not include tattoos, because culturally and historically in the U.S., tattoos are a mode of resistance (Pitts 2003); therefore, Erin and Gabbie deviated from the cultural model. According to discourse analysis of the participants’ stories, each teacher’s students did not interpret these deviations in the same ways.

Erin’s students from a conservative community saw her tattoos as evidence she was not the type of “teacher that they shove in the closet every night and take the battery out of.” Erin resisted the cultural model to be a different kind of teacher. Periodically though, she met backlash from the school community. Gabbie’s tattoo was also a break from the iconic image of teacher, but students did not interpret it as a sign that she was less than ideal but a different kind of quality teacher. Within the context of her boarding school campus where personal mixed with professional, Gabbie’s departure from the cultural model was acceptable. With both participants, the combination of setting, community expectations, and cultural model affected how the teachers’ tattoos were socially regarded.