Description
Book SynopsisIn malls across the United States, clothing retail workers navigate low wages and unpredictable schedules. Despite these problems, they devote time and money to mirror the sleek mannequins stylishly adorned with the latest merchandise. Bringing workers' voices to the fore, sociologists Joya Misra and Kyla Walters demonstrate how employers reproduce gendered and racist beauty standards by regulating workers' size and look. Interactions with customers, coworkers, and managers further reinforce racial hierarchies. New surveillance technologies also lead to ineffective corporate decision-making based on flawed data. By focusing on the interaction of race, gender, and surveillance, Walking Mannequins sheds important new light on the dynamics of retail work in the twenty-first century.
Trade Review"
Walking Mannequins is an enjoyable and engaging read, and an important contribution to the literature on work and occupations." * Contemporary Sociology *
"Misra and Walters’ findings broaden our understanding of the multiple ways race and gender shape the workplace from the relationships people form with their coworkers to unequal labor expectations, dress codes, and surveillance technologies." * Sociology of Race and Ethnicity *
"A fascinating and useful read for scholars and students interested in work, gender, emotional and/or aesthetic labor, technology and surveillance, and inequality." * Gender & Society *
Table of ContentsContents
Acknowledgments
Part I Introduction
Introduction
“If They Could Put You in the Store as a Mannequin, They Would”
1. Low Wages, Little Training, and Unpredictable Hours
“It Makes You Realize How Awful These Retail Jobs Are”
Part II Managers, Coworkers, and Customers
2. Multilevel Management and the Service Panopticon
“We’ve Only Had One District Manager That Was a Normal Human Being”
3. Coworkers and Belonging
“We Are Like a Family”; “If It Weren’t for Work, I Wouldn’t Talk to You”
4. Customer Expectations and Emotional Labor
“It’s All about the Customer’s Experience”
Part III Aesthetic Labor
5. Beautiful Bodies on the Sales Floor
“They Basically Look for People That Look Like the Posters”
6. Modeling the Merchandise
“They Always Check You, from Head to Toe”
Conclusion
Appendix: Research Design and Methods
Notes
References
Index
