Page 101 - Communication Cultural and Media Studies The Key Concepts

EX-NOMINATION

See also: Audiences, Effects, Methodology, Objectivity, Participant
observation
Further reading: Clifford (1986); Gillespie (1995); Moores (1994)

EX-NOMINATION

‘Un-naming’. Things that are so obvious that they do not need to be
named; they are naturalised. The term was coined by Barthes (1973).
In relation to class, he showed that the bourgeoisie in France at the
time was the ‘class that does not want to be named’. Although there
were political parties in the National Assembly that supported
capitalism, none came straight out with it and called themselves
‘The Capitalist Party’. This was another example of ideology at work.
The process worked towards naturalising existing arrangements of
power. Whilst the examples he used may not be as relevant today, the
issues brought forward by the concept can readily be applied to other
aspects of contemporary culture.
The idea of gender is certainly one area in which ex-nomination
still seems relevant. As many have argued, men are rarely nominated or
named in many discourses. An example of this is the ITV drama The
Bill in which, following police nomenclature, the women have the
title WPC (Woman Police Constable) while their male colleagues are
simply PCs (not MPCs). In politics, when women enter parliament, it
somehowseems only natural for journalists to report their role as wife/
mother as well as politician, and comment on their appearance. Male
politicians who are fathers are rarely asked about balancing work and
childcare.
Ex-nomination is normal in discussions of race and sexuality.
Richard Dyer (1997) as a white male notes how other people are raced
– ‘but we are just people’ (1997: 1) – highlighting the naturalising
process that comes with ex-nomination. It is rare to hear news about a
crime announcing that ‘police have arrested five white youths’
although it is not uncommon for people of colour, be they Asian,
black or Aboriginal, to be nominated in such reports. It is also rare to
hear people referred to as heterosexual. Indeed, heterosexuality is the
‘sexuality that does not want to be named’: the study of sexuality is
usually concerned with the ‘sexual other’, ‘defined in relation to
normative heterosexuality’ (Richardson, 1996: 1).
As these examples demonstrate, ex-nomination works to mask
discursive practices and to normalise certain categories in contrast to

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