Page 121 - The Disneyization of Society

THE DISNEYIZATION OF SOCIETY

association of women with caring and nurturing may be a factor but so too is the
fact that in many cases, emotional labour is sexualized and that women are more
112 likely than men to be placed in positions where the allure of their sexuality is part
of the service interaction. Moreover, in certain occupations women are often
more likely than men to exhibit emotional labour. 42
In one instance, at least, the diffusion of emotional labour from the Disney
theme parks was very direct: the city of Anaheim’s stadium and convention
centre, built in the mid-1960s, consciously adopted a Disney-style approach to
handling customers. Findlay quotes a local newspaper article as saying that at
both organizations could be found ‘an attractive and smiling staff’ who had been
tutored in a ‘Disneyland vocabulary’. 43
In this rest of this section, a variety of ways and contexts in which emotional
labour occurs nowadays will be outlined.

Airline cabin crews

Hochschild’s concept of emotional labour was originally developed in relation to
airline cabin crew staff, primarily at Delta Airlines in the USA. Other researchers
have confirmed the significance of emotional labour in this sphere of work.
Taylor and Tyler found emotional labour to be a significant component of the
work of flight attendants at two airlines, one of which was British. For example,
they quote a training instructor:

always walk softly through the cabin, always make eye contact with each and every passenger, and
always smile at them. This makes for a much more personal service, and is what first class travel and
(we) as a company are all about. 44
Cathay Pacific stewardesses are similarly enjoined to smile and one of them is
quoted in a newspaper article as saying:
They are always telling us that we are pretty and intelligent and that we are a very important part
of the company and they treat us as if we clean the toilets AND no matter what happens we must
always SMILE. 45

There is an unmistakable link here between sexuality and the display of emo-
tional labour that was previously referred to and this connection is very much a
feature of the advertisements for Asian airlines like Cathay Pacific that show
images of alluring female stewardesses.
Some airlines feel a need to enhance the emotional labour component of their
service delivery. It was announced in 1998 that British Airways cabin crews were
to be trained so that they were less reserved, less inclined to exhibit the British
stiff upper lip. They were to become more tactile and less aloof. According to a
Times reporter: ‘Cabin staff will be encouraged to crouch alongside passengers,
offer the occasional consoling pat on the arm and maintain plenty of eye contact’. 46