Comments on: Monsieur Jean: Master Coiffeur and Undercover Spy

Monsieur Jean: Master Coiffeur and Undercover Spy

iconomy — Tue, 24 Jun 2003 07:11:25 -0800

Girls dress up, boys don't. Boys need to help girls cross the street. Girls work, boys play. Subtle gender messages (and really silly hairstyles) as observed by Monsieur Jean after collecting images from different countries of children on street signs for his salon.

By: MrMoonPie

MrMoonPie — Tue, 24 Jun 2003 07:32:54 -0800

I like the child being attacked by lemur sign from Madagascar.

By: Ufez Jones

Ufez Jones — Tue, 24 Jun 2003 07:46:01 -0800

I'm hoping that Monsieur Jean doesn't really take himself and street signs quite so seriously and this is all in good fun. It sure made me laugh. It's also a fascinating study of cultural icons (for lack of a better word). Nice link, ike.

By: carter

carter — Tue, 24 Jun 2003 08:04:28 -0800

Fascinating. He also has Rocks coming down in depth, and Men at Work. Looking at all these signs juxtaposed, there has to be some kind of comparative meme genealogy possible here ...

By: PigAlien

PigAlien — Tue, 24 Jun 2003 08:23:39 -0800

GREAT POST!

By: ilsa

ilsa — Tue, 24 Jun 2003 08:27:22 -0800

We must open our eyes for reality: modern signs are meant to impregnate us with the thought that we are un-people, nobodies, numbers, and must behave accordingly like docile herd-animals. This based on the idea that the only way you can tell a girl stick figure is by the skirt and ponytail. Interesting.

By: plep

plep — Tue, 24 Jun 2003 08:52:31 -0800

Yes, great post (including the hairstyles - awesome!)

By: ptermit

ptermit — Tue, 24 Jun 2003 08:57:13 -0800

Excellent post!

By: Witty

Witty — Tue, 24 Jun 2003 09:23:20 -0800

I like this post a lot. It's interesting, if for nothing more than it's peculiarity.

By: MrBaliHai

MrBaliHai — Tue, 24 Jun 2003 09:40:01 -0800

Yes, Monsieur Jean has uncovered our sekrit plot to subjugate wimmen via street signs. Damn him and his French hairdressing ways!

By: Captain_Tenille

Captain_Tenille — Tue, 24 Jun 2003 09:56:50 -0800

Gee. I wonder if he ever considered that these road signs might just simply be road signs. Naw, that's too easy. Must be a conspiracy.

By: tomplus2

tomplus2 — Tue, 24 Jun 2003 11:09:32 -0800

Take the first panel where an oversized baby boy is kicking at a girl. She waits defenceless, her legs trembling. I laughed out loud at that one. I consider the signs more as "created during a different time", rather than " Subtle gender messages". It's not a conspiracy, it's "old school" and maybe time for a redesign. I wonder how many women are responsible for making and posting those signs? Probably plenty. Again, times change.

By: Red58

Red58 — Tue, 24 Jun 2003 11:28:26 -0800

Oh come now, you're not going to assert that popular culture doesn't enforce sexual, racial, and ethnic stereotypes? And that sings are part of that culture. These things happen - it doesn't require men (or others) sitting in a backroom smoking cigars and plotting make it so. We all, as part of the culture participate in these ideas. It's like the American cultural norm. With few exceptions (e.g. male nurse) We assume a person to be a white, Christian, male, heterosexual unless otherwise specified. (Lady lawyer, Jewish doctor, Black man, woman doctor). We never say man lawyer, man doctor, christian lawyer, etc. This doesn't make us evil, it only illustrates a cultural expectation. And these expectations CAN have a detrimental effect on many of the cultures citizens, regardless of race, sex, religion, etc.

By: zpousman

zpousman — Tue, 24 Jun 2003 11:52:17 -0800

[this is good]

By: ciderwoman

ciderwoman — Tue, 24 Jun 2003 12:48:38 -0800

I've been taking photographs of "Don't let your dog mess on the sidewalk" signs for a while now, and the one thing I've found common is the pictoral sign for the, ahem, mess, which usually takes the form of a little pile with three wavy lines coming off it to signify freshness. If anyone has any different ones I'd love to see them. And no, I don't remember why I started doing this either.

By: britain

britain — Tue, 24 Jun 2003 13:18:02 -0800

Mealwhine, in Jamaica, the girl leads the boy. [WARNING: self-link.]

By: madamjujujive

madamjujujive — Tue, 24 Jun 2003 14:18:40 -0800

iconomy, this is a wonderful, quirky site. It's quite fun to read and to surf - I've spent far too long here this afternoon! And I too bewail the advent of the de-articulated bubbleheads! I think it's great that this hairdresser's interest in the icon's hair styles led to this collection. Business sites - particularly small businesses - should loosen up and add creative content like this to their business sites. Nowhere near as charming, but for the fun of signage, here's a repository of international signs that started out as do not enter road signs and expanded to encompass general "do not" signs sent in by readers.

By: dg

dg — Tue, 24 Jun 2003 19:04:09 -0800

[this is good]

By: soyjoy

soyjoy — Tue, 24 Jun 2003 21:34:43 -0800

[ditto] Note that the kids, if clothing is depicted, tend to wear the general fashion of their area. As icons, they get across the idea of "kids" quickly to the locals (nationals, whatever). Obviously on a road sign, you want to get across that they're kids right away - getting the warning out to drivers as soon as possible so they can be alert for them, right? Well, that's what makes this such an interesting question for me - if a sign is supposed to quickly get across the idea "a girl and a boy," playing off of the driver's expectations of the local iconography, is there a potential safety value in making them instantly recognizable to be weighed against the cultural negative of reinforcing (2-dimensional) stereotypes? If so, how do we compare these two ineffables?