Lapplisan som ikon - om sambandet mellan narrativ och offentlighet

Abstract

The female traffic warden is a phenomenon frequently debated and discussed in various contexts. In narratives articulated in advertising brochures, on the radio and television, on the Internet and in populär culture, the female traffic warden is sometimes described in rather offensive and misogynist terms. In this artide I try to examine the ways in which the female traffic warden is described, and how one might be able to explain the strong negative feelings that sometimes appears when this group of working women is discussed. The article is focusing the negative narratives and images produced around the topic, but I would like to stress that these stories only describes one of several ways in which the female traffic warden is regarded. My main conclusion is that the female traffic warden is working in a field still dominated by and connected to men and masculinity. When practicing the right to limit and direct the movements of the driver and the vehicle, the traffic warden is transgressing an hierarchic order where the man, the driver of a car, the highly educated and the high income-earner is superior to the woman, the low-paid and the uneducated. This is taking place in the public sphere, since long regulated and shaped by men and male activities. This transgression that the female traffic warden is staging, appears as a threat since it questions laws and boundaries in general, makes them visible. Perceived as a threat, she is treated with hostility in the narratives. She is in various ways defined as low-Other. In the narratives, the female traffic warden becomes an icon with negative connotations. Her role in the cultural imaginaries is influenced by these narratives, and I believe they also have a concrete effect on the order of the traffic related public sphere.