Ritualistic Touching: Goffman's Symbolic Meaning

Goffman says that women repeatedly pose while “using their fingers and hands to trace the outlines of an object, or to cradle it or to caress its surface. This ritualistic touching is to be distinguished from the utilitarian kind that grasps, manipulates, or holds” (Goffman, 1976). Such gentle touches could also include touching themselves, using their fingers to caress themselves, tracing their neck, shoulders, face etc. portraying the women to be fragile and maybe even delicate, as a ‘precious thing’.