Stereotipi e cultura materiale: dress for success

The paper analyzes the stereotype of the employed man. The methodological approach combines visual and quantitative techniques, which makes integrated use of both photo-elicitation and a semantic differential scale. The research involved 808 individuals of the cities of Verona and Padua (Italy). Employment status and lifestyles of the figures are selected by the respondents accord ing to the clothes worn by the models and not to their physical attributes or aesthetic. The results showed that there is no single stereotype of the employed man, but there are two figures which are associated features and different lifestyles. Clothing communicates our personal and social identity and acts as a type of recognition of our social role. This confirms that the clothing, as the material culture, is the vehicle of transmission of tastes and social values, through representations that are recognized by all of us and that create stereotypes.