Sammy's Visit

The All in the Family episode “Sammy’s Visit” chronicles the situations and conversations the Bunker family has when they find themselves in the presence of a celebrity. The significance and use of gendered/sexed voices becomes very apparent throughout the episode as the characters interact and communicate with one another.

At the beginning of the episode, the audience gets a sense of the dynamic between husband and wife, Archie and Edith. Archie gets home from working his second job as a cab driver, sits down, and immediately asks Edith for a cup of coffee. His tone makes it clear that he is annoyed that he even has to ask for coffee; He seems to expect it. She quickly obliges and asks about his day, which makes clear their subordinate/superior

relationship. Their conversation work is altercasted in a way that reinforces the expectation that Edith is a well-tempered wife who follows the demands of her more dominant, outspoken husband. They seem to be following a social norm, especially of their time, where Archie sees himself as having all of the power in the household, and expects to be treated accordingly. In their initial conversation, Archie tells the family to try to guess who he drove in his cab that day, to which Edith replies, “I’ll try first, living or dead?” (2:30). Archie seems dumbfounded by her question and sends her back to her game of solitaire mockingly.
Edith’s conversation style is really only developed through her conversations with Archie, but it most closely follows the feminine style as defined by the two-culture approach. She is portrayed as a gossip who can’t keep a secret the second she finds out that Sammy Davis Jr. is stopping by the house. Edith has a high-pitched tone and speaks quite loudly, but not in an assertive way, which is one way in which she communicates her gender identity. She is also polite, doesn’t interrupt the other characters, and does not use as much profanity as her husband, Archie.
Archie definitely follows the masculine style of communication, which is focused on talking directly and assertively.

As Palczewski states, “Masculine style avoids personal disclosure and vulnerability... [and] uses communication to establish and maintain control or status,” (66). He asks rhetorical questions as a way to mock his wife and the other characters and is the initiator of most conversation topics throughout the episode. Archie’s conversation style and identity work is heavily influenced by his intersectional identity. He is a white, straight, cisgender, middle class, able-bodied man, which essentially puts him at every advantage possible. As a person who doesn’t experience any sort of prejudice or mistreatment, it is apparent that he doesn’t really know how to treat others who are different from him. He is ridiculed for making a number of racist and xenophobic remarks throughout the episode, but does not see a problem with what he is saying. The power of his intersectional identity gives him a sense of entitlement over the other characters.

Even after Sammy Davis Jr. arrives at the house, Archie continues to make bigoted, narrow-minded remarks. After a number of gawking neighbors enter the house to take pictures with Sammy, he and Archie begin talking about his career. Archie makes comments about Sammy’s race and religion, and gets upset when Edith and his daughter tell Sammy some of the things he has said about black people. Sammy makes clever, sarcastic remarks

back at Archie’s racist statements, which, while they are witty, show just how prejudiced and entitled Archie is.
When Sammy jokes about having a kissing clause in his contract requiring him to kiss white women, Archie says, “Now no prejudice intended, but I always check with the bible on these here things,” (20:43). Sammy continues to make witty remarks back to Archie, most of which go over his head, as he doesn’t think he is racist or xenophobic, but it becomes increasingly clear to the audience.
The final moment of relationship work between the two comes at the very end of the episode, when Archie’s friend, Bert, shows up with the briefcase that Sammy was waiting for throughout the episode. Bert asks to get a picture of Sammy, and Sammy asks that Bert take a picture of him and Archie. Right as the flash goes off, Sammy kisses Archie on the cheek, almost as a final way to refute Archie’s statements. Sammy even sends Archie the picture and writes, “To Archie Bunker, the whitest guy I know,” (24:58).
Sammy’s intersectional identity, which essentially is the same as Archie’s with the only difference being that he is black, also helps to define his gendered voice.

In one sense, he spoke and carried himself according to the two-culture approach as Archie did. This masculine style of speech was evident in his tone of voice, his assertiveness and directness, and through his sarcastic remarks. However, he seemed to follow the critical ethnographic approach in some ways. In comparison to Archie and Mike (Archie’s son-in-law), Sammy was much more polite, reserved, and spoke with better grammar. Characteristics like these are typically attributes of a feminine style of speech, but Sammy resists them to some

extent.
With the exception of some of Sammy’s speech, the majority of the conversation work done throughout the episode closely follows the two-culture approach. As defined by Palczewski, “...communication problems between women and men are similar to problems that arise when persons from different language groups attempt to communicate. The two groups have different cultural goals and rules for conversation, which lead to communication problems,” (64). This approach is heteronormative and reinforces the gender binary, assuming that people will only speak either as masculine or feminine, and that speakers are all cisgender.
The speech between the men and women in this episode, specifically Archie and Edith, seemed to have some disconnect. Archie kept getting upset with silly remarks Edith was making, All in the Family reinforces the idea that gender as power is apolitical and that power imbalances are only natural. It seems to be expected that Archie has the power over the household and that Edith should comply without question.
From this chapter on gendered/sexed voices, I learned how gender can be communicated through literal communication, but that people don’t have the ability to fully develop their identity. Instead, a person’s identity is partially constructed and influenced as a result of how other people interpret conversations.