Gender, Artifacts, and Ritual Encounters: The Case of Tomboy Tools Sales Parties

Tomboy Tools is a company that markets tools and home-repair techniques to women, using a home party sales model. This provides an interesting case to consider how traditional gendered domains can be transcended, and how they are reshaped to allow this to happen. Drawing on participant observation and interviews with consumers, salespeople, and executives of Tomboy Tools, this paper draws on Collins' (2004) theory of interaction ritual chains to explore the microstructures and ritual dynamics of these home parties. Our analysis reveals how both new and more traditional feminine practices and scripts are idealized and reinforced within the collective effervescence that is generated through the shared ritual experience. We examine how women critically interpret the tensions and contradictions that arise in the symbolic representations that seem to support both female empowerment and traditional feminine stereotypes. This leads to varying meanings among the women with respect to the artifacts and sales rituals presented, for their implications on gender identity and politics.