Uniforms can render their wearers invisible nonpersons in interaction

Evidence

As an aside, it might be noted that one of the more interesting aspects of uniforms is their capacity for signaling identity so quickly that, even in interaction, the uniformed other may be relegated to the status of nonperson, to use Goffman’s term (1959:151). … A cat may not everywhere look at a king, nor does a person of position always look at a person of none. I was once a party to a practical joke, the point of which was to see whether a certain lady would recognize her own son were he to attend us, her guests, as a valet. She did not, as she never looked at his face. — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 485

Categorization

• XREF: This is the precise mechanism behind the reader’s claim that civil inattention isolates observers: a uniformed person is categorically identified and so loses individual personhood. The valet anecdote (mother not recognizing own son) is a devastating proof of category-over-face perception.
• SHARE: The anecdote of the mother failing to recognize her own son in a valet’s uniform is a perfect story to share with anyone working on Goffman, Erving, social perception, or theorizing about costume and identity.
• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that categorical identification actively erases individual recognition inverts the usual assumption that recognition is the default and categorization a shortcut. The mother-not-son anecdote shows category perception can wholly override even kinship recognition.
• SEED: Potential essay: ‘Nonpersons: When Categorization Erases a Face’ — how marking someone as a role (valet, nun, workman) strips them of individual personhood, and how this ties into the modern city’s economy of attention.