Professor Plakias, who specializes in moral psychology, teaches philosophy at Hamilton. Photo courtesy of Amazon.
Professor Alexandra Plakias will soon publish her book entitled Awkwardness, exploring the phenomenon of awkwardness and its role in stymying social and moral progress. Awkwardness is Plakias’s second book, and reflects her interest in moral psychology and
philosophy.
Plakias was inspired to write Awkwardness in order to reimagine awkwardness as a social phenomenon worthy of serious academ-
ic exploration, rather than a mere trifle. Plakias shared the reservations she felt in writing about awkwardness: “some of the issues that I want-
ed to talk about, like sexual harassment, racism or fatphobia. I almost felt apologetic talking about them in terms of awkwardness because I was worried people would think I was trivializing these issues.”
To Plakias, awkwardness has significant bearing on social hierarchies and dynamics. “Awkwardness is actually really serious and it can be a really painful experience and it also can be a way of stigmatizing individ-
uals,” Plakias explains. Plakias seeks to redefine awkwardness as “a way of assigning our own discomfort to someone else,” rather than
an intrinsic failing of an individual. In calling someone “awkward” we are really just testifying to our own experience of discomfort.
Plakias’s book navigates somewhat uncharted territory. In her research, Plakias found that many academics had conflated embarrass-
ment with awkwardness. The term “awkward” earns no place in Hauptman’s 500-page “Handbook of Emotions,” revealing the literature’s failure to recognize awkwardness as a legitimate emotion. Plakias began writing her book amidst the COVID-19 lockdown.
This period of social isolation informed Plakias’s exploration of awkwardness. During the pandemic, questions such as “are we going to shake hands?” or “are we wearing masks?” were acceptable in planning social events. On Zoom, users were able to display their pronouns, making the expression of gender identity a seamless part of social life. Explicit stating of social details removed the ambiguity around social dynamics that would often induce awkwardness. “Awkwardness comes into play when there is uncertainty about what the social norms and scripts are,” Plakias explains.
Plakias argues that “Awkwardness is something that happens when we lack a social script.” Plakias defines social scripts as “the set of norms and roles and event sequences that we rely on often unknowingly” Assigning the term “awkward” to an individual exposes deficiencies in the social script rather than something intrinsic about that person.
Professor Alexandra Plakias’s book Awk-
wardness will be published on March 6, 2024. Photo courtesy of Amazon.
To Plakias, there are not awkward people, only awkward interactions. “Some of our social scripts might involve cues that
are more or less accessible to others.” The awkwardness or smoothless of an individual merely reflects whether they have access to the social script of a particular situation. What makes the path to avoiding awkward-
ness so difficult is it forces individuals to articulate the social scripts of casual social situations.
Plakias views the label of awkwardness as problematic for two reasons. First, it stigmatizes individuals and marks them as outsiders. Second, is the reverse of this, when the term awkwardness allows certain individuals in positions of power, to avoid conforming to social norms. “The myth of
the awkward genius lets people off the hook for a lot of bad behavior. Where it’s like ‘we can’t possibly expect this person to interact normally with women in the workplace because they are just so awkward.”
Plakias also considers the way in which women feel pressure to take on the emotional labor of protecting others from experiencing awkwardness. “The job of making people feel comfortable also falls on women to a disproportionate degree.” In her book, Plakias cites the example of an accomplished female professor who refrained from saying anything when her male colleague made inappropriate comments to her because
she “didn’t want to make it awkward”. While Plakias acknowledges awkwardness as socially ostracizing, she also sees it as a tool we can use to “map where our social resources are lacking.” Noticing that a conversation is awkward allows us the chance to refine the terminology of weighty conversations regarding issues such as gender identity and body im-
age. Awkwardness can be a medium through which we negotiate social interactions.
Plakias believes this book coincides with her larger philosophy: “our social lives have maybe as much priority as our moral lives and that is not an irrational thing.” Plakias’s book dignifies awkwardness as a phenomenon integral to social and moral progress. Awkwardness will hit shelves March 6.
