While the Chicago Auto Show could certainly provide enough material to fill a book length project, I’d like to quickly draw attention to two unexpected examples of subordination that caught my eye on Sunday.

The first — and more obvious example — is that the workers who constantly clean the cars and their displays are nearly invisible to the auto show visitor. While it’s hard to miss the man who is hand dusting the car one is admiring, I didn’t see one visitor actually acknowledge a worker, even if that worker was a foot away or on his knees in front of the visitor. A few illustrations are below.

That said, the more surprising phenomenon was the seemingly ubiquitous desire to play the role of a criminal suspect by placing one’s hands (or, in the case of wearing imaginary handcuffs, one’s chest) on the hood or trunk of a police vehicle. Not once did I see someone play the role of the police officer with a police car; instead, the performance was always that of a suspect. The act was often done for sake of a photograph, and spanned all ethnic categories. Again, a few examples are below.