A modified description of the electric-field-induced modulation of the director pattern in surface-stabilized ferroelectric liquid-crystal (SSFLC) structures is proposed. The basic idea is a constantly planar-oriented director pattern in combination with a smectic layer tilt that is relatively fixed near the surface, but free at the chevron interface. As a consequence the interaction between an electric field and the permanent dipoles causes a bending of the smectic layers. This description provides a consistent interpretation of reported data on the electro-optical behaviour of SSFLC structures.