VIDEO TO FOLLOW
Reynaldo R. Benito Jr.
Miguel Angelo M. de Leon
David Sebastian D. Garcia
Carlos Diego S. Mendoza
SA 21 – P: Breaching Experiment
“Breaching experiment: Rumble in the Mall”
“Rumble in the mall” is a breaching experiment set out to break the norm of acting appropriately in public. This includes wearing proper attire, as well as not drawing too much attention to one’s self. Set at a high end mall like that of Eastwood city, people are expected to act with an air of dignity about themselves. “Breaching” this said norm yield results such as judgmental looks or remarks, or on the flipside of the spectrum remarks or looks that were amused by the breaching. Aside from breaking this said norm, this breaching experiment plays on the sociological theme of class. It was seen that based on the results of this experiment that different responses were elicited from people of different social classes (judging these people purely on what they were wearing or their demeanor). This also capitalizes on the location of the breaching experiment; though Eastwood city is known as a high end mall, several people from the middle and lower classes traverse the mall’s premises as well.
“Rumble in the mall’s” methodology of the experiment involved play-fighting around the mall as secret agents and/or ninjas. This involved running around, pretend-shooting and fighting among the four members of the group. One of the members would sit out one fight scene as they film and document the scenes along with the reactions of the bystanders. Appropriate clothing for these “rumbles” was worn, such as suits of the secret agents. Extravagant sounds were made during the breaching experiment so as to attract the bystanders. Sound-effects of the firing of pistols and rifles as well as the clang of swords during the ninja-battles were exaggerated and made especially loud during the rumble. To compound on these sound effects, cheesy dialogue appropriate for these rumbles, “You, the warlord who destroyed our clan shall fall this day!” or “Enemy Agent spotted! Requesting back-up immediately!” were used.
The breaching experiment was carried out in Eastwood City, Quezon City on August 26, 2013, Monday from 6:30-7:30. Five locations were mapped out for this event, namely, the theater in the new mall, the family lounge area on the third floor, the fountain area right outside the new mall, the plaza outside the old mall, and finally, in the lobby of the old mall’s theater right after a movie had finished. Through these locations, the stark contrast between the higher and lower social classes was also seen. Based on the clothing of people during the events, it was clear that the people present in the new mall, were of higher social class as evidenced by their clothing and the language they were using (English). As such, people in the plaza, as well as the old mall were of lower social class; some of them were wearing employee uniforms, and their language of operation was in Tagalog. As such, the reactions between these two social classes were different.
The locations in the new mall were set mainly outside certain establishments (plaza, ground floor, cinema lounge) in order to attract the maximum attention and to avoid ejection by security. Reactions for the new mall were as follows:
- Children were generally amused and commented in English (What are they doing?). They would also point fingers at us.
- Their parents in general were smiling and amused as well
- Teenage reactions was divided. Some would point at us while others would look at us judgingly
- People who were alone would look at us judgingly (couth eyes and a smirk) and walk away
- Staller vendors would smile at us and when they saw the camera, pose in return (Naglalaban yung mga kuya oh, oh sa stall pa natin)
- Some families outside the plaza of the new mall consisting of older children would blatantly ignore us and walk away
The locations in the old mall were set mainly outside certain establishments (plaza and cinema lounge) in order to attract the maximum attention and to avoid ejection by security. Reactions for the old mall were as follows:
- Families would comment in tagalog (Wow may laban!)
- Some people alone would ignore us
- Some would points at us and explain (Baka ma-sipa ka ah bata! Yung mga kuya oh, naglalaban anak tignan mo!) these people were mainly employees
- As the “cheesy dialogue” was in English, some lower class people tried to mimic the English language by mocking us with lines like “Teyk him dahn (take him down)”
- In the theater, there was a particularly flamboyant group consisting of mainly homosexuals. They were speaking in pure Tagalog. Several comments arose from them (ayy nako! may laban! huwag ganyan!). At the last parts of the rumble, one of the homosexuals joined and attempted to kick one of the group members. (shown in video)
An analysis of these reactions proves that social class affects, in one way or another, the gravity of this social norm. People from lower social classes seemed to be more open to this kind of deviance behavior and showed positive responses such as the smiles and the points from them. This hypothesis culminated in the fact that one of flamboyant persons decided to join the deviance as well, attempting to kick one of the members. Indeed, using factors like language, occupation, and clothing we were able to pinpoint who was from which social class and make this said assumption.
Another assumption as to why lower social classes seem to be a lot more open to this kind of behavior is because the Structural Functionalist approach for this Social Class is slightly bent towards accepting this form of deviance. Since the lower classes receive their entertainment mostly from noontime shows like Showtime, where this kind of behavior is rampant, then the Structural Function would be slightly changed in effect of the change in culture brought about by these noontime shows. In this sense, the parallelism between noontime shows could have greatly changed the Symbolic Interaction between people from the lower classes and our deviance experiment (and also accounted for the positive responses from these people).
With higher classes however, they stayed rigid to this social norm, having little to no experience from outside cultures such as Showtime. As such the already established SF and SI approaches were no longer changed and participants from these classes stuck to the norm.
Prior to performing we expected some people to like it and to feel awkward and judge us. As humiliating as we looked then, the reactions we saw were as expected. During the first few rumbles, we were hesitant to go “full throttle” and relished in staying in one particular area during the scene. However, as time moved on, we grew more accustomed and were able to shout out our “cheesy” lines without hesitation. For us at least, the breakage of this norm came gradually as we were used to acting properly in a High end establishment such as Eastwood City.
In conclusion, “Rumble in the mall” not only shows the deviance from a certain social norm, but shows how a sociological theme plays into the different reactions of each social class. Deviance itself is very difficult to do as we are all limited to our own social norms, but when it is broken, is able to yield a plethora of responses and insights.
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