Will You Help Us Open a Condom?

SA21 Breaching Experiment

Arrobio, Anne
Longakit, Ernest John
Perez, Jairus
Remollo, Sef
Rondain, Stephen
Sy, Judy

Submitted to: Ms. Emily Roque

SA21 Section C

What norm did you violate?

Religion is a social institution that is very dominant and powerful in the Philippines. So as Christians, most people believe that it is "bad" to have sex before marriage. Priests teach their believers that sex is sacred and shouldn’t be done outside of matrimony. They also equate early sexual activity as a sin. Therefore, the topic of sex becomes very taboo in our society and is often perceived as a private topic. Privacy, in this context, means that this topic can be less controversial if the people talking about it are already close.  

Our group decided to deviate from this norm of sexuality being a private matter. A condom can be symbolical in such a way that it represents sex. A condom is a form of contraception and serves as a protection for sexually transmitted diseases. Therefore, when we talk about condoms, society somehow automatically associates sex with it. Therefore, in our experiment, we made use of a condom  in order to see the reactions of people when this private matter becomes something public.

Describe the breaching experiment in detail. What was the activity? Where did you do it?

A box of “Trust Condoms” was purchased by the group. Each member was tasked to randomly select a male and a female, show the box, and ask that person if they could help the group member to open the box of condoms. The experiment was initially done in Regis Center, outside of Ateneo. However due to a minor setback (to be mentioned later on), half the experiment was done inside Ateneo. After the participants responded, we immidiately informed them that this was for a project in out Sociology class.

Our group mate attempting to ask a stranger to open a condom inside Ateneo

What were the different reactions of the people? List all possible reactions you observed. Why do you think they reacted this way? What caused these reactions? Did the the deviant act re-affirm/reinforce the existing norms based on these reactions?

In our breaching experiment, there were a total 18 participants. Each and everyone of these participants had a unique and different reaction towards the experiment. However, one interesting thing we noticed was that there was one general reaction throughout the entire time: shock. Whether it be raising their eyebrows or widening their eyes, it was obvious through their different manifestations of this reaction that they weren’t expecting this at all.

A lot of our participants refused to help us open the pack of condoms. The first 2 male participants who were together in Regis immediately looked at each other out of disbelief and gave a very stern “no.” The next 2 female participants were speechless at first then tried to avoid us by saying that they had to go immediately. Another person seemed to be very angry after we asked her then said, “No, You can open it yourself.” Others just remained quiet and tried to avoid the very awkward situation altogether while another one was scared and even said out loud, “I’m scared, okay, I’m scared.”

However, not all of our subjects refused to open it. One subject’s jaw immediately dropped but after a few seconds, he decided to help us open the condom. Others were just shocked upon seeing the box, and seemed like they were judging us, but eventually helped out. One girl we asked was disgusted by it and seemed like she couldn’t touch it. However, after it sank in she tried her best to help by demonstrating to us using hand gestures without her touching it. Another person tried to normalize the situation by diverting the attention of the condom to other things by asking one of our members, “Hey, you’re from MIS right?”

In general, all of them were initially shocked upon seeing the box of condoms. Whether they tried avoid us or not, it was clear that they weren’t expecting like this. The ones who refused became quiet before they could say no, while the ones who helped had a state of disbelief before they were able to help us out.

This common reaction is a result to us violating the norm that was mentioned earlier. The fact is, anything blatantly sexual, such as condoms, should be kept private. Once someone exposes this private matter, the situation will usually be awkward. The fact that we’re complete strangers even adds to the awkwardness since people do not usually talk about something this private during their very first encounter. The reason why they had to take a moment first before actually helping us was that we violated this norm and whether they help us or not, the awkwards still prevails the entire conversation.

However, one of the most interesting reaction was from the guard in Regis. While we were doing our experiment in Regis Center, a guard constantly glanced at us. We initially didn’t mind it at first but after a few minutes, the guard approached us, asking us what we were doing. We just told them that we were doing an experiment for a class in school. He responded by saying “Bawal po ‘yan, kailangan niyo pong kausapin yung office kung gagawin niyo po ‘yan. (That’s not allowed, you have to talk to the office if you’ll do that).” Traumatized by this event, we fled the building immediately. The guard’s reaction was also a reflection of the reaction of society towards this deviance. It was possible that he thought that showing condoms was violated his norms, therefore, he asked us to stop.

All of our participants being shocked also can reaffirm our claim saying that our society keeps things that are sexual intimate and/or private. If people would have thought that it was acceptable for these things to be public, the subjects would have had no problem helping us.

Our group mate attempting to ask 2 guys to help him open a condom in Regis

Aside from the norms, what sociological themes are at play for people to react in a certain way? Is it a function of gender (gender norms, roles), social class (norms of the rich and the poor), values/beliefs of institutions (religion, family, peer group, etc.)

Before our experiment, we intended to observe how gender affects the reaction of each of the participants. We were able to do this by observing the possible pattern that might come out depending on the gender of the one who is asking and the one to be asked. The possible scenarios were: (1) A male asking a female, (2) A male asking a male, (3) A female asking a male, (4) A female asking a female.

Based on our experiments alone, our female group members had more people who helped them, whether they are asking a girl or a guy. Only one female group member was turned down, however only one person helped a male group member. Nevertheless, this is not enough to conclude that it is publicly accepted for females to talk about sexual topics out in the open. However, a few social norms can be seen with this result. One norm that was exercised here is overall respect for women. In our experiment, there were 2 occasions when a girl asked a boy to help her open the condom and both guys helped the girl. This could mean that these guys showed respect to the women by not asking any question and just helped them out. However, when a girl asked a fellow girl, one helped while the other one refused to. Maybe, the reason why one girl still helped the girl, even if the situation was awkward, was to show her respect towards her fellow gender.

However, another factor that could affect our results was the Ateneo Institution. The Ateneo can be considered as a subculture since it has somehow different beliefs and practices as compared to other people (e.g. the concept of magis). People we asked inside the school were likely to help us more, rather than the people outside. No one decided to help us in Regis, and was even kicked out by the guard. However, inside the school, even if some people decided to not help us, some still did. The guards of Ateneo even saw us but did not try to stop us from doing our experiment.

This is because of the fact that Ateneo is a subculture. The school has somehow a limited culture, meaning not everyone can be a part of it since only students, faculties and employees can be allowed inside. Because of this exclusiveness, people in this smaller culture, as compared to the larger culture outside Ateneo that includes everyone, tend to somehow trust the people within the same culture. They feel like the people in this community are people who abide by the norms of the subculture, making them more trustworthy (to a certain degree), as compared to people in Katipunan who do not have to follow the Ateneo culture.

When we asked people within the campus, our participants knew that we were part of the school’s culture, possibly trusting us enough to help us open the condom package. They knew that we were part of the the same culture they, themselves, were part of. Being part of the same smaller culture had somehow made us and our participants not complete strangers since we can both identify ourselves as Ateneans.  However, when we asked the ones outside of the school, they weren’t comfortable with helping complete strangers who they had no relation at all.

How did you feel when you did this experiment? How does it feel to deviate from the norms? Were you hesitant to do the activity?

Deviating from the norms was a significant experience for all of us. At first, some of us were already backing out because they weren’t comfortable even just by thinking about the task. The others, however, were confident and thought that we would have no problem in doing this experiment. When we were about to do the experiment proper, all of us hesitated to approach a stranger and ask them to open a condom for us. We were scared, terrified and embarrassed but with the thought that this is just an experiment, we managed to get enough respondents.

Generally, we were hesitant because we were concerned about our image. A condom could be a symbol of sexual acts which is something private. What we did was exposing this in public, specifically to strangers, which made us feel awkward and uneasy. We were scared that those people we approached would look at us as promiscuous teenagers. We really had to tell them immediately that this is just an experiment for SA21.

After the experiment, we felt relieved because it was all over. Thinking back after the experience, we decided we will never do anything like that again.

Other observations and analysis that you may have on the activity and on deviance in general.

One very interesting experience we had was with the guard of Regis. This was both a learning and horrifying experience at once. The reaction of the guard was intriguing in a way that his reactions just magnified society’s way of thinking when it comes to anything sexual becoming blatant. His initial reaction was to tell us that we weren’t allowed to do that inside the building. It is possible that he just made this since there is no rule specifically saying that no one is allowed to show condoms to people in public. We were not harassing anyone since we immediately explained that we were doing an official study for a class. He probably just deduced that what we were doing was against the norm and concluded that it was automatically “not allowed”

The second thing he did was to tell us that we needed to speak to the office. That was his way of socially controlling us: through shame and fear. He used the term “office” in order to scare us (which we were) and to stop what were doing. He was basically ordering us to conform to society’s standardized norms. Unlike the other respondents, he showed that he was against this deviant act of ours by reprimanding us to conform

Overall, the breaching experiment was a very new experience. Specifically, what we did was extremely out of the ordinary and it was not something we see any of us actually doing anytime in the future. It could be said that the only reason we were able to push through was the fact that it was part of a school project. Other deviant acts may seem fun to do sometimes, but our experience was just something we wouldn’t consider doing again.