Camille Abaya September 29, 2014
Zia De Leon Emily Roque
Ethan Mallari
Pilar Matoto
Renee Nuevo
SA 21 – A
Breaching Experiment: Cross-dress Shopper
1.
What
norm did you violate?
We violated the norm of straight men showing an interest in buying/trying on women’s clothing.
(In a way it was also a test of gender roles and norms).
2.
Describe
the breaching experiment in detail.
For the activity, the group went to the SM
Marikina department store where our male groupmate went around asking to try on
women’s clothing. The female groupmates were his “shopping buddies” and were in
charge of discreetly documenting the reactions via “hidden” camera phone. Ethan
(male groupmate) went around the department store, asking for women’s clothing
in his size, and proceeded to ask where he could fit them. The group went to
Paperdolls and the swimsuit section for these articles of clothing. Note that
Ethan was doing this as a completely straight male, and made no effort to
appear feminine or flamboyant so as to highlight the deviance. We chose for a
male to do this with women’s clothing, because women wearing men’s clothing is
not exactly a form of deviance in today’s perspectives.
He then tried on the clothes, making sure
employees and other people could see, and the group observed these reactions.
Most observations were gathered from salespersons and SM staff, as they were
most available during the experiment.
Sections Visited: Paperdolls, Swimsuit
Section
Articles of clothing fitted: blouses,
dresses (only one of them fit), bathing suit cover-up
3.
What
were the different reactions of the people? Why did they react this way? Did
the deviant act reaffirm existing norms?
4.
Aside
from the norms, what sociological themes are at play for people to react in a
certain way?
(Answers to both
3 and 4)
Person
|
Gender
|
Reactions
|
Saleslady 1
(Paperdolls)
|
Female
|
Did not mind
the fact that Ethan was looking for female clothing, and was helpful in
looking for sizes.
|
Saleslady 2
(Accessories
Section)
|
Female
|
Upon being asked
where the fitting room was, and upon seeing the clothes Ethan was about to
try, she tried to hide her laughter, and seemed taken aback.
|
Saleslady 3
(Fitting Room)
|
Female
|
When asked
where to get bigger sizes, she was surprised to find out they were from the
women’s section. (She was extremely confused)
|
Salesman 1
(Fitting Room)
|
Male
|
Pointed out
that these clothes were from the women’s section, and was also confused, but
visibly tried not to make too much of a fuss about it.
|
Salesman 2
(Male Accessories Section)
|
Male
|
Pointed us
towards the men’s fitting room, even if he saw the clothes were from the
women’s section.
|
Saleslady 4
(Swimsuit Section)
|
Female
|
She was very
helpful, even helping Ethan to put on the bathing suit cover up, and giving
him the proper size. She did ask whether the garment was going to be used for
a costume, and did not know how to react when she found out it was only from
himself. (She visibly tried to remain neutral).
|
General
Salespersons (when asking for directions)
|
Male & Female
(Majority Female)
|
Most were
helpful and tried to maintain straight faces and neutral expressions, however
all of them directed the group towards the male dressing rooms even if the
clothes were for women.
|
Other customers
|
Mixed
|
Although not
given an opportunity to say what they thought about the situation, we did
notice that other customers were staring and “sizing us up” so to speak,
seeing the clothes that Ethan was going to try on.
|
Many of the SM staff and salespersons were
actually very helpful, and we could see that they were trying as much as
possible to keep straight faces and not make a fuss over the situation (save
for a few in particular). This could be because it is their job to please the
customer. In service jobs, and even SM jobs in particular, employees are taught
that “the customer is always right”. This can be seen as a form of economic
social institution in which the capitalist (SM itself or the big man behind it)
can dictate employee’s behavior and dictate the flow of the system because that
is how the flow of power works. This degree of control has gone to the point
where even when they see a customer deviating norms, they do not react in the
same way as a normal person and instead put on the role of a helpful sales
personnel who only cares for the needs of the customer. That being said, we
could tell the reactions were not genuine in that they looked “robotic” and
rehearsed. It was apparent that they were still confused and a little bothered
by the deviance.
The other salespersons were notable
confused and even found it funny. This is an expected reaction we would get
from someone who is observing deviance. The other customers, even if we did not
get to talk to them did stop and stare and take the time to look at what we
were doing. This doesn’t commonly happen in department stores and malls in
general where everyone wants to mind their own business. Generally when people
stop to stare or take a look at you, this is a sign that you are indeed defying
a norm. This confirms that gender roles when it comes to fashion are very much
prevalent here.
Reactions were quite similar regardless of
gender, as we were able to observe. However, it seemed men were less affected
by the act and more obviously tried to “brush it off” as if it was nothing,
whereas women garnered more reactions and confusion. There seems to be an
unspoken attitude among men that is similar to “don’t ask, don’t tell.” It is
as if they would rather not find out more about the situation as long as they
are not being greatly bothered. However it was clear that some of the women
wanted to know more, and wanted the reasons behind the act such as the woman
who asked if it was for a costume. It seemed hard to grasp that a straight
looking man would want to wear women’s clothing simply for his own sake.
Reactions of salespersons versus customers did differ, as salespersons visibly
tried not to react whereas customers freely looked and raised eyebrows. This
can be attributed (as mentioned earlier) to the certain degree of control the corporation
has over its employees behavior, while customers were “free” to react how they
chose.
5.
How
did you feel when you did this experiment?
We weren’t so hesitant to do the activity,
save for Ethan (which is understandable, since he would be the one defying
norms). We wanted to go to the lingerie section and have him fit those
garments, yet he did not want to. We were excited to do the activity, however
were not expecting it to be so exhausting, especially since it was a very
simple activity. It was more of a social exhaustion, having to make a conscious
effort to garner reactions, and hide our own thoughts of the activity.
For Ethan himself, he felt it was not too
difficult as he has quite a high shame threshold, so he was not hesitant to
begin with. He did garner many strange looks from other shoppers as he walked
across the store with girls’ clothes, but was quite nonchalant about the whole
thing. (He does acknowledge that he looked ridiculous in those blouses).
However, in the end he found himself hesitant, because he felt that the
salespersons may be starting to get annoyed and think that we were wasting
their time. He also refused to do the experiment in the lingerie section.
6.
Other
observations/analysis.
It was interesting to note that people directed
Ethan towards the men’s dressing rooms, which were on the other side of the
store even when he took clothes from the women’s section. This reinforces the
gender roles in society, so that even as a deviant you are still being forced
to conform in some way. It is interesting to bend and defy gender roles in an
environment such as the Philippines especially since we do still have a largely
traditional way of looking at them. It is also interesting to note that no one
would react the same way if a girl were to try on men’s clothing (this is
almost seen as normal).
The great control of social norms and
institutions is quite apparent in the reactions of the employees (SM may be
secretly abusing their contractual agreements, as even their reactions to deviance
are quite controlled and rehearsed. But going deeper into that would require
different research and a new project entirely, also of interest.) However, to
their credit they did remain kind and accommodating during our stay. It is also
of note that social norms make it so that it is extremely inconvenient for men
to shop for women’s clothing in most malls, since the dressing rooms are on
opposite ends of the mall and no matter the clothing, people of different
genders cannot change in the opposite’s dressing rooms. Even this construction
reinforces and shows the prevalence of the gender norms in our society (having
the mall split between male and female sections instead of one coherent space).
However much we think it is a form of organization, it is actually also born
from a social construct. Through this, it was clear that every little thing,
every rehearsed or unrehearsed reaction, and even the placement of physical
structures have some root in social norms and systems entrenched within our
society.
(Here is a Youtube link to the video, because the upload was not working)
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