"If I Were A Boy"

Aquino, Chan, Garcia, Lim, Te

SA 21 - G

1. Introduction to the Norm

The norm we intended to violate is the notion that women(cis females) must only shop, try on, and wear women’s clothes. Clothing, more often than not, possesses a gendered dimension. Specific kinds of apparel are designed “for men” and “for women”, and the two sections are usually found in separate, segregated spaces in shops and department stores. The social expectation is that women should gravitate towards the women’s section. As an all-girl group, we instead headed for the menswear area and noted down the reactions of the salespeople to the violation of the norm.

2. Details of the Breaching Experiment

The breaching experiment was performed in ten middle- to upper-middle-priced stores that sell both women’s and men’s clothing, mostly found in UP Town Center with the exception of Topman in Rockwell. Each trial was only done once per store in order to minimize the possibility of salespeople discovering the true nature of the activity. The procedures of the experiment are as follows: one girl from the group entered the store by herself and started shopping at the men’s section. She was accompanied by another member from the group, who inconspicuously documented the exchange. After selecting an item of clothing that is made for men (e.g. cargo shorts, baggy joggers, etc.), the girl approached a salesperson and asked a series of questions, including:

1. Do you think this shirt suits me? (Bagay ba sa akin ‘to?)
2. What size do you think I should get? (Anong size kasya sakin?)
3. What can I pair with this? (Anong pwede iterno rito?)
4. Will I be prettier if I wear this? (Gaganda ba ako pag suot-suot ko ‘to?)
5. Do you think I can wear this to my date later? (Pwede ko ba ‘to isuot sa date ko mamaya?)

The girl then tried on the selected article of clothing in the dressing room and then returned the item back to the salesperson. Upon the completion of the activity, the experimenters debriefed the involved parties, and asked the salespeople for their thoughts and reactions.

3. Reactions and Findings

• TOPSHOP
• Female salesperson
• When asked if there was a smaller size for a particular shirt, she said that it was the smallest size for men’s but there was a similar shirt in the women’s section.
• She tried to lead the performer there, insisting the performer could find more options in the women’s section, but the performer insisted on the men’s shirt.
• PENSHOPPE
• Female salesperson
• When asked if there was size that would fit the performer, she immediately looked for the smallest size available.
• When asked by the performer if the shirt was for men, she nonchalantly said yes. She was unfazed by the fact that a woman was trying out a shirt made for men.
• During the post-experiment interview, she said that it wasn’t really a big deal that a woman wanted to wear men’s clothing because she’s had many experiences of women buying men’s clothing for themselves. She also noted that she thinks it’s completely normal because even she does it.
• COTTON ON
• Male salesperson
• When asked by the performer for a size of a long sleeved polo from the men’s section that would fit her, he said “Ah wait lang po ah, check ko lang Ma’am”, and then handed her the smallest size they had.
• When the performer asked if she could fit the polo, the salesperson guided her to the fitting room.
• During the post-experiment interview, when asked about his initial thoughts and reaction, he smiled and said he thought it was weird. He also said he was supposed to tell the performer that the shirt was for guys in case the performer thought it was for girls, but opted against it.
• AEROPOSTALE
• Female salesperson
• When asked by the performer for the smallest size of a polo, she answered with “Ma’am small na po ‘yung pinakamaliit na size.”
• The performer then asked for the shirt in small and asked if it was okay to fit it. The salesperson immediately answered yes and guided the performer to the dressing room.
• During the post-experiment interview, she said she initially thought the performer was buying the shirt for a friend, but found it weird when the performer asked to try on the shirt for herself and was looking for a size that would fit her.
• TERRANOVA
• Female salesperson
• When asked by the performer if the store had a smaller size for cargo shorts in the men’s section, she said “Sorry po ma’am pero sa pangbabae wala po kaming ganito eh.”
• When asked if the performer could try on the shorts, she brought the performer to the fitting room.
• During the post-experiment interview, she said she initially thought that the performer was looking at the shorts for someone else. When she realized the performer was buying it for herself, she just accepted it because she thought that was really the performer's style.
• UNDER ARMOUR
• Female salesperson
• When asked by the performer if she could use a particular pair of men’s basketball shorts to work out, she said “Pwede naman kaso panglalake po ito. Kung gusto po ninyo, nandoon po yung pambabae.”
• After the performer insisted on trying out the basketball shorts, she pointed out that the shorts might be too big, but told the performer she could try it out in the fitting room.
• On the way to the fitting room, she pointed out the women’s shorts, once again asking if the performer would want to check them out.
• During the post-experiment interview, she said that she wanted to make sure that what the performer really wanted was the basketball shorts because they were made for men. Since the performer insisted on it, she figured that maybe the performer liked those shorts because of the color or the length of the shorts. She said, “Depende naman sa kung ano ang gusto mo.”
• AMERICAN EAGLE OUTFITTERS
• Male salesperson
• Item picked out: patterned men’s shorts
• When asked by the performer for a size that would fit the performer, he said it was already the smallest size for men and said she could probably find shorts that would fit her in the women’s section. He was accommodating, but kept clarifying if she really wanted to try the shorts on before showing her the way to the dressing room.
• METRO DEPARTMENT STORE
• Male salesperson
• Item picked out: joggers
• When asked by the performer if a pair of joggers would look good or match her outfit, the salesperson initially looked a little confused but said, “Okay lang naman, pero medyo malaki po ata.” He looked through the racks and handed the performer a smaller size, and then directed her away from the men’s section towards the women’s dressing rooms.
• BENCH
• Male salesperson
• Item picked out: shorts
• When asked if there was a size for a particular pair of shorts that would fit the performing member, he said “Size 2 lang smallest namin sa women’s, ay men’s.” He then told the member he would see if there were any possible fits in storage.
• When the performer asked if there were any shorts at all in the men’s section that would fit her, he directed her to a section and asked “Anong kulay gusto niyo ma’am?” as he shuffled through the rack of shorts.
• GIORDANO
• Female salesperson
• Item picked out: shorts with a monkey pattern
• Greeted the experimenter
• When asked if there was a size for a particular pair of shorts that would fit the performing member, she said “Smallest size lang namin kasi ma’am, 29. Pero meron pa kami doon ma’am (pointing to the women’s section). Ayaw mo ng pambabaeng shorts?”
• When shorts were given back, the performer saying that they didn’t fit, salesperson smiled and took the shorts.
• Before leaving the store, as the performer and documenter were passing the women’s shorts display, salesperson pointed the shorts out to the performer saying that the performer could choose from those (Ito ma’am, mga pambabaeng shorts.)

SYNTHESIS OF FINDINGS

Most of the reactions that the experimenters received involved mild confusion and hesitant body language. There were also numerous attempts to redirect the experimenters to the women’s section of the store. In the end, however, the salespeople still accommodated the experimenters. A possible reason for the milder-than-expected reaction to the norm-breaking is the fact that they are still salespeople. They have to grapple with societal norms that have been ingrained into them (“women don’t wear menswear”) versus the need to stay professional and uphold customer relations. Furthermore, it is not completely unheard of to have women dress up in men’s clothing, with some circles experimenting with androgyny; it would be an interesting experiment for other groups to try the converse of our activity, or men shopping in the women’s section. In the post-experiment interview, many mentioned that they initially thought the experimenters were buying the clothes for a male friend. This is possibly a sign of the salespeople trying to rationalize behavior that goes against the grain. Once it became clear that the experimenters were buying clothes for themselves, the salespeople said they were surprised but it would ultimately depend on what the customer wanted to buy. Some said that they were not surprised because other women don’t like short-shorts or tight shorts, usually “nanays”. Even with this set of responses, it is clear that there is still a perceived division between men’s and women’s clothing.

4. Sociological Themes
   The group saw two sociological themes underpinning the breaching experiment. The first is gender and gender roles. Coupled with gender roles is how an individual dresses; a manifestation of this is gender-specific clothing sections, which was called to question in the breaching experiment. Growing up, we have been socialized into distinguishing what “women’s wear” and what “men’s wear” should be. Looking around in a clothing shop, one may find that there are evident distinctions between the kind of clothes in the men’s and women’s sections— perhaps the most obvious of them is the presence of skirts in the women’s section and the absence of them in the men’s section. Yet another is floral patterns that come about frequently in women’s sections but quite rarely in the men’s sections. In this experiment, shorts were the go-to item to pick; women’s shorts always tend to be shorter than men’s shorts(keeping all other things, such as leg length, equal).
   The second theme is dramaturgy. It must be noted that impression management is central in the salespeople’s line of work. Their roles include being welcoming, calling customers Ma’am or Sir, taking kindly to customer requests without dropping any negative comments (e.g. salespeople are not expected to say things like “Hindi yan bagay sa iyo.”), and perhaps most importantly, trying to make the sale. This behavior seen by customers—the same behavior the group observed—is the salesperson’s front stage. His/her back stage could come out when the customer leaves; perhaps the salesperson talks to a coworker about the customer, and it is only then that whatever opinions he/she has about the customer comes out.
   It must have been this impression management that was cause for what the group would call the salesperson’s light expressions of trying to make sense of the breaching activity. Responses or reactions such as ”...nandoon po yung pambabae.” from the Under Armour store are hints that he may have thought the performer ended up in the men’s section by mistake. And in order to further try to make sense of it , he reinforced the norm by directing the performer to the “appropriate” section-- a good example of conformity.
   

4. Personal Reflections

At first, we were hesitant to do the experiment since shopping at the men’s department wasn’t a norm for us. It was strange to walk into a store and browse through men’s wear because it was not something we would usually do. It took us some time to pick out a piece of clothing we’d inquire about. We wanted something that was distinctly men’s wear as picking out a regular shirt might not be able to produce a reaction in the salesperson.

Before conducting the experiment, we inferred that the salesperson would be very transparent with their reactions. We expected that the salesperson would immediately redirect us to the women’s section. However, during the actual experiment, we were pleasantly surprised by the reactions of the salespeople. Generally, they had good composure and did not show any judgement. Aside from this, most of the store attendants reasoned that the choice to try out men’s wear was just the preference of the performer and shouldn’t be held against them.

Deviating from the norm definitely created an inner struggle as we were afraid of how people might react. Even if it’s just an experiment, there was still a fear of judgment from others. We realized how it really takes guts to be different, that’s why people tend to just stick to the norm.