SA21C: Agor, Baylon, Fallar, Reyes, Servigon

Breaching Experiment: Living BackwardsLink to experiment video: https://youtu.be/sbZNr3_ZGnk

1. What norm did you violate?

• The goal of the experiment is to deviate from the usual standards of how to dress (i.e. which side of the shirt goes in front, jackets are meant to be closed at the back and open at the front) and interacting backwards as people are usually self-conscious about their fashion choices especially on how people form their impressions and perceive them based on their appearance and clothing.

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

• In order to carry out the experiment, one of our groupmates (Rion Reyes) put on his shirt, jacket, cap, bag and id backwards. As seen in the video, the print of his shirt and the opening of his jacket can be seen at the back while his backpack was strapped in front of him. His ID and the front of his cap was oriented the same way. Throughout the experiment, he also walked backwards. The concept was to challenge the norm of facing forward in day-to-day events. The group created a concept of “living backwards” that challenged these traditions as we performed the study.

• The trials were done in the Regis Center in Katipunan and the nearby areas including the tricycle terminal and the alley beside Fully Booked. It was also done in 7-11 with our groupmate picking out and paying for things while facing backwards.

• From the group’s observation, the people’s reactions were generally classified into three: indifferent, confused and annoyed. 

• Indifferent: Some who saw our groupmate standing in the convenience store while dressed backwards had no reaction, probably because they can only see the front which had the backpack strapped on him and his jacket looked like a normal sweatshirt if the opening at the back was not visible. Placing bags in front, especially backpacks, are quite normal especially in busy areas like train stations, sidewalks and malls in order to avoid theft. Meanwhile, sweatshirts are a normal fashion choice for everyone, hence the indifference in reaction. The observers might not have seen the print of the shirt, the opening of the jacket and the ID lace at the back, thus missing the point of the experiment. The deviant (our groupmate) was able to reinforce these clothing norms in such a way that the failure to elicit reactions actually meant that what the observers saw at face value were completely normal.

• Confused: When our groupmate started walking backwards along Regis, there were some people who looked at him funny and looked confused as to what he was doing. He received some questioning stares and some smiles of confusion from the tricycle drivers who saw that his clothes were faced backwards. While walking along the tricycle terminal, our groupmate hit some of the poles and lightly tripped on the sidewalk, eliciting weird looks from the drivers which meant as if that they were asking what in the world he was trying to do. The cashiers at 7-11 usually tell how much money is due and what amount they received, and the particular cashier in the experiment was hesitant to tell our groupmate how much he was to pay because he either looked like he was not paying attention or that he did not want to be bothered while facing backwards. These reactions only tell that the violation of existing clothing norms are integrated in society because the observers would not be bothered if they weren’t.

• Annoyed: While walking across Regis, a group of friends stared at our groupmate weirdly as if they were annoyed at what he was trying to do (i.e. they thought he was seeking for attention). He also lightly bumped across other people while walking backwards, and that may have caused the annoyance and not the experiment itself. Being annoyed at the consequence of violating these norms says something about how society strictly follows them: deviants have no place in a society where traditions, even as simple as clothing, are highly reinforced because of the perceived imbalance (i.e. space in walking) that may result from difference.

• Aside from violating the norm of clothing traditions, the breaching experiment also posed questions and insight regarding the institutions of education that are integrated within the concept of clothing. Our groupmate was wearing an Ateneo ID, and Ateneans are generally perceived to have received or receiving quality education which does not make them susceptible to dressing in an unconventional manner, that is, indecent in terms of presentability. Often, wrong orientation of clothing (i.e. t-shirt print backwards) is perceived as socially unacceptable because it gives off the wrong impression that if you are not properly educated in simple conventions like how to dress up, then how much more for the more complex functions of society (e.g. how to speak, interact)? Also, Ateneans are stereotyped to be picky in fashion choices because they have the resources to be so (i.e. brandname clothes, quality of fabric) but the breaching experiment encapsulated that social class is not always equal to possessing the behavior that come with the label (e.g. rich, middle-class, poor) that come with it. When a person starts to transcend these labels (i.e. “rich” people putting their shirt backwards) then it says something about how we usually value the importance of these labels in maintaining social order.

5. 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?

• "I guess that we felt conscious about what we were doing and at times we felt like we were making fools of ourselves especially when some people don't know it's a social experiment. For me, it was amusing to deviate. The only hesitation was because we might get into trouble with the guards there." 

• "Rion (the deviant) when he was walking backwards since he might trip and injure himself."

• Over-all, the group consensus was that it was awkward to do it at first since there are a lot of people watching and that they don’t know it’s an experiment. Of course, it was troubling to think of what they were thinking about what we were doing. There were also risks in filming because the guards might send us out or stop us because they think that we’re doing something illegal. It was fun for the most part, though. Seeing others’ reactions was funny and that we were able to accomplish the task lightheartedly.

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

• Sometimes, the irony in deviance is that when you repeat it enough times, it becomes a norm. Walking backwards has been done in many breaching experiments and the observers might have participated in the same experiment themselves (since we shot near Ateneo) that they were able to easily figure out that it was an experiment, and it was normal to do it for the study. This is parallel to other social issues such as homosexuality, which was seen before as deviant and even “bad”, but society has come to accept that the difference in gender and who we choose to love does not account for the people that we choose to be.