Link to video:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Y64e338ci_f5IWeTvoR3UvnpnNBWrOaw
Fernandez, Goco, Magbitang, Chan, Salamanca, De Guzman, Bautista, Cristobal, Dolfo
SA 21-P
Norm Breaching
- What norm did you violate?
The norm we violated is exercising outside of a gym or in a public place. Both in attire and the act of working out is not what you would associate in a coffee place. These two combined showed the interesting contrast of location and activity when a norm is violated.
Normally, people go to coffee shops during their breaks. Students use this time to catch up on requirements and even study for their tests, and people who work also go to coffee shops to continue their work. This is mostly because of the laid back environment of a coffee shop. In fact, this atmosphere dictates the how people behave in these establishments. It is a tame and easygoing place where people can do their work or be with their friends while having immediate access to coffee and food
- Describe the breaching experiment in detail. What was the activity? Where did you do it?
For our group’s breaching experiment we made our groupmate workout in public, specifically in starbucks katipunan. We started the experiment by making our groupmate who was wearing gym clothes to lineup and order something in starbucks. Then, he started stretching while ordering his food and drinks. Then, he started doing jumping jacks and pushups while waiting for his order near the counter in front of many people. The objective of this social experiment is to see how different people would react to our groupmate violating the social norms of exercising outside of a gym and wearing gym clothes in public places. The social experiment could be considered as a success as the group got the data they needed, this will be discussed in the next parts of the paper.
- What were the different reactions of the people? List all possible reactions you observed. Why do you think they reacted this way? What caused all these reactions? Did the deviant act re-affirm/ reinforce the existing norms based on these reactions?
One of the reactions observed is people laughing at him, some people may have acted this way because they found it funny that someone would work out in starbucks. According to Goffman (1956), laughing or grinning at an embarrassing event is an attempt to ease the discomfort at witnessing the awkward breach in normal behaviour. Other people looked at our groupmate weirdly, this is because it is uncommon to find someone working out in public especially in a coffee shop where most people just study or socialize in. Others on the other hand minded their own business and continued to do what they were initially doing. The reactions that we got from this, may it be a small sample of reactions, validated and re-affirms that of the existing norms since our groupmate became the center of attention for a time just by doing his own thing. On a side note, we were also able to get attention just by trying to film this experiment. Filming inside any public place could also be seen as a deviant act due to its uncommon nature, and thus garnering some reactions too.
- Aside from the norms, what SA 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 & the poor), values/belief of the institutions (religion, family, peer group, etc.).
It can be said that there are gender roles at play in the breaching experiment although they are not necessarily evident. It could be interpreted that the breaching activity can be considered as an example of toxic masculinity as the subject starts working out in the middle of the crowded starbucks. It can also be said that based on his appearance that the subject is a “gym bro” or a person who is obsessed with working out and going to the gym. According to Roberta Close (Kottak, 2010), the male stereotype is characterized as active and public which are terms that can be used to describe the subject and his actions. So while it was not the intended effect, the subject in the breaching experiment may be seen by others as the stereotypical male who is obsessed with showing off and trying to look “macho”.
Unfortunately, the group did not extend the experiment further to test the role of gender in breaking the norm. Seeing as merely wearing gym clothes to a cafe was acceptable for males, doing the experiment but with a female subject in workout clothes and working at randomly may have elicited a different response. Though their context may be outdated or not in line with the social location of community of the experiment, Lahiri and Bandyopadhyay (2012) address how the concept of decency in clothing is enforced more strictly with women. Particularly, athletic wear for women, which has slowly become a normal casual look, is always subject to criticism for being “inviting” according to those who defend toxically masculine rapist, or even just indecent for a woman to wear outside of the gym context.
In either case however, the tolerance or indifference observed in some bystanders may be a result of the location of the experiment. As the locale of Katipunan is filled mainly with college students who may go about doing many different errands in the area, it may actually be quite normal to see students in athletic clothes in any establishment in the area, as it means that the person may either be on the way to a nearby gym or just came from working out somewhere in Katipunan.
- How did you feel when you did this experiment? How does it feel to deviate from the norms?
The most dominant feeling in doing this experiment was undoubtedly embarrassment. This is due to doing something outside of routine and coupled with it being in a relatively public space, it’s hard not to get nervous and feel embarrassed while doing this social experiment. Actually deviating from the norms, after getting over the embarrassment, feels pretty funny and exhilarating, with working out in a place like Starbucks, known as a place to chill and relax. The reactions given by the surrounding people contributed to this, with most of the reactions being laughter. Although I personally would never do it again, I would still recommend that people should act against the norm from time to time, as long as it is not harmful, to break from routine and do something fun and weird.
In a sociological perspective, the feeling of embarrassment is an emotional experience of vulnerability that is important in shaping an individual’s place and roles in a structure. In keeping societal structure, the purpose of embarrassment is to make people ashamed of a deviance from social accepted behaviours, which then encourages them not to repeat the act (Goffman, 1956). According to Goffman (1956), the experience of embarrassment serves not only as a repercussion for the person who committed the mistake, but also a a social control mechanism to those who witness the event. Vicarious embarrassment serves to warn others not to commit the same deviant behaviour, a phenomena experienced by our own group members after the experiment.
In addition, we notice that in laughing with bystanders and showing embarrassment, symptoms of embarrassment and feeling ashamed signal to others that one knows that the act is deviant, meaning one recognizes their ‘error’. This trait is found by researchers to be a likeable trait because they are perceived as less cold hearted or oblivious (Brown, 2003).
- Other observations and analysis that you may have on the activity and on deviance in general.
One observation noted when doing the activity was how quickly one can be judged when he goes against a norm. Understandably breaking some social norms can bring about negative effects on the community and in an individual. Such cases can be the violation of rules in our society, that are meant to keep us safe. However deviance does not have to bring about this type of effect. As seen in what the group did for this activity, nothing harmful was done to the person who broke the norm, as well as to the individuals present in the area. It was a harmless act, yet it still garnered a judgement from the people in the area. Judgement from others comes quick if one breaks a social norm, which can then lead to labelling, as their only impression of the individual is as a norm breaker. Essentially, being different can lead to a lot of judgement from others, even though no harm was caused by the deviant action.
References
Brown, D. (2003). Goffman's Dramaturgical Sociology: Developing a Meaningful Theoretical Context and Exercise Involving "Embarrassment and Social Organization". Teaching Sociology,31(3), 288-299. Available from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3211326
Goffman, E. (1956). Embarrassment and Social Organization. American Journal of Sociology, 62(3), 264-271. Available from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2772920
Kottak, C. Appreciating Human Diversity (14th ed.). NY: McGraw-Hill.
Lahiri, S., & Bandyopadhyay, S. (2012). Dressing the Feminine Body. Economic and Political Weekly, 47(46), 20-24. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/41720373
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