Ethnography

For my observation I used the quad in front of Sierra Hall. It was a bright and sunny day on Monday September 21, 2009 as a found my spot under a shaded tree and began my conquest of observing my fellow peers. At the time there were a bunch of people rushing off to class as well as standing around talking to friends or significant others. I saw plenty of couples walking by and holding hands, as well as friends greeting friends.

It was very interesting to see all the different interactions that went by as I sat and took pictures to later remember all that I had seen. I took notice that there were specific gestures that the guys had when greeting their guy friends, usually a man hug with a slap on the back or a hand to hand gesture, as well as greeting female friends, usually a hug or a smile and an enthusiastic nod of the head. I also observed the different ways the girls would greet other girls, normally with a hug and a side kiss to the cheek, as well as with guys, also a hug but no kiss. There were many guys riding skate boards and bikes. There were plenty of people on the phone or listening to their Mp3 players. Girls were mostly chatting with their friends as they were walking by, and the guys were usually occupied as if in another place.

At the time there was a go cart in the shape of a brain that was run on Red Bull. For a brief moment people stopped their busy schedules and took a glanced at the funny looking contraption. However, once the amazement was gone they carried on with their conversations or hurried strides to get to that class that they are about to be late for. Another thing I observed was how many people were actually using their phones. Guys and girls alike were either texting, or talking on the phone.

Some guys were actually riding their skate boards and texting at the same time. Now who says guys can’t multitask? However it was the girls that would actually talk to the people they were walking with. Using hand gestures to emphasize their point, while the guys would either be looking to the side or appear as if they weren’t even participating in the conversations.

This reminded me of how Brick reacted to conversations in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Brick would usually give short to the point answers while Maggie would go on and on about whatever she was talking about. This was very interesting because it showed that we have fallen into this Ideology that men and women act in certain ways. Just like in “The Second Sex” by Simone de Beauvoir, the guys treated the girls like what they were saying wasn’t important. Guys wouldn’t even talk to the guy friends they were with most of the time; rather they would look ahead and then say a farewell upon departure.

Tennessee Williams play was so over the top with the characters reactions that it actually reflected how we tend to interact with one another. Brick didn’t want to talk to Big Daddy because nothing really gets said in the conversations so he would rather skip the whole conversation all together.

We still have that need to fall into certain categories of Feminine and Masculine. All of this is portrayed within one little greeting with a certain sex. Women tend to be more “affectionate” and men tend to only be “affectionate” when it comes to women, and not to other males. It’s funny how women can be affectionate towards other women and not cross the border of sexuality but when it comes to guys it is almost always questioned. Also like in the play, between Brick and Skipper, men can’t have a close relationship without it seeming “impure”. I believe this is why the guys would rather do the hand gesture greeting or a slap on the back rather than give a hug to their male friends. It also shows that because women are seen as “others”, guys feel more comfortable with being affectionate towards them when greeting, and yet when it comes to an actual conversations women get ignored.

However, there were instances where I did observe guys actually participating in conversations with females. So this proves that even though we tend to have this ideology of men and women we can still break out of our comfort zones of feminine and masculine. Another example of this was the guys that were riding their bikes or skateboards and talking or texting at the same time.

Men aren’t normally seen multitasking because they are biologically wired to focus on one thing at a time. It’s why they are so much better at sports, especially baseball, because they can focus on the ball rather than what is around it like females usually do. I really enjoyed what I observed of my fellow peers because it showed that even though we put ourselves in categories of masculine and feminine, there are those that have evolved passed the ideology and feel comfortable taking on traits of the opposite sex.