Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Ethnography



This weekend on Friday night I went to the 65th annual fair in Santa Clarita at OLPH Church. I observed many different ages, genders, races, and the way they all reacted with one another and with the people surrounding them. The first thing I observed was young boys and girls. It was interesting to me to see how each gender reacts different. The boys were crazy and couldn’t stand still because they were so excited to get onto the ride. The parents had to keep a close eye if not a hand on their kid so he wouldn’t walk away. The little girl wouldn’t let go of her dad’s leg. She seemed intimidated and shy in such an outgoing atmosphere. When I walked to the swings there were two boys that were trying to kick each other and kick the kids in front of them while the girls sit and enjoy the ride. As I was standing in line with my little sister, 5 years old, for the ferris wheel I watched a dad talk his son into going onto the ferris wheel and his son was crying because he didn’t want to go. The peer pressure coming from his dad was so harsh on the little boy. I concluded that the norm is for girls to be more intimidated and boys to be more outgoing. When this is not the case the parent feels like something is not right and peer pressures their kid into doing the norm.

I also watched pre-teens and teenagers walk around the fair and interact with each other. I watched how one couple, ages 16 or 17, ran out onto the dance floor and danced in a way that I would call not the norm, but didn’t seem to care about the impression they were leaving. Another couple that was with them stood off the dance floor and watched. The couple that stood off the dance floor was also really reserved and didn’t show much affection toward each other. The couple that was on the dance floor walked off the dance floor and gave each other a big kiss and the guy slapped the girls butt. There was a group of girls that all danced together and there was one girl who sort of led the pack. Whatever dance move she was doing is what everyone else did and when one person left the floor the rest followed. They danced standing up and not any big movements were made. Then three guys came running onto the floor and slid on their knees and sizzled like bacon, tried to get people from the crowd to come and dance with them, and clapped to the beat with their hands over their heads.

Lastly I watched adults react with one another and it was interesting to see that most men were standing in a group with other men with a beer in their hand trailing behind the women. The Caucasian couples stayed together and showed a lot of affection, while the Latin men were sitting by themselves and their significant others would randomly walk up and then walk away. They seemed very distant from one another. The Asians were always together but not affectionate toward each other. Unfortunately, there were no African American couples to observe.

I think that it is interesting to observe people and see how everyone reacts the same but different. In Cat on a Hot Tin Roof we talk about the relationships everyone has and how they are not defined and kind of leave us to interpret what we think heir relationships are about. I found the book interesting because their relationships are outside the norms of today’s society. I think today it is normal when you see kids acting crazy and more specifically boys. I think this was observed through the parent peer pressuring his son to go on a ride and stop crying because every other boy was. The parent immediately feels like something is wrong with their kid if they don’t want to do what little boys are supposed to do. These norms that we expect everyone to fit into are constantly changing because culture is always changing. Barker states that we see “culture as being ordinary and encapsulating ‘a whole way of life’.” This shows that culture shapes who we are and how we act and what we do.

I think that in middle school, ages 12-15, we are trying to fit in with culture and figure what we want our image to be like. I think this shows through my observation of the couple that would not dance because they seemed too concerned in what everyone was going to think of them. Our culture cares so much about what other people think that it holds us back from doing the things we really love to do. It seems like boys don’t care as much as girls about their image. The girls who were dancing in a group would not do anything radical. They swayed their hips and giggled and pointed fingers at other people dancing. Guys would run onto the dance floor and make a scene of it and they seemed to enjoy the attention. I think that this age group is really conscious about their social identity, which Barker defines as, “the expectations and opinions that others have of us.”

I think it is interesting how people say that men have more power and that’s why men get to make decisions in relationships and they say, “the men wear the pants in the relationship.” When I was observing it was interesting to see that Caucasian men were following their significant others around. The women lead the men to where they wanted to go and when the women were talking they would hand their kids to the men to take care of. Traditionally it is always the men that do the talking and the women that follow behind with the kids. Latin men sit around in a huddle and talk while the women take care of the kids and in this case take the kids on all the rides. A lot of Latin people I know seem very distant from their significant others. I know one couple personally who seem like they have a relationship like Brick and Maggie do in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. The woman loves her husband but he is not interested in her and when they go out he is always eyeing other women. She stays with him because she feels like there is no better way out. If she is one her own she will not have money and will have a kid to take care of on her own.

 

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