February 7, 2015
The Apple Store—a place where middle class civilians congregate to peruse and purchase the most exalted consumer electronics. The Lehigh Valley Mall hosts one of these stores, and within it, a social-norm-breech experiment was conducted on February 7th 2015 at 3:30pm Eastern Time.
Preliminarily and throughout the experiment, the store retained a familiar ambiance of cleanliness and attention to detail. Every item had its place and employees were stationed systematically to maintain an efficient commercial attitude towards customer service. All employees wore the same uniform: A t-shirt and white necklace. One employee stood at the entrance to greet potential buyers and answer any questions about Apple products. Families, couples, and young individuals clustered around devices on display. They interacted with the technology in a manner that attested to prior experience with the devices. Many customers could be overheard asking employees about pricing, availability, and differences between devices. Other customers inquired about technical difficulties.
Dan, the actor in this experiment, entered the Apple Store dressed to match other customers. He wore clothes that were casual yet hinted at higher-class status, e.g. a collared button down shirt. Upon entering the store, Dan was approached by an employee, Lucas, who immediately and unknowingly assumed the responsibility of the test subject. Dan utilized his Israeli accent and asked questions about Apple products as if he had no idea what they were or how they functioned.
It is normative of the middle class to be familiar with this expensive technology. The juxtaposition of being well dressed in an Apple store yet not knowing anything about the products breached a social expectation. Lucas had to remain professional and answer Dan’s questions due to the social contract of employee-customer relations. Lucas, when interviewed after the experiment, noted that he did feel strange about the situation yet rationalized Dan’s naivety because of his foreign accent. This is an example of sociologist Jodi O’Brien’s concept of secondary elaboration.
Lucas’s rationalization compelled him to answer Dan’s questions in a way that did not assume total naivety of the subject. When asked “What is this iPhone?” Lucas proceeded to answer using terms such as smartphone, digital phone, texts, and apps. Lucas assumed that even if Dan was unaware of Apple technology he would still know what these terms meant. Dan continued with “What is an app?” and received an answer with even more jargon, including terms such as programming code and software package. This demonstrates how breaking down the social normative understandings of middle class technical and consumer knowledge takes ample time—it did not immediately register with the employee that someone might deviate. Once Lucas understood that Dan was legitimately unknowledgeable of Apple products, Lucas attempted to repair the breach by asserting the ideologies of the Apple company, thus imposing certain cultural capital upon Dan. To
accomplish this, Lucas dropped phrases such as “iPhones are the best phones on the market.”
Until this moment, other customers throughout the store had not been involved in the contained social breach between Dan and Lucas. The shift in passive bystander behavior occurred when Dan’s breach changed from verbal to physical. When Dan assumed that the iPhone camera hole was the microphone and began to talk to the top of the phone, observers looked puzzled. Observers then searched for interactional corroboration among their parties and surrounding parties. When Dan had the spotlit attention of surrounding customers, he brought Lucas down to his level by asking a question Lucas could not answer: “What is the meaning of the apple?”
According to O’Brien, “Humans are meaning makers.” Lucas had failed to recognize the meaning of the company he was representing and resorted to Google for the answer. Once on the topic of Google, Dan asked Lucas how he was accessing such a large database of knowledge. Lucas explained that it was accessible through Safari. It was implied that Dan knew Safari to be the branded browser rather than the African expedition.
Lucas stepped off the social class ladder with the next question thrown at him by Dan: “What is this Guinness Bar? Can I get drink?” Lucas started to question reality and wonder whether Dan was acting with comedic intent. He maintained professionalism and explained the Genius Bar, yet air quoted the word genius. In Lucas’s transference of cultural capital, he took liberties in degrading his fellow associates which effectively took down the curtain between Apple’s ostensible air of high class and Dan’s representational facade of lower class.
The previously-described occurrences played out over the course of around twenty minutes. The experiment concluded after this time and Lucas was approached and interviewed about his experience. He admitted that he started to question the reality of the situation about ten minutes into the encounter. He said that Dan’s dress did not affect initial judgement and treatment of Dan as a customer, however, had Dan been in his sixties or older, Lucas would have attempted to speak in a more simple manner. The social norm of assumed knowledge in economic class levels functions as a trapeze net. If an encounter between individuals of similar social class fails to entertain the knowledge of either party, there is certain assumed knowledge to fall back on. In this case, Lucas recognized that Dan did not know about Apple products and explained the products using vocabulary he assumed persons of his similar social class would know. A consequence of these trapeze nets is that they promote
separatism. A person of lower class has less to fall back on in terms of cultural capital.
An interesting aspect of this experiment was the age Lucas mentioned at which he would simplify the communication between employee and customer—the visible appearance of sixty years or older. From this derives the notion of cultural capital as a bell curve. Experience is gained in adolescence and lost in seniority. Is the Apple Store sustaining the ideologies of the middle class by assuming prior knowledge of its customers? Employees like Lucas certainly seem to be doing so, however, at certain points he took his own liberties in explanation and deviated momentarily from the norm. All it took was the initiative provided by Dan—a catalyst for social change.
Written for a college class.
School
September 1, 2014
Kate Bornstein is very candid when discussing the prospect of gender fluidity. Her book, Gender Outlaw, is a place where she is able to express her thoughts without viewing the reaction of her audience immediately. This offers an unusual comfort that she does not receive when walking about in society. People look at Bornstein and judge her for not conforming to a gender binary. This discrimination is derived from a natural fear of the unknown—her gender status promotes curiosity as transsexuals are a people society is not used to dealing with. How does one behave around a transsexual? Does one treat them as the gender which they appear to gravitate towards? In Gender Outlaw, Bornstein describes the behavior of gender attribution, that is, “[When] we look at somebody and say, ‘that’s a man,’ or ‘that’s a woman.’” (p. 26) Perhaps looking at someone is not the only telltale sign of gender binaries. Other features can give this
away such as voice, name, and even handwriting. Voices can be deeper versus quaint. Certain first names are gender fluid but most are gender polar. Handwriting that is more careful and consistent is marked as feminine. These features have created gender stereotypes that are hard to stray from. These stereotypes have defined the functionality of our society.
What does it take to break through this boundary? Bornstein introduces the idea of gender fluidity. A being with ambiguous gender can shift at will between the binaries using costume and behavior with the exception of their naked body image. This presents an interesting position in terms of feminism and equality. When Bornstein changed her body image, she was treated in the complete opposite manner in which she was treated prior to her operation. A man known as Old Fred flirted with her at a government office where he worked until he saw her official name and then started questioning her. Such power has been embedded in gender stereotypes that it is difficult to know how to deal with a gender fluid or transsexual individual. Bornstein had trouble comfortably attending a lesbian community gathering because “The reaction was very much, ‘Well that’s a man for you!’” (p. 42) Our association with men as power figures overshadows thoughts of equality among the gender spectrum.
The fact that such a spectrum exists is evidence that there are no real men and women. Yes, there are two types of reproductive organs and humans are born with either one or the other, but gender is a completely different issue. It is felt in the purest sense of what it means to feel. This natural feeling is ever clouded and challenged by societal gender norms. What does it take to change these norms? It seems people disregard transsexuals and prospective transsexuals because there are so few that present themselves to society. Those that do present themselves are brave. It takes a certain confidence to go against the grain of what is seen as normal. Bornstein knows this and lets her readers know forthright that she is acting as the voice of her fellow transsexuals simply because she has the bravery to speak.
“It’s a time when we’ve begun to put down the cultural baggage.” (p. 13) What does she mean by the word baggage? Could baggage be stereotypes? No, for often we are unaware of stereotypes that we carry but all too aware of baggage for it is heavy and obtrusive. The word itself lends connotations to weight and obtrusiveness. Then perhaps Bornstein is focusing more on the action of putting down the weight than the weight itself. In her eyes, popular culture has been moving about far too incessantly between issues of gender without stopping for a moment to reassess—to ask questions. Questions are, after all, the greatest catalyst for tolerance and subsequent paradigm shifts. When Bornstein is asked a question about her gender, sexuality, or lifestyle, she answers in a very blunt yet comical fashion. One such answer is stated: “Yah, the plumbing works and so does the electricity.” (p. 31) This sort of answer brings her and her inquirer to the same level. If they had been separated by
some intangible barrier of sexual naivety, this light sarcasm has more or less fluffed up the situation. Someone who may have been intimidated to ask Bornstein a question now feels empowered. It is this sense of empowerment that enables further questioning. What it takes to defeat stereotypical barriers is comfort in asking what is unknown. Society must not fear gender ambiguity, but take it by the horns and stare it in the face. Only then can the fear be broken down into open discussion leading to tolerance.
The gender spectrum is infinitely broad, therefore, fluidity is highly possible if not unavoidable. Bornstein uses her book as a form of expression much in the way she uses her gender as an accessory. By breaking down the fear of ambiguity with electrically witty answers, she has enabled the inquirer to ask questions about gender fluidity and transsexuality with the result of gaining tolerance and understanding. Her book is not an attempt at integration of non-binary genders just as Maurice Berger’s book White Lies is not an attempt at integration of Blacks. These works are attempts at analyzing the current status of society and recognizing the naivety of its people. Only once knowledge and understanding of such subjects is gained can they be understood and therefore loved among the rest.
Written for Dr. Beth Schachter’s Performing Identities in my first semester at Muhlenberg College. Exact date unknown.
School
April 17, 2013
Whilst thee mutual exchange of intellectual conceptions so gaily transpired, many a pungent potato of thought were heartily unearthed. Even though half the class did not speak, those who had had discovered the beautiful nugget that is perspective. Said is set up as this awful, treacherous, inhuman piece of rubbish left to wander the streets with a vendetta after his release from incarceration. As the reader, one experiences an influx of emotional gravity towards him as the novel progresses. He is, after all, a human being, and our protagonist. He appears externally cold, yet intrinsically compassionate. This is evident in the numerous ventures of his past whereupon he aims to court Nabawiyya. I conjured the notion of the two having never been in love at all, for it was mere infatuation that brought them together under the symbolic, overseeing tree.
Nur… Nur is a different story. She greatly contributes to the tragedy that is Said’s life by giving it color. The kind prostitute is beautifully portrayed as hospitable, loyal, and mysterious. The mysteriousness is the kicker, for her absence is of greater metaphorical and psychological value than her presence. Said ponders many a time over his concealed love for Nur while he sits alone in her apartment. This period of reflection is a direct comparison to the trials of Sisyphus, which we read of in a previous class. Sisyphus’s endurance is challenged more so mentally than physically, which is also true for Said. He cannot handle being alone for so long because he is left to lament the loss of his daughter, his unsuccessful attempts at revenge, and his unconfessed love for Nur. In the end, the class did not come to a conclusion about his death. It is not outwardly stated whether or not he dies, but it is safe to assume so.
Written for a high school class.
The Thief and the Dogs by Naguib Mahfouz
School
April Littrell