Ruben Zakaryan
English 313
Professor Wexler
9/20/10
Ethnography
My observation took place at a Starbux located on Ventura and Cedros. I decided to observe people during mid afternoon on one of the busiest streets I know. When I first arrived, I witnessed three different tables where people were sitting outside. I walked in and there were two gentlemen sitting alone with laptops. There was also a woman sitting inside reading a book. After I got my coffee, I took a table outside and began to observe. The first table, there were two men and one woman sitting around a laptop. The first man seemed to be in his late 20's. He was wearing regular jeans and a t-shirt. He also had tattoos all over his arms. The man and woman sitting next to him were probably in their mid 50's. They were dressed in more proper attire and showed no signs of body art or piercings. The younger man seemed to be discussing something and was focused more towards the man rather than the woman. She spoke a few times but was immediately interrupted by the older man. They spoke for the entire time I was there. The second table, there was a single man sitting with his dog lying by his feet. He was in his late 60's and was reading a newspaper. He kept putting his newspaper down and taking out his cell phone. He also kept looking around at the surrounding people sitting outside. The third table, there was a man and a woman sitting across each other drinking coffee and having a conversation. The man was in his late 30's and the woman was in her mid 20's. As they were having their conversation, I noticed the woman kept giggling and looking down at her phone. After about twenty minutes, the man from the second table got up and approached the people sitting at table three. He introduced himself and said something funny which made them laugh. He stood there for about 5 minutes talking mainly to the woman. The man at the table kept trying to enter the conversation but no one seemed to pay attention. After a while, the girl seemed to feel uncomfortable so the the older man began to talk about his dog. Then he went back to his table, but continued to communicate with the man from table three. After this interaction, the people at the tables continued with their regular routine. There were constant people walking in and out of the cafe but no one seemed interested in the people sitting outside. After being there for over an hour, I left.
There are a lot of elements at play here. We see a typical male to male interaction that casts the female aside. We also see a romantic scenario that is interrupted by an interfering male whose only purpose is to attract the woman. The older man and woman sitting at the first table seemed to be a couple because they were sitting on one side of the table. The younger man was trying to sell or convince the "couple" using his laptop as a visual display. In a typical society, the man is the one who makes the decision, not the woman. We see this in this situation because not only was the younger man speaking directly to the man but the woman was being interrupted every time she began to speak. "Now, woman has always been man’s dependant, if not his slave; the two sexes have never shared the world in equality. And even today woman is heavily handicapped, though her situation is beginning to change. Almost nowhere is her legal status the same as man’s, and frequently it is much to her disadvantage." (Beauvoir 1949) This quote was written in the late 40's but as we can see it is still accurate in some situations today. The woman in this scenario was not given any decision-making power due to the fact that her "spouse" was present and well capable of making the decision for both of them. In addition, when she attempted to give some insight, her opinion was disregarded. This public display of chauvinism is rarely seen in middle class surroundings but as we have learned, men of this nature do not take account social hierarchy as a formality. "Similarly, the most mediocre of males feels himself a demigod as compared with women." (Beauvoir 1949)
The second scenario consists of a typical romantic "date" between a couple who are faced with an external element. Religion has taught us that adultery is a sin; however society has shown that this is a very common resort in today's romance. Now I'm not implying that the man approaching the table had the intention of committing adultery with the woman sitting at the table because for one, we do not know if the man is married or single and we cannot be sure the woman is in a relationship with the man whom she is with. What we can grasp from this situation is that the man seemed more enticed with the woman more than the man. Many will say this is an instinct that the male species is born with. On the other hand, one can argue that this is a way of showing neither male is homosexual. By approaching a table with a man and woman, and choosing to speak solely to the woman ensures the man's heterosexuality. "To claim that there is no performer prior to the performed, that the performance is performative, that the performance constitutes the appearance of a subject as its effect is difficult to accept" (Butler, 725)
Works Cited
1. De Beauvoir, Simone. "The Second Sex: Woman as Other" 1949. Available http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/index.htm
2. Butler, Judith. "Gender Studies, Gay/Lesbian Studies, Queer Theory: Chapter 7, Imitation and Gender Insubordination". (pp 722-730)
