Myself and three other people were instructed to break a gender norm in a public place to see how our peers reacted. We brain stormed a number of potential ways to break norms. For the girls: acting aggressively and spitting into the grass, and for the guys: sitting cross legged, applying makeup, and other normally feminine grooming practices were all ways of breaking some simple gender rules. Because one of the girls in our group had a file, and it is uncommon for men to attend to their nails, it was decided we’d do an uncommon grooming technique.
For the experiment we decided it was best that I walked around the school’s main walkway using the file since I felt the most natural with it. We were able to distract a few passer and though I didn’t notice several people looked at me oddly according to my team members. While ignorance protected me for the time it is likely that I would have noticed the discomfort of those around me, or someone would have informed me directly. Though it is unlikely anyone would have aggressively tried to restore order, the discomfort alone would pressure me to stop this habit if it was one I had. What’s important to note is that though this may seem trivial it shows we have ridiculous rules that persuades us from doing what we want.
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