Ethnography
Place: The Grove – Los Angeles
Date: September 20, 2009
Observations:
While at The Grove, I am watching the interactions between couples. The place is filled with couples. On every side of me I see people holding hands, cuddled up, and laughing. Everyone appears very well dressed. Women are wearing makeup and I smell a lot of men’s cologne. There is a man and a woman walking side by side who I believe is a couple due to their proximity in age but they are not showing any signs of affection towards each like the other couples I have observed so far. With most of the couples, I notice that the man has his arm around the woman, pulling her closer to him almost as a sign of protection or maybe even as a sign property. There is a lot of ethnic diversity among couples here. I have observed some interracial couples pass me by. Since I’ve been here I’ve noticed three couples where the male was African-American and the woman was Caucasian. One couple with a male that was Caucasian and the woman African-American and three couples with a Caucasian male and Asian woman. I have not observed any homosexual couples yet. All of the couples vary in age from teen to elderly. The few teen relationships that I have observed seem very playful. One couple which I presume to be in their late teens walked by and were playfully hitting each other. Another teen relationship I observed had the female being carried on the back of the male. Most of the elderly couples I observe seem very relaxed with the males carrying most of the shopping bags. Some of the younger males are carrying the shopping bags mainly the woman are carrying their own bags. One thing that I am surprised at is with all the stores in view, the males, regardless of age, are opening the doors for the women. I have observed my first homosexual couple of the day. It is an older female couple in their mid to late 40’s. They are holding hands. One appears to be more feminine then the other.
Analysis:
This analysis is based on my observations made above during my visit to The Grove in Los Angeles. During my visit I focused my attention on individuals that were in romantic relationships. I was able to determine their status by observing their body language towards each and their facial expressions. There body language towards each other mostly all the time seemed to display some sort of affection. The couples were holding hands, kissing, and also had their arms wrapped around each other. All of these actions showed an intimate connection between the couple. Also in my observations I noticed that most of the women in these pairs felt the need to wear make-up and tight clothes to add sex appeal. Not only do women want to look nice for themselves, they also want to look nice for their companions. Another observation I made was with the placement of the arm by the males. I noticed that the males pulled their female companions closer to them by wrapping their arms around them. When a woman feels a man pulling her close to him she feels protected. But it leads me to wonder if that is the same thought that the male is having. I believe that the action, not necessarily negative, of pulling a woman closer by a man is more of a display of ownership a saying of “this is mine, you cannot have her.”
Another surprising observation I made was the amount of males that opened doors for women. Although this is not new to me because I have a knack for picking quality men that possess this attribute, I thought they were a dying breed. In the Romantic Comedy and Genre, in which the author described the visual elements of a romantic comedy. I thought of this because in every romantic comedy, on the first date the couple will visit some place and the man will open the door for the woman followed by the line “after you” and the woman would get the largest grin on her face as if that was the sweetest thing anyone had ever done for her.
My last observation was that of two homosexual women who displayed their love for each other quite openly. They walked by holding hands and smiling. After observing the two women and reviewing the comment I made about one being more feminine it only made me think of Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex. In Beauvoir’s article she asks the question what is femininity and does it exist. This couple reminded me of the article because I began to ask myself if one is more feminine then does that make the other less of a woman. According to Beauvoir yes because she asserts herself as man and is therefore masculine.
Place: The Grove – Los Angeles
Date: September 20, 2009
Observations:
While at The Grove, I am watching the interactions between couples. The place is filled with couples. On every side of me I see people holding hands, cuddled up, and laughing. Everyone appears very well dressed. Women are wearing makeup and I smell a lot of men’s cologne. There is a man and a woman walking side by side who I believe is a couple due to their proximity in age but they are not showing any signs of affection towards each like the other couples I have observed so far. With most of the couples, I notice that the man has his arm around the woman, pulling her closer to him almost as a sign of protection or maybe even as a sign property. There is a lot of ethnic diversity among couples here. I have observed some interracial couples pass me by. Since I’ve been here I’ve noticed three couples where the male was African-American and the woman was Caucasian. One couple with a male that was Caucasian and the woman African-American and three couples with a Caucasian male and Asian woman. I have not observed any homosexual couples yet. All of the couples vary in age from teen to elderly. The few teen relationships that I have observed seem very playful. One couple which I presume to be in their late teens walked by and were playfully hitting each other. Another teen relationship I observed had the female being carried on the back of the male. Most of the elderly couples I observe seem very relaxed with the males carrying most of the shopping bags. Some of the younger males are carrying the shopping bags mainly the woman are carrying their own bags. One thing that I am surprised at is with all the stores in view, the males, regardless of age, are opening the doors for the women. I have observed my first homosexual couple of the day. It is an older female couple in their mid to late 40’s. They are holding hands. One appears to be more feminine then the other.
Analysis:
This analysis is based on my observations made above during my visit to The Grove in Los Angeles. During my visit I focused my attention on individuals that were in romantic relationships. I was able to determine their status by observing their body language towards each and their facial expressions. There body language towards each other mostly all the time seemed to display some sort of affection. The couples were holding hands, kissing, and also had their arms wrapped around each other. All of these actions showed an intimate connection between the couple. Also in my observations I noticed that most of the women in these pairs felt the need to wear make-up and tight clothes to add sex appeal. Not only do women want to look nice for themselves, they also want to look nice for their companions. Another observation I made was with the placement of the arm by the males. I noticed that the males pulled their female companions closer to them by wrapping their arms around them. When a woman feels a man pulling her close to him she feels protected. But it leads me to wonder if that is the same thought that the male is having. I believe that the action, not necessarily negative, of pulling a woman closer by a man is more of a display of ownership a saying of “this is mine, you cannot have her.”
Another surprising observation I made was the amount of males that opened doors for women. Although this is not new to me because I have a knack for picking quality men that possess this attribute, I thought they were a dying breed. In the Romantic Comedy and Genre, in which the author described the visual elements of a romantic comedy. I thought of this because in every romantic comedy, on the first date the couple will visit some place and the man will open the door for the woman followed by the line “after you” and the woman would get the largest grin on her face as if that was the sweetest thing anyone had ever done for her.
My last observation was that of two homosexual women who displayed their love for each other quite openly. They walked by holding hands and smiling. After observing the two women and reviewing the comment I made about one being more feminine it only made me think of Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex. In Beauvoir’s article she asks the question what is femininity and does it exist. This couple reminded me of the article because I began to ask myself if one is more feminine then does that make the other less of a woman. According to Beauvoir yes because she asserts herself as man and is therefore masculine.
