Social Norms

Vanessa Ramos

Social Norm Project

This social norm project was both exciting and awkward at the same time. When my group and I were given out the project we all seemed confident and prepared to complete the task of breaking a social norm. My group and I chose to break a dress code norm, we attempted this by wearing our undergarments over our clothes. I was one of the members of my group who actually felt more relaxed about the experiment from the day it was assigned to when I finally met up with my group at the Ontario Mills Mall in fact, I was so tranquil I was the only female lady to include both my bra and underwear over my clothes. I just went with it. Yet, when I went to the bathroom with my female partner to put on our undergarments the moment I walked out of the bathroom stall with my bra and underwear over my clothes I felt so awkward. There were no eyes at that mall that were not looking at my bra or under it created a lot of tension for me. I thought I wouldn’t have that nervous feeling but my partner was also very shy she started hiding in secluded corners of every store we walked into which caused me to feel more insecure. Every time I turned around my partner was hiding so I tried to hold myself together and keep calm and pretend there was absolutely nothing wrong with my clothes I pretended I was texting and that I was interested in myraids of clothes at the stores to be around people and help my group get reactions. The most obscene thing my partner and I did was approach the food court full of people who felt were waiting for my partner and I to perform an act, every single individual sat down with different of reactions on their faces like if they were each watching a movie of a different genre, it was amazing how only two people could cause so many reactions to all those people. A woman came up to me in front of everyone with a nice big grim and asked why we wore our clothes the way we did another young man with his girlfriend politely asked if...