For this assignment I decided to go to a Japanese
restaurant, Benihana, with the intention of being able to observe gender
schemas, formal and informal rules as well as observe how other factors
including ethnic background, ability or sexual orientation might be analyzed as
well.
Upon arriving I immediately noticed the number of couples
that were headed into the restaurant. A commonality between heterosexual
couples included the guy walking in front of the girl, even if only a foot or
two ahead. I find this somewhat troubling as it could possibly signify
superiority. It appears as if even subconsciously women allow the men to take
control, take the lead, and they naturally do so with women trailing behind
them.
However, walking to the door the men would often times (not
always), stop and hold the door open for women or others that were walking in.
Although I have a hard time critiquing
this because on one level it can be considered polite, I can't help but
remember the video clip "Are You Popular" in which the women appeared
to be very submissive and appeared weak, so as to allow the men to feel
powerful and take control.
Although some might say this is a sweet intention, formed in
tradition without actual knowledge of the reasons behind why we do the things
we do, it still is interlaced with the unspoken message that woman are less
than, or weaker than men. According to Wollstonescraft's "A Vindication of
the Rights of Woman: An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds, The Wollstonecraft
Debate, Criticism," it is an act that degrades women, by implying the
woman are incapable of doing something as simple as holding open a door for themselves
(1988).
Upon entering through the restaurant doors, I noticed that
there were four women hostesses and only one male hostess who appeared very uninterested
and rarely, if ever, did anything more than stand there and look
"superior" (I determined this according to his stance, lack of
interest and the ability to not have to engage any more than he had to). They
appeared to all be in their early 20's, sending the message that the most
attractive people would be welcoming customers inside.
The women hostesses
however were very much dressed up, wearing make-up and very uncomfortable looking
heeled shoes (which doesn't make sense as they are standing throughout their
shift). They were all wearing dressy shirts often with a skirt and they had a
fake smile plastered to their faces even when not speaking with a customer. I
couldn't help but wonder if this was part of company policy to dress nice and
appear friendly and interested or if they were simply hired because of their
ability to dress nicely, appear young, fit the right demographic and be
annoyingly polite.
However when focusing back upon the male in this situation,
he had a shirt and tie on, looked bored but yet held the arrogance of someone
who thought they held power. I even wondered for a brief moment if he was an assistant
manager since he was able to act that way and still hold a job.
As far as race is concerned I noticed that many, though
certainly not all, people working there appeared to be from an Asian
background. The manager however was white and was not a man but a woman. This
brings to mind the issue that typically men (although sometimes women), who are
the "leaders" in companies are typically Caucasian. This is one of
the reasons why white privilege is so powerful, if whites are always in power,
and they aren't willing to share (because who shares power?), then it's no
wonder other ethnicity remain oppressed.
As stated in "Through the Lens of Race" more than
seventy five percent of white women believe they have advantage through gender,
whereas only thirty percent of black woman felt the same (Settles, I., Pratt-Hyatt,
J., Buchanan, N. 2008). The fact that over twice the amount of white women
believe to have power than black woman, should further prove that white
privilege does very much exist whether explicitly stated or not.
Upon being seated, we were informed of who our servers were (both
women). As I looked around I noticed
that all of the "chefs" cooking at the various hibachi grills were
all men. Not one woman was cooking. I am
not sure if this is custom but I recalled having never seen a woman chef at any
of the Japanese Hibachi restaurants.
Another thing I observed was that children in families almost
always gravitated towards the female figure in the group. The female would
almost always take on the nurturing role, whether mother or friend, and the men
would appear uninterested and nonchalant. There were exceptions to this however.
I noticed a couple of families who were African American and the children
appeared to be under the watchful eye of the dad. This is curious to me as to
if this is an exception or if this is a common cultural difference. I would not be able to know without observing or
studying in a larger context. However, in general, it appeared that white
families assumed that the woman would naturally care for the children while the
men seemed to do their own thing, unconcerned as to whether the children
behaved or not.
After my time observing formal and informal gender roles,
with an emphasis in intersectional analysis, I have come to the conclusion that
there still exists a large gap between equality of men and women, as well as
between ethnic groups, age or ability. The ability to see the explicit and
implicit messages underlying our every day interactions has shown just how far
we've come in equality and how far we still have left to go.
Nicole Lach
Reference List
Settles, I., Pratt-Hyatt, J. Buchanan, N. (2008). Women's Voices Feminist Visions. Through the Lens of Race: Black and White
Women's Perceptions of Womanhood.
"Are You
Popular?" (1947). Retrieved
from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Eqpe7Y_6rmQ
Mary
Wollstonecraft, excerpt from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman with
Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects (London: Joseph Johnson, 1792).
Reprinted in Carol H. Poston, ed., Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the
Rights of Woman: An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds, The Wollstonecraft Debate,
Criticism (New York: W. W. Norton, 1988), pp. 21-22, 25-28, 43, 57-58, 62,
147-48, 191-94.
No comments:
Post a Comment