A Day In Other Shoes

The day of our project went well. We got many reactions. Like our plan, we woke up at 5:30 and got dressed. Then Hana came over to my house around 6 AM and we did makeup and hair, though we didn't have time to tease it very well before I had to take Lani to daycare and get to school for Madrigals at 7:30. I got a few reactions while there. Soup and Sam Mitro saw us in the parking lot from a few spots down and commented that I looked different, but they couldn't tell the difference in Hana from a distance. Sam saw me again in Madrigals and she asked why I was dressed like that. I replied that there was no reason and asked if she liked it. Sam replied, "Sure, I mean it's still you." So she was really cool about it. A bit later, Roy walked in, looked at me and said "Oh wow...." almost sarcastically. He hates scene kids but he knew it was for the english project so he just found it funny. After Madrigals, I went to Algebra. Mrs. Campbell was passing out our homework and when she got to my row (I sit in the front desk) she looked curious and said "You usually don't wear that much make up". She didn't really treat me any differently though.

After first hour it was time to leave for the art trip. People going on the trip mainly were curious and asked why we were dressed the way we were. I think they knew what was going on though so after awhile they didn't really pay us much mind. At the first antique store, the older lady behind the counter gave us a strange look at first, but didn't treat us very differently. I bought a pretty bronze fan that Hana wanted mwahaha. We went to the second antique store right off Dirksen and we seemed to get more reactions there. The woman behind the counter seemed almost cautious of us and didn't greet us or smile. I felt as though she was judging us and trying to figure out whether we were going to steal something. I didn't see her look though as we started holding hands. There was another couple in the store, an old lady and her husband. They have us almost rude looks and then avoided eye contact. Wherever I looked for objects for my project, they would seem to steer clear of. I went back up to the counter after making all of my purchases and I began talking and joking with the lady that had given us judgmental looks before. She seemed much more at ease once she saw my true personality and I think she knew that I wasn't the type of person she most likely labeled me as before. My goal was to get people to realize this: that who I was as a person was much different from what they probably labeled me at first sight.

Our next stop was downtown Springfield. There was talk of Coldstone which made me happy haha. Anyways, we started looking for places to eat before going to the museum. We found a bistro and walked in to eat. Once again, the lady working there gave us strange looks, but after I went up to order my food and began talking and joking with her, she saw how polite I was and was put at ease. Hana and I ate and then began walking back to the museum. There were two guys in a van parked at the side of the street. One of them saw us holding hands and sort of flashed us a smile and raised his eyebrows like he was flirting. That sort of scared us and we rushed to leave them behind. The workers at the museum treated us normally. I didn't really notice anymore strange looks the rest of the day. Maybe because my feet were so sore from the uncomfortable shoes I wore haha. But Hana is also much more observant than me so I think she noticed much more than I did.

I do have respect for scene and emo kids, just like everybody else. I really don't have much sympathy for how long it takes them to get ready in the morning because that's their choice. However, I do sympathize with how it must feel to have everybody judging them just because they choose a certain style.

Social Experiment Plan

My group is Hana, Ashley Terry and myself of course :) Our plan was to dress completely scene/emo and see what reactions we got. In case you don't know, scene is what the girl in the picture above looks like. Hana also decided to pretend to be a lesbian so we were going to hold hands. We were going to carry out our plan on the art trip today while we visited various antique stores (With plenty of judgmental old ladies) and took a trip downtown. Yesterday, we planned for our trip by going to the mall and Gordman's to look for scene clothes. I bought a rainbow zebra print wristband with a torn, colorful but mostly black shirt and various accessories like bracelets, colored hair extensions, and even hair dye. We got up at 5:30 in the morning to begin getting ready by doing our hair and make up. We were almost late for school even within an hour after starting. Below is pretty much what our outfits and makeup looked like. Neither of us were very comfortable lol. I predicted that we would get many stares and perhaps some catty comments.