The Stage
The date was early November, 2016 in Kamloops BC at around 7:00pm. The air outside was mildly chilly and crisp to the point where you could see your breathe in the early mornings and evenings. Thankfully for myself I decided to do this observation inside a neat little coffee house where it was around 20-24 degrees Celsius; give or take. The air was filled with the aroma of freshly ground coffee beans, mocha lattes, espresso shots, with the hint of some sort of foodstuffs, sandwiches probably, among a few other sweet and savoury scents. The room was well lit all around except for the one seemingly random burnt out fluorescent bulb near the back-center of the till, they should fix that. It’s relatively hard to take notes on anyone as there was a swirl of noises and voices from every direction, whether it be the people all around me talking, the child near the restroom tables crying for some reason or the sound of nearby passing vehicles on the road just outside. People are constantly coming and going, some stay to drink their chosen caffeinated beverages while sitting at a table on their laptops, others simply sit and eat.
The Players
As I sat at my table alone, drinking my purified water and nibbling on my sandwich I wanted to take a rough count of the entire cast here at the “theater”, about thirty-eight people, more men than women, a few children, four, three of which appear to be siblings with their parents or caretakers nearby. Some of the men are dressed quite dapper, wearing waist coats, sweater vests, cardigans, dress pants and the such, while the other men seem to be wearing far more casual clothing, jeans, jogging shoes, sweaters. Most of the women are wearing winter coats or heavy sweaters, presumably to keep them warm from the chill air outside. There’s a mild pattern in the way the women in here are dressed it seems, they’re wearing heavier coats as mentioned above, yet the better portion of them are wearing spandex leggings, yoga pants if you will. There was a fairly good mix of ethnic background I’d say, from Caucasians to African Americans, East Indians, Asians, and I even overheard some Germans.
But I digress, now we shall take a look at our “main characters”, the duo I decided to observe. Both of them are female, we’ll call the first “A” and the second one obviously “B”. “A” was shorter than “B”, probably around 5’ 3”, she had brunette hair just below her ears in a swept off to the right kind of style. Her eyes were of a blue-green tint, but they were filled with young brilliance and happiness. Her dress style were along the lines of semi-formal, wearing a gray-black dress coat with a black short-sleeved shirt and, from my guess, black leather leggings. She had on some dark-ish lipstick and a golden pendant that had a gemstone of some sort dangling from it. Her seated stance suggested a rather casual air for the way she was dressed, but then again we are in a casual setting. Her skin was fair, her ethnic background is most likely of European descent. My guess to her age would have to range between her mid twenties to her early thirties. “B” was taller than “A” by a good amount, my guess would be that she’s around 5’ 8”, the height difference between them was quite noticeable. However they were almost complete polar opposites in the way they dressed, “B” wore outdoor/casual clothing in a multitude of colours, think of a walking, breathing rainbow; that’s “B”. Her shirt was reminiscent of the tie-dye shirts of the 70’s with swirls of colours on it, making an odd irregular pattern on it. Her pants were quite literally rainbow leggings, I don’t quite know how else to put it, down her legs ran ROY G BIV in neat horizontal stripes. Her hair followed suit, it was dyed a “Azure” blue shade (my best guess), but you could see, what one could only assume to be, her natural hair colour peeking out at her roots, which was brown in colour. Like “A’s” hair, “B’s” was also short, her’s fell around the same area, just below her ears, but her hair was in neat little almost formed wavy curls falling downwards like a waterfall. Along with this vibrant pattern of obscure dress choice, her lips were as blue as a clear summer morning, and her eyes were of a chestnut brown-like colour. Just like “A”, “B’s” skin was also quite fair, however it looked as if she powdered her face to appear more, ghostly is the best way to describe it. She couldn’t seem to sit still for very long without fidgeting or playing with something, but she never let her attention fall from her conversation with “A”. Her age, to the best of my educated guessing abilities, would have to be in her early twenties to mid twenties.
The Blocking
The Plot
From what I gathered over the hour or so of observation, “A” and “B” have known one-another for quite a long time, they are childhood friends and they were discussing a somewhat sensitive matter . This type of relationship is extremely important, for when an individual is feeling sick, threatened, distressed, depressed and so on, their life-long friend is used as a source of comfort and safety. “A” was struggling with a few things, one of which was the feeling of being a minority as a woman as well as a minority in the workplace. Now women are not exactly a statistical minority, they are actually roughly equal in number to men, however they do qualify as a minority group because they tend to have less power and fewer privileges than men. The underlying cause of this unequal treatment of women is a type of discrimination known as sexism. This can be seen in a number of different parts of society, whether it be in the government, legal sectors, economic sectors, and even in family households. Do keep in mind it’s a far more complex issue than just “Men vs Women”. In a modern day society like today, there are an immense amount of differences when it comes to ethnic backgrounds, races and classes and because of this, in different countries women have MORE power than men do; IE: Argentina, Mozambique and France. Please keep in mind that gender discrimination, or sexism, also ties in with race and class discrimination which is a concept known as “Intersectionality” (a Feminist theory); this term was coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in the late 1980’s.
There is also the possibility beyond sexism that is causing “A’s” issue in the workplace, and that could very well be Conflict Theory. For those who do not know what Conflict Theory is I’ll give a synopsis on it. Conflict theory is a theory that was created by Karl Marx who claimed that society is in a state of perpetual conflict due to the competition on limited resources and that social order is maintained by domination and power. Now that we have a basic understanding of what Conflict Theory is, we can now determine that there has been and always will be some sort of power struggle between we the proletariat, and the bourgeoisie. With “A” being, from my understanding, at the bottom of the corporate ladder making a minimum wage with long hours, this could compel her to feel as if it’s an uphill battle for her to get anywhere while her boss is breathing down her neck. Feeling like the little guy, or in this case girl, with no say against the pseudo-plutocracy that is big business. It’s actually quite astonishing how anti-democratic capitalism really is, a tiny group of global elites decide the rules of the game and control the vast majority of our world’s resources. Either way, whether it be due to sexism in the workplace or Conflict theory, what it’s doing to this young women is unfortunate, the sheer amount of stress and anxiety it has caused her is truly disheartening to see.
The Finale
I am a twenty year-old Canadian male university student studying Sociology. As for how I felt doing this observation, I felt quite fine with it, it’s not the first time I’ve gone out and just “people watched”, I rather enjoy observing people in their “natural habitat” and trying to discern why they’re doing X or Y. My two main themes in this analysis were based around the conflict in the workplace and big businesses, and sexism as a women on a global scale. Finally my main conclusion from this observation is that as a women, even in our modern day society, in the workplace it is difficult to get ahead. There’s quite a bit pressing down on your shoulders and it begins to take it’s toll, eventually causing cracks at the seams. I do hope you’ve enjoyed my observation on “A” and “B’s” conversation, thank-you for reading this and have a fantastic rest of your day.
Credits
Brym, R., Roberts, L. W., & Strohscein, L. (2016) . Sociology Your Compass for a New World (5th ed.). Toronto, Ontario: Nelson Education.
