(no subject)
I wussed out and just wrote about something OLD for my soc assignment, mainly because of lack of free time. Anybody who's heard the Jesus Christ's Penis story can skip this, unless you want more details.
Gawk if You’re Irish:
A Social Norm Violation Experiment
By Frank Peña
To be perfectly honest, I’m no slouch when it comes to violating social norms. I’ll talk to people with a monkey hand-puppet at the Salvation Army; shuffle around the produce section of the grocery store while wearing bear-feet slippers; and often shamelessly dance, spin, and loudly sing along with overhead music in stores whenever I go out into public-much to the embarrassment of whomever I’m with at the time. A lot of this can be blamed on my mother, who tried to brighten my ho-hum schooldays when I was younger, by conducting norm violation experiments of her own through me-e.g., sending me to school with my lunch in an empty Cocoa Pebbles box, instead of a brown bag, thus getting me chastised by a majority of my fourth grade class. But out of all these amateur social experiments, one instance stands out in my mind because of a single reaction someone gave me that was so confusing, I still, to this day, get raised eyebrows while relating this story.
A few years ago, on St. Patrick’s Day, on a whim, I decided to dye my entire body green. In context it wasn’t quite as shocking as it would have been any other day of the year. Still, holiday aside, I expected a few stares at the very least, this being a relatively small town, not to mention the Bible belt.
After soaking in a tub full of green food coloring for a few hours, thoroughly tinting every inch of my body, I was ready to hit the town! I walked to my brother’s apartment, twenty minutes away to show off my newly recolored self. A few cars slowed down or honked as they drove past. I recall one person stopping at a corner, mid-turn, to laugh at me. About two people called me a leprechaun, and of course, I got more than my fair share of confused, blank, or amused stares. I met up with my brother, and later on my cousins, who just laughed. My mother was extremely proud, but also quite surprised I actually went through with it; despite my sporadic instances of impulsive behavior, I’m normally quite shy and reserved.
Later on in the evening, my cousins decided to get some Guinness at Super K-Mart-it being St. Patrick’s Day and all, they were a little upset about being all too sober. As we moseyed on over to the store, I was still getting stares, being called a leprechaun, and generally making a scene without having to lift a finger. I was following my cousin at a distance to the back of the store, trying my best to act casual. We had just passed the cracker aisle when a woman, who looked to be the stereotypical middle-aged church-goer, walked past. She quickly looked me up and down, and said very matter-of-factly, “Well, aren’t you just Jesus Christ’s penis?”
I stood there, dumbfounded. My cousins stopped walking and looked back at me, equally confused. The woman just kept right on walking. She had trumped my visual norm deviation with a verbal deviation, the likes of which I had never heard, nor have I heard since! My cousin screwed up his face and asked, “Did she just …?” All I could do was shake my head, shrug, and mumble, “What. The. Heck?” We watched her shuffle away, scratching our heads.
On the way home, and until the dye eventually wore off I still got some stares and the obligatory “pot o’ gold” and Lucky Charms jokes, but all other reactions paled in comparison to what that woman had said. Was it meant to be an insult? A compliment? Or was it just a spur of the moment reaction to an overly-confusing stimulus?
In retrospect, I decided to take it as a compliment. I mean, honestly, how often do you get associated with the genitalia of the Lord?
UPDATE: Here's a comic illustrating this tale of WTF! http://becauseinter.net/20090122.html
UPDATE #2: Apparently, I'm a Special Buddhist now, too. http://spitecho.tumblr.com/post/2516249876/walmart-adventures-the-special-buddhist
Gawk if You’re Irish:
A Social Norm Violation Experiment
By Frank Peña
To be perfectly honest, I’m no slouch when it comes to violating social norms. I’ll talk to people with a monkey hand-puppet at the Salvation Army; shuffle around the produce section of the grocery store while wearing bear-feet slippers; and often shamelessly dance, spin, and loudly sing along with overhead music in stores whenever I go out into public-much to the embarrassment of whomever I’m with at the time. A lot of this can be blamed on my mother, who tried to brighten my ho-hum schooldays when I was younger, by conducting norm violation experiments of her own through me-e.g., sending me to school with my lunch in an empty Cocoa Pebbles box, instead of a brown bag, thus getting me chastised by a majority of my fourth grade class. But out of all these amateur social experiments, one instance stands out in my mind because of a single reaction someone gave me that was so confusing, I still, to this day, get raised eyebrows while relating this story.
A few years ago, on St. Patrick’s Day, on a whim, I decided to dye my entire body green. In context it wasn’t quite as shocking as it would have been any other day of the year. Still, holiday aside, I expected a few stares at the very least, this being a relatively small town, not to mention the Bible belt.
After soaking in a tub full of green food coloring for a few hours, thoroughly tinting every inch of my body, I was ready to hit the town! I walked to my brother’s apartment, twenty minutes away to show off my newly recolored self. A few cars slowed down or honked as they drove past. I recall one person stopping at a corner, mid-turn, to laugh at me. About two people called me a leprechaun, and of course, I got more than my fair share of confused, blank, or amused stares. I met up with my brother, and later on my cousins, who just laughed. My mother was extremely proud, but also quite surprised I actually went through with it; despite my sporadic instances of impulsive behavior, I’m normally quite shy and reserved.
Later on in the evening, my cousins decided to get some Guinness at Super K-Mart-it being St. Patrick’s Day and all, they were a little upset about being all too sober. As we moseyed on over to the store, I was still getting stares, being called a leprechaun, and generally making a scene without having to lift a finger. I was following my cousin at a distance to the back of the store, trying my best to act casual. We had just passed the cracker aisle when a woman, who looked to be the stereotypical middle-aged church-goer, walked past. She quickly looked me up and down, and said very matter-of-factly, “Well, aren’t you just Jesus Christ’s penis?”
I stood there, dumbfounded. My cousins stopped walking and looked back at me, equally confused. The woman just kept right on walking. She had trumped my visual norm deviation with a verbal deviation, the likes of which I had never heard, nor have I heard since! My cousin screwed up his face and asked, “Did she just …?” All I could do was shake my head, shrug, and mumble, “What. The. Heck?” We watched her shuffle away, scratching our heads.
On the way home, and until the dye eventually wore off I still got some stares and the obligatory “pot o’ gold” and Lucky Charms jokes, but all other reactions paled in comparison to what that woman had said. Was it meant to be an insult? A compliment? Or was it just a spur of the moment reaction to an overly-confusing stimulus?
In retrospect, I decided to take it as a compliment. I mean, honestly, how often do you get associated with the genitalia of the Lord?
UPDATE: Here's a comic illustrating this tale of WTF! http://becauseinter.net/20090122.html
UPDATE #2: Apparently, I'm a Special Buddhist now, too. http://spitecho.tumblr.com/post/2516249876/walmart-adventures-the-special-buddhist