Due Date: April 22, 2013

Don’t Judge A Book By
It’s Cover

I was the one to walk in first to do this project, to see the people’s faces turning my direction in an unpleasant way. The store that I walked into was called “Dress Town” at the Eagle Rock Mall on Sunday, March 10, 2013 in the afternoon. As walking into the mall and into the store, we three girls had to put ourselves into a mind of a sociologist; and how they would “judge the book by its cover.” But realistically the shocking part is that they don’t, instead they use their sociological imagination to broaden their thinking mentality, to find other ways to live. Who ever said that there only is one certain way to live and that is the correct way? I realized that as Meghedi, Ani and I were walking the normal or decent looking shoppers were keeping a good amount of distance, more than usual. Also, the shoppers that had children with them, they were pulling their children towards them in a noticeable way while staring at us. As I walked into the store, being extremely nervous because I was the first one to do this project; completely nervous, not knowing what was to come before me, there were four sales associates. One of the associates stood by the door and greeted each customer as they walked in. When I walked in that girl greeted me but not the same way that she greeted the other customers. Her greeting them was a lot sincerer compared to the way she greeted me. Everyone seemed to be staring at me but when I glanced back at them they would look away to not catch my attention, so they would not help me out, in hopes that I would leave. Finally, after a good few minutes of walking around I went up to one of the sales associates and approached her. I asked the brunette lady if she could assist me with finding an evening gown to wear for an upcoming wedding that I had. The lady took a good look at me for half a minute in silence, or so it seemed, huffed underneath her breath and asked me “What size are you? A six?” I told her no I think I’m a four as she gave me this murky up and down look. As I walked around the store to pick out what I’d be fond of, I noticed that the girl that I had originally asked for help was following me around in a distant but had an eagle’s eye on me. I picked out a few dresses asking for my size in it. As she looked for that size within those selections she then mentioned that she doesn’t have those sizes but she had one that was similar to one of the dresses with the same cut but different color tone. So that is the one that I tried on. Before I tried on that one dress I had also seen a dress on a display and asked to also try on that dress nevertheless she told me that I was not allowed to since that one was on display, but the part that quizzed me was that the other sales associate allowed the customer that she was assisting try on the dress that was on the other display across the store. As observing Ani from a distant you could tell how unwelcoming the sales associates were being at Macy’s. Usually when you walk into Macy’s or in fact any department store, as soon as you walk through the perfume sections there is always at least one sales associate that stands in front of the counter and gives you a sample of either the most popular perfume or the newest product that they are promoting that week or month. As she walked through that section none of the sales associates offered her any of the perfume samples. Instead they all turned and looked at each other and turned and gave her this awkward fake half smile as she walked passed them. As Ani made her first stop to Estee Lauder, one of the make-up counters, I saw that the sales girl was trying to keep herself busy and somewhat avoiding Ani, as Ani was looking at some of the make-up items, she would slightly look up at Ani and pretend that she was busy with something else. Finally, Ani approached her as she was talking to the sales lady she pointed at the make-up and touched her face, the lady looked around and shook her head piercing her lips. Ani nodded smiled at the sales lady and walked away to find her second location. Ani’s second at Macy’s was the counter with watches. As she was standing over by the counter looking at the watches, the sales blonde lady was helping out a different customer. She seemed to be very friendly, smiling at the customer that she was assisting and showing her different types of watches. The sales associate didn’t fully look in Ani’s direction to acknowledge that there is another customer that needs to be assisted. Ani walked near the customer that the lady was helping out, after she was finished with helping the customer that she was with; she finally looked at Ani held her index finger up and went around the counter pretending to be doing something while Ani was just standing there and waiting. When she finally returned, she gave Ani a half smile as Ani point to something she had seen. The lady looked at Ani with a questioned look and said something and made Ani furious. She reached for her pocket and brought her hand back out. After a few minutes, the blonde sales lady, gave Ani the watch to try on with hesitance. Finally, when Ani tried on the watch, looked at it with an irritated face shook her head and gave it back to her. She returned to the make-up counter. As Ani approached the make-up artist, the lady looked around and said something to Ani. Ani turned around with rage and walked out of Macy’s looking very angry. As Meghedi walked into Daniel's Jewelry's & Ringmaker's all the heads of the different sales reps turned around to look at her. As she walked around we could feel the awkward uncomfortable atmosphere in the store. Finally she stopped at one of the displays as she stood there looking into the display, considering a piece that she had seen a lady that looked like she was in her early to mid-thirties wearing a light pink blouse with really fine jewelry came up to Meghedi and starting talking to her. As the lady approached her, you could see that the other sales associates were looking at her intensely. For about a good minute or so they both stood there just observing at each other in this strange way. The lady gave Meghedi this cold, unreal smile to her as she pointed out to a certain piece of jewelry that she wanted to see. The sales lady looked at Meghedi with a questionable expression and pulled out a few rings. Meghedi tried on this certain piece with all eyes gazing at her. Then she put the ring down and walked out of the store as the sales lady behind her shook her head walking over to the other sales reps and started immediately looking in her direction and talking with each other. At one point as we were getting closer to the food court, I walked a little bit ahead of them and was having a dilemma with myself. Remembering that a few years back I had gotten into an argument with my ex-boyfriend and took that argument and had it all over, except this time he was not there, so I had it to myself only looking like a crazy person. While creating this entire scene I looked over to my right and caught a child that looked like she was about six to seven years old staring at me. The lady next to her, who I think might have been her mother, told her, “Leslie it’s not nice to stare, stop looking at her.” The little girl asked why and who I was talking with? The mother pulled her away and starting walking in the opposite direction. The most interesting this to me was that you could tell that the people around me felt uncomfortable; they looked at me like I was not a human being; as if they saw something that was unordinary, but yet some of them managed to stare. The younger crowd, the teenagers/preteenagers, would not only stare but laugh out loud too. This took me back to one of our class meetings that we had a few weeks back. When we were in class we had a discussion about the fact that at one point or another in our lives we all judge. In reality though who are we to judge or say that someone else is living the “correct” life style. For example, the people who do not have a shelter to live in compared to the ones who do. Who is right and who is wrong in the end? Another way to look at this type of a situation is that when you look at someone that is talking to themselves, instead of coming up with ideas in your and start judging them take a moment and question yourself. How do we know what caused them to be the way they are? Perhaps something happened to them when they were little, emotionally and or physically abused, or even raped in different ways. In reality I think that instead of treating them like they are different or not normal, we as educated and more stable human beings should try to help them out. If the majority of us get scared or paranoid to talk to them then how are they supposed to receive the standard services? Has it ever crossed your mind that despite the fact that there are some people out there that really do use drugs but also some of them really do try to get up there financially to have a better life? Unfortunately, it is so hard to afford an affordable life now that after a few years of non-stop trying they give up. That leads them to getting diagnosed with depression and other sickness/ disabilities so in the end in order to not face their problems people like this turn to drugs and alcohol. Another reason can also be that they do not have a strong support system, someone that they look up to or someone that looks up to them, someone who encourages them to become a better person. This is their way to escape. Even though this was a very fun and interesting assignment to do, I was also thrilled that my part of the entire project was done and over with. As Ani and Meghedi went up to complete their part of the assignment and as nervous as they were, I was ready to catch people’s reactions. I was wondering, would they would get noticed or ignored? The reason I thought if they would get ignored is because even if I walk into a huge crowd and catch someone talking to themselves whether it is talking out loud or acting strange in any sort of way, I usually do not make eye contact. Interestingly though my assumptions were correct. There were mixed reactions all over the place. Both Ani and Meghedi had some people that stared at them and ignored too. The thing that caught my attention the most was that the younger crowd, in example kids and teenagers were the ones who were staring the most. In my perspective the teenagers acted more childish than the kids themselves. They would stare and look at each other then look and Ani or Meghedi and start laughing out loud. The adults would just glance over look and turn around pretending like no one was there, as if none of the chaotic scene was happening. In conclusion, this was a very interesting project to do and get a feel of how different type of people may feel by the way they get treated. It felt like I was playing a different persons role by not being myself. The experience that I had in the store was not pleasant at all. I felt useless, powerless, and sad and irritated all at the same time because I felt like I was being misjudged. Knowing that at one point we all judge whether we like it or not we can definitely control it to a point.