Person 1
I am in a mall in downtown Salt Lake City, UT in the afternoon. I see a pregnant young woman walking with her toddler. She has no visible tattoos, and is wearing earrings and a wedding ring. She is dressed conservatively with jeans and a long-sleeved shirt. The wedding ring and comfortable outfit makes me believe that she is a stay-at-home mom in a traditional household. She looks to be in her very early twenties; as someone from Oregon it seems like she is young to be married with kids. This makes me realize that being from a more liberal state leads one to have a much different expectation about the age that people get married, when compared to a state like Utah where an earlier age is the norm. I have also realized that the woman’s wedding ring made me assume that she was a stay-at-home mom, I might have made very different assumptions she didn’t wear one.
Person 2
There is an old man by himself, using a cane, wearing a polo with very short sleeves, jeans, and thick glasses. Since his sleeves are quite short, a faded tattoo is exposed on his upper right arm of what appears to be an anchor with numbers and/or letters around it. I believe that it is a Navy tattoo, which makes me wonder if he is old enough to be a World War II veteran. If so, he seems to be in much better shape than most in their late 80’s. He wears a wedding ring, but the fact that he is alone makes me think that he is a widower. This made me realize that I assume very old couples to always be together while out of the house, although it is also quite possible that he is more able-bodied than his wife. It also made me realize that I almost automatically assumed that because he was old and served in the military that he fought in WWII.
Person 3
I see a person from a distance walking towards me. This person stood out to me immediately due to his or her tall stature and neon-tipped black Mohawk. As the person gets closer, I believe that it is a man due to the fact that he is at least 6-foot-2. He has multiple facial piercings, lots of jewelry on his hands and wrists, baggy black studded clothes, and multiple tattoos on his arms. I believe that he is in his twenties, but it’s hard to tell. Everyone seems to be looking at him, but he doesn’t seem to care. During the hour I spent observing, I saw few tattoos and certainly no neon hair colors. Since people in this area tend to dress so conservatively, I get the feeling that standing out is this person’s intention. Seeing someone that purposely looks so different makes me realize that I sometimes automatically assume that something is “wrong” with the person, even when I don’t know anything about them.
Hi, Sasha, I really enjoy your post these week that you show me three different kinds of people that you find and how you think of them. According to the Sanders, C. R(1989), he mentioned that:” People use appearance to place each other into categories.” I find that when you describe third person, you realize that you”sometimes automatically assume that something is ‘wrong’ with the person, even when I don’t know anything about them.” Sometimes I would also make this mistake in my life. If I see a person with some tattoos, I might think he start to work early and didn’t go to university, however, it is not a truth because I actually find many students who also have tattoos in my university. What do you think of that people always make mistakes of other’s first impression by their appearance? Have you ever think about change people’s appearance might influence their life?
I read through several people’s people watching articles and one thing really stuck out from yours. The way that you realized your own bias and the reasons you thought the way that you did. I loved the way that you depicted the younger woman with the wedding ring and based off of the ring you deduced that she was a stay at home mother. This is something that we constantly do when we are looking at people. We use our geographical bias and do not realize that when we are in a new area how their area of the country may have a different way of life.
Hi, from the second person you met, I admire those who are soldiers and I do like to read books about great generals in the WWII. From your description, you do not show your admiration obviously, we may share the same feeling about those old mans. I think that the eye of soldiers are always show energetic, passion and peaceful about their life. Sometimes, we cannot tell any difference among those people and all of those are passed with the time goes on.