On Sunday, March 30, my group and I decided to go to the library to carry out our gender norm experiment. Ryan Benson (our test subject) and I walked into the main area by the windows where most people sit. We tried to pick a table that wasn't hidden by anything so that most people would be able to see what we were about to do. When we sat down, we took out some study materials, and also a bag of nail polish. Ryan picked out one of the colors and I then proceeded to paint his nails. The other members of our group were positioned in different spots around the area in order to observe the reactions of all the people. I was trying so hard not to laugh. It was embarrassing for me so I can only imagine how embarrassed Ryan must have been! I didn't look around to see others' reactions because I didn't want it to look staged at all, but I did notice the reactions of some girls that were sitting at a table right next to us. The girls would look over occasionally and snicker to each other and then look away. It seemed as if they were uncomfortable and felt awkward. After a few minutes they actually got up and left! I don't know if that was because they finished their homework for the night or if they were just that put off by what was going on. Danna was one of our observers and she noticed that so many other tables were laughing and looking over at us. There was a group of football players at one of the tables and she said that table had the most noticeable reactions. Apparently people were even pulling out their phones to take pictures and snapchats of what we were doing. After I was done painting all ten fingernails, we asked Ryan if he would be willing to move over to the couches in the main area and paint his toenails. He didn't want to go that far... quite understandable. We did, however, go to different parts of the library to see if we could get any other reactions. We went to the second floor, but only got a few weird looks, nothing extreme. Then we went down to the first floor computer area and only got a few looks. So we definitely got the best stuff from the first floor main area.
It isn't exactly normal for a girl to paint her nails in the library out in the open, but especially not normal AT ALL for a boy to do that. Girls paint their nails to be girly and to feel pretty, kind of like wearing different styles of make-up. Unless you're a member of the punk band Green Day, it's socially not "okay" for a guy to paint their nails. Guys are socially constructed to be manly and rough around the edges, not to paint their nails in order to enhance their style. If a typical male today noticed another male who had pink nail polish on, I would guarantee the first word to pop into his head would be, gay. Why? Why does the color of a man's nails decide if he's a homosexual or not? Because it's just been taught from generation to generation that girls can paint their nails but guys do not. I thought it was so interesting that Dr. Winkler brought up her son and how nail polish is like the coolest thing to him. I can remember when I was little and my mom used to paint my nails, my little brother would always want to get his nails painted too. My dad thought that was ridiculous so he only allowed his pinkies to be painted or something minor like that, haha. But it's just interesting that when boys are little, they don't usually know about gay stereotypes and other things. To them, nail polish is just a cool color that you can put on your body. It has nothing to do with their sexuality.
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