Ethnography

Ethnography

September 28, 2014

A Nightly Ritual

Week Four - In the upper floor of a university hall, adjacent to a major stairwell, lay a small collection of seats and tables. This is an area is perfect for a moments rest between classes, a short period of study, or a small gathering of students partaking in a noon lunch.

A small collection of six girls sit together in a corner of the alcove, closely hunched within a tight group excitedly whispering. Despite the absolute silence of the alcove, their voices are barely audible. In listening closer, I hear a single girl’s voice standout amongst the responses of the rest. A story of illegal activities and sexual favors is being divulged by this standout voice. As the girls are discussing such a scandalous tale of events, they sporadically throw glances over their shoulders to view the contents of the alcove, searching for unsolicited listeners. As I do not wish for it to be learned that I am listening in on their conversation, I divert my eyes to my computer, throwing off an active façade of study. The story being so actively discussed within the group unfolds as follows:

Standout Voice is an avid under-aged drinker, being just a freshman at the university but wishing to get the full “university experience”. As an active partier, she often returns to her place of residence significantly intoxicated, stirring up quite a commotion as she attempts to enter her apartment. With this commotion, her light-sleeping male neighbor is regularly alerted to her inebriated returns. This neighbor knows that she is underage, and has made a point to threaten alerting the authorities should she continue her so-called unsafe drinking hobby. These warnings have occurred a subsequent number of times, and Standout Voice has recognized sometime ago that she needs to neutralize this hazard, should she wish to continue her drinking hobby.  Within the past few days, she again returned to her residence absent of her convictions. Her neighbor, who had undoubtedly noticed her friends arrive and pick her up to take her to another party earlier, was waiting for her return on his front porch, a stern expression plaster across his demeanor. Mustering as much alcohol-spirited courage her body could bring forth, the young female stepped across her neighbor’s lawn, stepping up to stand directly in front of his judgmental glare. Wasting no time, she embraced her neighbor in a sexually suggestive grasp and, ignoring her potentially flammable breath, proceeded to momentarily kiss him unrestrained. After a short period of time, she broke her embrace and in a slurred voice stated, “No cops.” This female student has successful kept her neighbor at bay through repeatedly engaging in this post-party ritual every time she returns to her home.

Given the girl’s collective desire to keep this story secret, the members of this hushed group are seating with little to no space between themselves. The group is forfeiting their commonly well-kept areas of personal space for the sake of hearing Standout Voice’s narrative. Whether her story holds any truth or not is uncertain, however, the females were spurred to work collectively to keep their member’s secret hidden.


While this story took place, I observed that the girls surrounding Standout Voice actively kept their eyes on her, ignoring their phones wished I saw to be present upon the table as the girl’s got up to leave later on.

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