Nelson, Desiree
English 313H
MW 1230

Ethnography – Simi Valley Town Center Mall

I observed the Simi Valley Town Center Mall for about an hour on a week day evening, in various locations of the mall. I expected to see couples and young families with their children. I found that the mall is definitely more of a social venue, since more people had some sort of companion.

While sitting in the child’s play area, I watched couples walk the long way down the mall corridor as well as the families in the play area. I saw a middle aged male putting a shoe on a young boy while talking on his cell phone. The adult never looked at the boy except at his feet.

A young couple with a single female had two children in the play area. The male from this couple watched while sitting his date played with the two children. The caregiver of these two children occasionally jumped in to play with the children. When the three adults got up to leave, the young couple was looking at each other while walking forward; the female with children walked to the left of them, talking to them.

A young couple, probably in their twenties, were talking and laughing together as they walked. They looked only at each other. The male had his arm around the female’s shoulders and she had her arm around his waist. He carried a bag in the hand draped over her shoulders.

I moved to the center promenade once all the families left. I saw a young couple dressed in sweats walking into Bath and Body Works. The male trailed behind, with his hand on the small of her back and both looked forward. I then saw another young couple dressed for a night out – male in collared shirt, nice jeans, and white sneakers; female in nice black jacket, jewelry, and high heeled boots. They were holding hands as they walked, talking to each other. Then they entered Abercrombie and Fitch. A Latin couple, probably aged 30 walked past the center promenade, each carrying a shopping bag. They talked together but neither looked at each other nor engaged in any physical contact. My last observation was of a young Asian family that consisted of two daughters, mother, and father. The older daughter trailed behind, texting, as the mother walked with the younger daughter slightly behind the male leader of the family.

I noticed that of the couples I observed, the males and females were either so “in tune” with each other, or so radically distant. I found it interesting that I saw a dad with his son as well as a mother with her two children; to me this means that both parents take a parental role in our modern times. However neither parent that I observed was engaging completely with their children. In fact, the young mother played less with her children than her friend did! And the dad who never once looked at his son while putting on his shoe really irritated me. Maybe he was on the phone with the child’s mother, or it was an important business call, but it indicated to me that families are very busy these days and have little time for “play”.

Additionally, all the females I saw fit into our cultural expectation of femininity – dainty appearance, makeup, feminine dress. I think the location – a mall that offers family events as well as romantic ambiance – caters to young couples. The stores sell items that the youthful generation buys, and every time I go there I see more couples than single people – if there are people without companions, they are at least with another couple. This tells me that as a society, we are more inclined to be part of a partnership than to be a lone person.

It seemed to me (and my mother, who came along since she enjoys people watching) that the older couples looked around more but the younger couples seemed to look “through” their surrounding environments, or focused on each other. This tells me that the older couples actually look at the world around them, whereas the younger couples focus on themselves. It also appeared to me that the females were leading the way. I think this is because the mall is associated with shopping, which is an activity primarily enjoyed by females. Overall, I saw traditional demonstrations of relationships and was not very surprised at my observations.