The Beauty of Interaction

To have a better understanding of human interaction within our society, it is essential to make observations in places where people interact with one another and where their behavior and attitudes towards one another could be analyzed. In order to build this understanding and make assumptions of human interaction within society, we were assigned to visit a public place in which we could observe the people and their behavior in a certain time frame. For that reason, I decided to make my observations at LA Fitness in the city of Van Nuys. The reason for this decision is because there is a lot of people interaction occurring at the gym in every moment. Also we could see the different gender roles, attitudes, and behavior. From 10 P.M. to 11:00 P.M., I was able to make a lot of observations that has helped me have a better understanding of human behavior and interaction within our society.
As I arrived to the gym, I began thinking of places within the facility in which will allow for me to make a good observation. The first thing I did was to go to a treadmill right in front of a big mirror which allowed me to have a better view of the people in the facility. To begin with, I noticed that most of the women were on the treadmills or performing a cardiovascular exercise. I only saw one woman in the weights’ section of the gym. On the other hand, most of the men were lifting weights or performing an activity to build muscle.
Another observation made was that the women interacted with one another meanwhile walking on the treadmill or excising in any other machine. They will be talking about things, such as their activities done during the day or about their significant others. For instance, one woman was talking about how her husband bought her a necklace for her birthday and their plans to go to Europe for Christmas. Most of the men, on the other hand, remained isolated from others and were fully concentrated on their work-out. I hardly saw men talking with one another meanwhile exercising.
Meanwhile my observation, I saw two heterosexual couples exercising at the gym. Most of the time, I saw that the men were instructing their partner on how to use the machinery or how to perform an exercise. Also, if the man moved to another section of the gym, the woman will follow him. Another interesting observation was that the women that were exercising with their partners were dressed more conservatively than the other women at the gym. For instance, most of the women were wearing shorts but these two women and four other ones were wearing sweatpants.
My final observation was that many people were leaving alone. I saw a minor amount of people leaving out of the gym with someone else. Most people walked out quickly and did not interact with anyone. If there was interaction among the people, it was a salutation or a short conversation.
After this observation at LA Fitness, I was able to analyze human interaction among other things. To begin with, one thing that I had learned by taking certain sociology courses is that both men and women have “dictated” roles. All individuals within society must follow the norm, or else the individual will be ostracized and stigmatized. The reason why this thought rose during the process of the observation is because certain behaviors seemed permanent within the male group and other behaviors seemed constant within the female group.Chris Barker,author of Cultural Studies, made a the following claim that suports this thought, "In general terms, traditional masculinity has emcompassed the values of strength, power, stoicism, action, control, independence, self-sufficiency male camaderie, mateship and work amongst others." (Barker 302) As indicated in the observation, most of the women were conversing with someone else meanwhile exercising. On the other hand, most of the men were just concentrating in building muscle and not socializing with others during their work-out.
Also, the conversation of the women itself demonstrates how the idea of women being more “opened” about their personal lives seems normal within our society. For instance, the woman at the gym was talking about the gift she received for her birthday and what her family is planning to do, things that are personal, but are shared with others. This observation, as well as other things learned, seemed to point that women feel comfortable talking with others about their lives and not kept to themselves. On the other hand, men were hardly talking to one another. Interestingly enough, two graduate students named Yun Oh and Kyu Cho made the following statement, "It was forbiden to men in public places to express their feminine side such as sensitiveness, emotion or weakness, or to have interest in lifestyle frequently relating to women like shopping, carring fashion and skin, chatting, cooking and so on." (Oh and Cho 127).
Analyzing the observation of the heterosexual couples, it was not surprising seeing how they interacted. It could be seen that some women remain in control of their spouse. For instance, the women were always next to their spouse and not separated. Although I did not hear the men telling the women to follow them, but just the act of the women following the men shows unconsciously how they are being “control”. It was very interesting not seeing the men following their wives at any moment. Another observation that might support dependency of women to men is when the men were instructing the women on how to do it instead of reading the instructions on the side of the machinery or asking a personal trainer for assistance. Although this observation might not be completely relevant to make such assumption valid, but it shows how many women within society rely on the husband for assistance or to take the lead.
Overall, this experience allowed me to learn more about human interaction within society. The hour spent at this facility allowed me to make observations that supported various theories and assumptions of human behavior and culture learned throughout time. It was very interesting seeing that we are thought to act or behave in certain ways by just observing a group of people. This experience allowed me to become more knowledgeable about me surroundings and how society shapes each individual into what is considered to be the norm.

Works Cited
Barker, Chris. Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice. 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications Inc., 2008.
Oh, Yun-Jeong and Kyu-Hwa Cho. “Cultural and Social Implications of Metrosexual Mode“. Journal of Fashion Business 10.3 (2006): 117-128.