A significant portion of our day is spent making sure that we look presentable to others. We need to have the perfect top and bottom combination appropriate for the occasion and, if someone else doesn’t, then we secretly (and sometimes not so secretly) judge her for it. This was the hypothesis that Grace Riley-Adams had in mind when she conducted an experiment for her sociology class. She woke up on a regular Monday morning and got dressed, as usual. What was unusual about this Monday was that instead of getting dressed in the typical “weekday outfit,” she got dressed in what many of us call “frat clothes.” She wore a short, tight skirt and a crop top – an outfit that she would be complimented for on a Saturday night, but was condemned for on this Monday morning. While most of us would have been too self-conscious to break this social norm, Grace braved the challenge with confidence. Even when someone took a picture of her and posted it to Facebook behind her back (literally) with the cruel intention of mocking her, Grace wasn’t angry or upset; she was thrilled. She then took the photo and caption that the other girl had displayed and posted it to her own Facebook with a description of her experiment. While the original photo garnered 33 likes and 13 malicious comments, Grace’s post now has 220 likes and 36 encouraging comments.
Where are you from?
Ashland, Oregon
What is your major?
I am looking to be a joint major in Sociology and Business, and a minor in Spanish.
What exactly was your experiment?
I went to all of my classes wearing what I would normally wear to a frat on a Saturday night.
How did you decide on this particular experiment?
Originally, I was going to do the opposite. I was going to go to a frat dressed in sweats or athletic gear. I thought that it wouldn’t be noticed and it would be written off as a theme, so I decided to do the opposite and wear frat clothes to school.
What were some of the reactions you received?
Initially, walking across Hartman Green to my first class, I got a lot of up-down stares, mostly from girls. In class, some people noticed, but there wasn’t that big of a reaction. When class was over, I went to my professor and asked her what would be her boundary in relation to clothing and at what point she would ask me to cover up. She said that she hadn’t noticed until I walked up to her after class. After knowing me for the first few weeks, she was surprised at my outfit choice, but she also said that the professors she works with agree that we are adults who can make our own clothing choices and she understand that as the weather is warm the clothing is smaller. Really, if it’s not illegal, she’s fine with it.
After class, I went to D-Hall, where I knew there would be a large bustle of students to see my outfit. I had been in D-Hall for five minutes and was waiting in line for food. As I was waiting, a group of students to my right (four female, one male) were blatantly laughing and mocking my outfit. What I didn’t know was that, at another table, a girl had taken a photo of me from behind and had uploaded it to Facebook with the caption, “In dhall… At 1230… On a Monday….. Wtf”. As I walked past the people who were laughing, only one of them made eye contact with me. Others genuinely complimented me on my outfit.
After lunch, I found out that the girl had posted the photo on Facebook. My initial reaction was, “Yes! Dynamite piece of evidence for my essay!” I reacted to the post with fascination because I knew that it was an experiment and therefore held that reaction at an arm’s length and saw it as full of evidence for my assignment, but some of my friends responded with anger. Halfway through Spanish class I’d explained my experiment and one student had already seen the photo online. Around dinnertime, the photo was taken down. Originally I was going to email the girl who had put it up and ask why she had taken it down and what the change had been for her. Instead, I decided to take the exact photo and caption and post it with an explanation of my experiment. Her photo got 33 likes and 13 comments making fun of and objectifying me. I explained the reaction that her post had gotten and posted a question: “What does this say about our college? Are there broader lessons about our generation’s rush to instant judgment and use of the internet as a tool of uninformed social comment and criticism?”
As of now, my post has 220 likes, 3 shares, and 36 comments. There were 70 likes in the first 30 minutes. It spread really quickly. It exploded. Since then, people have come up to me in the hallways commending me on my confidence to do the experiment. What I found interesting from a sociological perspective is that I got more stares from girls but, when I put my Facebook status up, more girls were supportive of it. I was announced leader of the week by Kappa Delta sorority. My sociology professor was thrilled at the success of it and couldn’t believe the reaction that it got.
How do you feel about all of the attention that you have been receiving because of the experiment?
I found the response to the first malicious post fascinating. I found the response to my status encouraging. It was empowering to be able to reclaim that conversation and own that choice and that experiment, because now it’s not even about the girl who posted it in a malicious way. She’s not even in the picture anymore because what I put up has gotten so much more circulation. It’s about the experiment itself and the questions that it provoked about the F&M community specifically. Since doing the experiment I feel confident enough to challenge social norms and not worry so much about the consequences.
In your Facebook post you ask, “What does this say about our college? Are there broader lessons about our generation’s rush to instant judgment and use of the internet as a tool of uninformed social comment and criticism?” How would you answer these questions?
Part of the basis of my experiment was the knowing that the outfit I had on would have been unremarkable at a frat. However, being so judged in the daylight and causing such a tremendous reaction highlights the clear change of what is considered provocative and acceptable from nighttime to daytime, weekend to weekday. I think our generation is very quick to judge and spread that judgment through Facebook, Twitter, and other such mediums. Sometimes that can be harmless and funny, but there is a line between joking around and demoralizing.
What do you hope people will take away from this?
I hope that there will be a greater awareness about judging at face value, in the sense of not knowing the full story. Also, just having there be less of a disconnect between clothing worn to class on a Monday and to a frat on Saturday.