Violating a norm

Violating a Norm

I decided to violate a norm that I have previously seen violated in middle school. Given that I am now six years older than I was back then in middle school, I knew that the reactions would differ now that I live in a more mature environment. Any bathroom in America is a filled with norms. Washing your hands after you use the bathroom, flushing the toilet when you are done, or not using the same urinal or toilet at the same time as someone ells. The bathroom to society is simply a sacred place where we reveal what is not to be revealed in public, and excrete bodily fluids from it. You stand close to the urinal so others cannot see your extremities, and you close the door on the stall so people do not see you making funny faces. I dug deeper into some of the most simplistic norms that a bathroom contains and found one in particular that pertains to the Men’s bathroom. The zipper on a males pant is a vital tool to peeing with ease. All guys know that buttons suck because it looks like you’re playing with yourself jumping up and down to try to fit the buttons in the correct hole. If you have no hole in which to pee out of, you pull down the front of your pants and do your business. One day in middle school I witnessed a very funny friend of mine break a few norms that I found very interesting and ironically hilarious. As I watched him enter the bathroom not only did he choose to use a urinal right next to another boy already peeing, but he pulled down and pants and underwear to pee, obviously exposing his pale butt to everyone who glanced in the general direction. Now in this setting, the act was seen as one of immaturity and comedy, never being taken seriously for one minute. I decided to bring the trial to my COL 150 bathroom in between classes when there was a high amount of bathroom traffic. As I walked in I decided not to take the experiment over the line and pull my pants down and pee in a urinal directly next to someone, so I spaced myself using the urinal on the far left, dropping my pants and letting fly. The student two urinals away from me slightly looked in my direction and immediately looked back down at his own stream and seemed to try a little harder so he could get out of the bathroom as fast as he could. The idea of him being uncomfortable with me being half naked was no surprise to me. Unfortunately only one other test subject entered the bathroom while my experiment was still taking place, however he quickly decided that the bathroom he had chosen had been the worst decision he had made all day results in a quick turn around and walk out the door motion. The norm I violated is clearly one of peoples personal comfort zone.
I believe it is safe to say that most men do not expect to see the backside of a half naked man peeing when they walk into the bathroom, therefore I violated an unspoken norm.