Routine Change-Up: Day 11

Educational Programming

Ok I don’t know if this really counts as something, but I thought it was pretty interesting.  Usually I stay up until 1:00 in the morning doing nothing, but last night I got hooked onto a SUPER interesting show.  I was flippipng through and on the OWN network (which I honestly have no desire to watch on a normal day) Lisa Ling had a special about transgendered people.  The case that I found most interesting was about a biological male who always identified more as a female, but did everything men are “supposed” to do.  He got married to a woman, had kids, had a good family, but he was never happy.  He started dressing up in his wife’s clothes once in a while and then realized that that’s what made him more comfortable.  So he went through the transition, started taking hormones, got a complete body transformation (including a boob job and a genital reassignment surgery) and is now living as a woman.  What’s freakin FASCINATING is that his wife is totally cool with it.  They’ve been married for almost 30 years and when her husband told her that he wanted to become a woman, she was totally fine with it.  She said that she fell in love with her husband for who he was, his heart, his caring nature, so it didn’t matter whether or not he had a penis or not because she fell in love with the person.  So now this married couple is essentially living together as lesbians.  When the go out, people just think they’re a couple of girlfriends going shopping together or getting their nails done.  Interesting, right?  My sociological imagination was going CRAZY last night, and I starting asking all kinds of questions (to myself of course) about sexuality and sexual orientation.  About biology and about gender.  About my own sexual preferences (I’m totally boy-crazy and hetero in case you were wondering, but really, how do I know that?  How do these transgendered people know they’re in the wrong body and not necessarily view themselves as gay/lesbian?).  I may not have gone to bed any earlier than usual, but I was definately interested and learned something new about the human condition.  Some of the classes I’ve taken in college have really prepared me to think about these issues in a new and exciting way.  I KNEW I was a sociology major for a reason!  Thanks Lisa Ling!

Reflections of a New 25-year-old

It’s been a while since I’ve updated so I thought I’d drop a line and let you know that I’m still alive.  I feel like a lot has happened in the last couple of weeks, but I have been having trouble figuring out what to blog about.  I guess this is going to be sort of a random combobulation of thoughts.  So here goes nothing.

Probably the biggest thing that has happened since my last post is my birthday.  I am now a quater of a century old.  I had several freak outs leading up to my birthday, and I have sort of been in crisis mode for a long time, but my birthday was surprisingly low key.  I’m not complaining by any means, but I feel like I had this huge build up at the prospect of being 25 and March 3 kind of felt like another day… another day with cupcakes, cookies, and various other treats.  Maybe this is because I had a presentation the day after my birthday so I had to spend a big chunk of time actually working on stuff.  Anyway, my point is so far 25 feels pretty good.  Pretty normal (whatever normal is).

The other big thing is that I feel like I’m making progress on my thesis topic.  Broadly I want to focus on the online dating habits of young/emerging adults.  My thought process is this: the most popular website for people under 30 years old is match.com.  On Match, you create a profile and are able to search for people you might be interested in.  You can “wink” or “flirt” with them, contact them, set up a date.  It’s kind of like flipping through a catalogue until you find someone who looks interesting.  On the other hand, the most popular online dating site for people over 30 is eharmony, where you fill out a 200 question questionnaire and then eharmony sends you an email when they have found someone who is a good match for you based on how you answered the questionnaire.  On eharmony you have no control over your potential suitors, and the website does all of the work for you.  My thought is that it is possible that since young adults (18-25 ish) are still trying to figure out their own identity, they like the opportunity to flip through all of these profiles until they find someone who they want to try on, so to speak.  Older adults on the other hand have solidified their identity, are comfortable that they are able to answer the questionnaire truthfully and therefore do not need to shop for a date… I’m still trying to figure out specifics, and how I’m going to turn this into my own original contribution to the online dating literature, but I think I’m onto something.  Now I’m trying to do a lot of reading until I find some information about what I’m thinking about.

Other than that, my personality qwirks are still the same.  I am still a HUGE dork, and I’m dealing with this wierd dichotomy of wanting to be an adult but doing things that are typically reserved for younger people.  For some reason in my head 25 is when I should be coming into my own as a real, bonafide adult.  I am thinking about what kind of job I need to get over the summer, I am actually motivated at school, trying to get done with my degree so I can move on (and move out).  At the same time, I just spent nearly all of my $25 itunes gift card on songs that I listened to on the radio when I was 13.  My parents got me Twilight Scene-It and the Jetsons on DVD for my birthday.  The only TV show I watch regularly now is the Vampire Diaries.  Do I really want to grow up or do I want to re-live my tween years?  The jury’s still out, but for now I’m just rollin’ with it.

So there you have it.  I’m 25, I’m interested in researching how online dating is influenced by the construct of identity, and I’m a 14-year-old girl.  More updates soon, I promise.

Stef:)

Dude Looks Like a Lady, and She Is Awesome!

VOLUME III: Other general observations

Ok so along with all kinds of sociological implications about gender and sexuality, there were a bunch of things that stood out to me at this drag show that made it awesome.

• There was an older guy who participated in the drag show and when he was all done up with the wig and and a fancy sparkly dress, he looked like Ertha Kit.  His first number was to Santa Baby and it made me smile.  LOVE IT!
• There was another drag queen that totally looked like Austin Scarlet from Project Runway.  For those of you who don’t know Austin Scarlet, he was a designer on season one who is very feminine, and who wears more makeup than I do.  Austin is not a drag queen, but if he were, he would have looked like this drag queen for sure.  She danced to a country song.
• There is no pressure when you are a straight girl at a gay bar.  Being the sociological observer that I am, I (of course) was kind of watching everyone while we were there.  Because most of the guys watching the show were gay, they were not really interested in me and my straight female friend.  They would look at us, acknowledge us, and I would look at them, and acknowledge them, but they didnt’ want anything from us, they didn’t want to get us in bed or anything that you would stereotypically expect when you meet a straight guy at a bar.  There was no pressure to look or act a certain way because we didn’t have to impress anyone, and there was this unspoken understanding that we were not interested in one another.  I think this is most interesting to me because I don’t really do the “bar scene” anyway so I didn’t really know how to carry myself.
• A lot of the guys at the bar kept calling us girls. ”Hey, girl,” “You know you want another jello shot girl, it’s for charity,” “You girls are awefully quite back here…”  I actually thought it was pretty funny, but if it were a straight guy who was calling me ”girl” like that, it might be a totally different story.  hmmm… 
• For a while, I kind of felt like the kid at the school dance who stands by the wall and doesnt’ have anyone to dance with her.  I only knew one of the guys who dressed in drag, and of course he was busy with the show so we only briefly got to talk to him.  My friend and I kind of stood in the back and just watched everything.  Once we knew how the evening was going to go, I definately loosened up a little and had an awesome time, but for a while I was very unsure of how to carry myself.  And self conscious.  But that quickly went away when I saw Ertha Kit
• What’s more, the friend I brought with me  hasn’t met my friend who was in the drag show.  So my female friend has only met my friend from school when he was dressed up in drag.  She probably wouldn’t recognize him if she saw him on a normal day.  This is kind of amusing because I have talked about my friend from school a hundred times and the only image my other friend has of him is him dressed as a woman.  funny…
• I totally think one of the guys who was handing out jello shots thought that my friend and I were “together”!  There was a bit of a miscommunication at one point.  My friend said that we were happily merry, but the jello shot guy thought we said we were happily married!  Hillarious!

So there you have it.  My first drag show was pretty amazing. I am totally thinking about how fun it would be to get a bigger group of my friends together to go to another one (not that I really hang around the gay bar scene or know about where and when drag shows happen or anything, but I still think it would be awesome).  I am also kind of proud of the fact that I went to this drag show.  For me, this is actually kind of a big deal. I have been working on saying “yes” to trying new things, being in new situations, meeting new people, and I definately did all of that on Sunday night.  It was one of the funnest things I’ve done in a long time, and next time I hear about a drag show, I’ll be sure to tell everyone I know

Dude Looks Like a Lady, Dude Acts Like a Gentleman

MY FIRST DRAG SHOW: VOL II

So I told you there are all kinds of observations I made at this drag show the other night.  The second volume is about how my friend and I were treated by the drag queens…

So this drag show took place in a gay bar and there were lots of homosexual men there.  I know that’s kind of a “duh” thing to say, but when there are a bunch of gay guys with two straight women the dichotomy is important.  At least for me as a sociologist.  Anyway, most of the guys were pretty rude and crude with one another.  The audience could tip the drag queens if they liked their show.  One guy put a dollar bill in his butt crack.  The drag queen had to pull it out to get the tip, and she then proceeded to mock hump him from behind.  There were TONS of sexual inuendos, mock humping, blow job jokes, etc pretty much the whole night between the gay men and the drag queens. 

Here’s where the interesting observation comes in.  These guys were being rude and crude with one another, but were complete gentlemen toward me and my straight female friend.  At one point they handed out free shots and one of the queens came over to my friend and me and said something to the effect of ” you ladies are being too quiet back here, have a shot, dears.”  All of the guys going around getting people to buy jello shots were very friendly, chatting us up, of course trying to get us to buy jello shots, but trying to make us comfortable at the same time.  They seemed genuinely interested in getting to know us… or at least that’s how I felt.  When we left my friend Andy (who had a routine in the show) was outside with some of his friends.  We stopped by to tell him that we were leaving and Andy made a point to introduce me and my friend to the people he was hanging out with.  It was like they were talking to one another having a conversation about whatever it was and they stopped what they were doing for fear of offending us and all of a sudden they were on their best behavior.  It kind of reminded me of those scenes in the movies where people are at a house party or something when someone calls the cops.  Everyone goes “oh crap, the cops!!”  They drop what they are doing and scatter.  Apparently a couple of straight women at a gay bar are like the cops at a house party…

Very interesting.  Can a couple of straight girls not take a blow job joke now and then?  It takes a LOT to offend me and quite frankly I thought it was kind of funny, but why did these queens feel the need to censor themselves for us?  This also brings in all sorts of questions about gender norms.  Because we are females who identify as women, are we considered that meek and naive that we can’t take a dirty joke?  Even though these drag queens are males who identify (at least to an extent) as women, does the male component of their identity trump the fact that they want to portray themselves as women?  To be a “Man” is to be manly and sexual and crude.  If you’re a man and you’re not these things, then you’re considered a sissy, or at least this is the stereotype.  This also brings up questions about sexuality.  Is it possible that homosexual males, because they have a different sexual preference than the norm, are more comfortable with their sexuality and are therefore more apt to make blow job jokes with one another?  There has been a lot of talk in sociological research about how female sexuality is seen by a lot of people as something that is not to be discussed.  When we talk about or research sexuality and sexual behaviors is has historically been the sexuality if men.  Because my friend and I are straight women, are we not supposed to talk about or think about sex?  That might be an explanation for why the queens did not direct their crude humor toward us…  Or Maybe they were just trying to make us comfortable since we are not really the target demographic at a gay bar…  Whatever the reason, it is definately an interesting sociological observation.

So there you have it.  Drag queens are actually gentlemen.

Dude Looks Like a Lady, Girl Looks Like a Ho

MY FRIST DRAG SHOW: VOL I

So last night I went to my first drag show.  It was AMAZIING!  Of course, the sociologist in me has been stewing about all kinds of issues related to gender and how women are portrayed.  There will be several entries about all of the things I’ve been thinking, I promise.  Volume one is about a sort of double standard that I realized exists between drag queens (males who portray themselves as women) and the females after which drag queens model themselves.

First of all, this drag show was a benefit for the KC Gay volleyball league.  A bunch of the volleyball players dressed in drag and put on a show for tips.  All of the tips are going to help the team take a trip next year.  Anyway,  I (a straight female) went with my friend (who also happens to be a straight female) to this drag show.  So there were a bunch of drag queens, a bunch of gay males, and the two of us straight women.  My friend and Igot to talking about how great the drag queens looked.  It is actually kind of funny now that I think about it because we were making all kinds of comments about “look at those shoes!”, “I love that dress!”, “Who did her makeup?”  Here is what we began to realize.  When a man dresses in drag, he has to put in a lot of effort to pull it off as a woman.  He wears a TON of makeup, has dramatic eyes, lots lipstick, and quite frankly, all of the drag queens we saw last night looked amazing.  If, however, a woman were to wear that much makeup, or dress up in these crazy dresses and heels, people would think she was a ho.  that she’s asking for something… That she’s trying too hard.  What does it say about gender norms when a man who dresses up like a woman can over-exaggerate certain features with makeup, etc, but a female who emphesizes those features looks like a slut?  What commentary does this give about the way we view what it means to be and to look like a woman?  Is there really a double standard here or am I over thinking it?  Why is it ok for a male to put on tons of makeup to portray a woman when there is a negative connotation when females do the same?  What does this say about the way that men view women?  What does it mean that my straight female friend and I were more concerned with the dresses and shoes than we were about the fact that all of these queens were actually men dressed in drag?  My point in thinking about all of these things really boils down to how society views all things “womanly” and “feminine.”  Men who dress in drag, whether it is their conscious intention or not, are creating a commentary about what it means to look and behave like a woman.  Let’s flip the issue on its head, what if my straight female friend and I decided to dress like men and put on a show?  Could we as women pull off being “manly?”  There really isn’t a formula for the makeup, etc that it would take to make us look like good men.  If we dressed like men would other men watch us and make comments about our tennis shoes or our ballcaps?

Interesting stuff.  the whole experience at the drag show really demonstrates how much gender and the categories of “man” and “woman” are completely socially constructed.  The categories of Man and Woman are completely understood by stereotypes and those stereotypes permiate the way we think men and women “should” be.  Who constructed gender and why gender is such an important aspect of how we see people are questions for another day…

Let’s Get It On…Apparently everyone else is…

I have already written a few entries about things like this, but it is on my mind, so thought I’d give it another go.  for my religion, sex, and society course, we have been working on our final papers.  I am writing about premarital sex.  Specifically about the juxtaposition between “saving yourself for marriage” and the incidence of premarital sexual behaviors.  I am going to focus on abstinence pledging and purity balls.  This is what really fascinates me.  A purity ball is essentially a father daughter dance.  It is not about daughters pledging to remain abstinant, but rather these dances are about fathers signing pledges to protect their daughter’s purity in all aspects of life.  The fathers are the ones who want their daughters to remain pure, and it is possible that the daughters do not have any say in whether or not they want to remain “pure” until marriage.  What’s interesting to me is the fact that something like 94% of females and 96% of males have sex before the age of 30, and in most cases, that sex occurs outside of or before marriage.  conservative religious ideologies dictate that it is important for women to remain “pure” for their husbands.  One study I read found that strong religious beliefs are actually more impactful for the sexual behaviors of men.  Men with high intrinsic religious orientations tend to express more conservative sexual preferences.  This means that religious men are less likely to look for short-term mates or “hook-ups,” are likely to have fewer sexual partners, and are less willing to engage in premarital sex regardless of how long they’ve known their partner.  I blogged earlier about the substitution hypothesis wherin it is hypothesized that women who forego marriage in their early adulthood are more likely to substitute premarital sex and causual relationships until they are ready to get married.  It is apparent that people are having sex, so does pledging really work in deterring premarital sex?

I found an article that talks about abstinence pledging only works when there are neither too few or two many people pledging.  A small group of peers are likely to have “success” of sorts because it is sort of like a badge of group participation.  If too many people are pledging at once, it’s not a big deal and no one will be held accountable.  If too few people pledge, then the pledge is not as strong.  What’s more, abstinence pledgers, if they do later decide to have sex, are less likely to be safe about it.  People who have pledged abstince are less likely to use condoms than people who do not follow the notion to “save themselves.”  The success of abstinence pledging is dependent on the specific conditions under which the pledge takes place, so all of the hype about how abstinence only education works, or about how comprehensive sex education is better really depends on who you talk to and on how the ideas are conveyed.

So far I have learned that sex is almost universal before the age of 30, and that a large portion of that sex tends to be premarital.  I will not say too much about my own views, but I will tell you that I am liberal in most things.  it is difficult for me to understand how a father who pledges to protect his daughter’s purity will help his daughter to be informed about her body, her desires, and her opinions when it comes to sex.  I think that people need to talk about sex more. If the issues of sex and sexuality were not so hush-hush, maybe we could make better educated decisions when it comes to actually “doing the deed.” 

So there you have it.  I think it’s interesting…

Substitution Hypothesis

For my religion, sex, and society course, I have decided to write my final paper about the sexual practices of young adults.  I kind of want to look at the whole abstinence movement (purity rings, purity balls, saving yourlself for marriage) and compare it to the incidence of premarital sex.  I read a statistic that something like 90% of males and 85% of females engage in premarital sexual activity, so this whole abstinence thing hasnt’ really caught on.  Or at least people pledge to remain abstinent but do not abstain for very long.  Anyway, I found an article that talks about women (specifically white western women) who engange in “premarital liasons.”  The article proposes what they call the Substitution Hypothesis.  Basically these white western women are substituting premarital liasons for marriage early in their adult life course.  Rather than “settling down,” women are having sex and dating around and then they start looking for Mr. Right.  This goes with the fact that the average age that women get married now is something like 27.  Women are going to college, starting their carreers, and figuring out their own lives before they get married.  Now this goes for educated women, so we can assume it goes for middle/upper middle class women who have the family background and money that are conducive to going to college.  Poor women still tend to get married a little earlier.  As the investment in human capital (things like education and job status, etc) increases,  the propensity for marriage declines.  Interesting stuff.

Here is a link a friend sent to me.  Super fascinating.

http://www.bakadesuyo.com/how-many-people-over-25-are-still-virgins?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+bakadesuyo+%28Barking+up+the+wrong+tree%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Online Roommate Dating??

I read an interesting article from the New York Times this afternoon.  It was talking about how there is a new wave of university students who are seeking to find roommates online in a way similar to the way that people search for “matches” on online dating websites.  Students can go to websites like URoomSurf.com, fill out a survey/questionnaire thing, and search for other college students with similar interests with whom they can bunk for the semester.  This type of website, because it is set up in a way similar to online dating sites, allows users to report more in-depth information about themselves, and to search for roommates with a more critical eye.  Apparently this type of roomie-finding service is pretty popular at large schools in the NorthEast like NYU, but its popularity is growing.  Sites like this are lowering the rate at which students request to change rooms or be paired up with different people.  What I found interesting is that a vast majority of the people who utilize sites like UroomSurf.com are females (70% to be exact).  What does this say about female college students?  For that matter, what does this say about male college students? It appears that the days of filling out 10 questions about your study and sleeping patterns are over, and that it is possible to move in with your soul mate when you’re 18 years old

… food for thought…

Get Thee To a Nunnery

I have to preface this entry by saying that I heard about this on an episode of Oprah I saw this afternoon.  Normally I am not a big fan of Oprah, but today’s show was REALLY interesting, and as a sociologist and as a feminist I have been mulling it over all afternoon…  I have a lot to say, so here we go

Today on Oprah, she did a story about interesting lifestyle choices that women make.  She started the show by talking to the only white geisha in the world, an Austrailian woman who has been living in Japan for many years and chose to adopt the ancient lifestyle of a modern japanese geisha.  This story was super interesting, but it was the second segment that really got me all sorts of amped up.  Oprah inlisted Lisa Ling to investigate what life is like for women  who choose to live in a convent and devote thier lives to God as nuns.  There is a convent in Michigan somewhere where business seems to be booming.  There are over 100 nuns living there and the average age of the nuns is 26!!  I’ll say that again, the average age of the nuns living in this convent in Michigan is 26!  This means that while there are a handful of women who are the stereotypical “mother superior” looking nuns with grey hair who have been nuns for their entire lives, there are more and more girls who are my age and even younger who have decided to forego posessions, sex, etc to devote their lives to the idea that it is their “calling” to spend hours of the day in silence, hours of the day praying, hours of the day communing with the Lord.  WOW!

Ok first, let’s talk specifics: To be fair, there are actually several degrees of nuns. On one end of the spectrum there are some nuns who may not live in a convent, but rather choose to be more independent.  Many of these nuns live alone, go to college, and teach or work in the community.  These nuns are not obligated to dress in a habit/traditional nun garb.  In the middle are the nuns like the ones at this convent in Michigan.  They live in a convent with other nuns, wear a habit, attend daily church services, have several hours of silence throughout the day, but they often take ventures outside the confines of their church environment to work in the community.  While they do not have a TV, they play card games and competitive sports like soccer and field hockey (and of course they visit Oprah).  On the other end of the spectrum are cloistered nuns, who of course wear the traditional nun garb, spend much of their day in silence and often spend up to twelve hours a day in prayer.  These nuns sound pretty hardcore.

let’s talk fashion: Apparently, the nuns who choose to wear the habit (long robes, head covering, etc) utilize this style of dress for two reasons.  First, because nuns take a vow of poverty, there is no need for them to have the latest designer fashions, so they wear very simple robes in order to symbolize their devotion to a simple lifestyle.  Paired with sensible shoes, a traditional habit is a way to be comfortable, and to take attention away from appearances in order to enhance the depth of their relationships with one another and with God.  Second, and this is the one that I had no idea about, apparently because nuns take a vow of devotion to God, they see themselves as “married” to Jesus Christ.  The habit they wear also represents the wedding dress they wear in order to solidify this “marriage”.  Some nuns go as far as to wear a wedding band in order to fully convey their “marrige” to God’s only son… interesting…

Let’s talk about sex: yes it is true that in order to become a nun, you have to take a vow of celibacy, but contrary to popular belief, you do not have to be a virgin in order to become a nun.  The point, I guess, is that in order to enter a convent you have to sort of prove that you have lived a chaste life and that you are willing to give all of the physical stuff up in order to strengthen your relationship with Jesus Christ.  One of the nuns Oprah talked to, who was 26 years old btw, said that she did not feel oppressed because she was not able to have sex.  Rather she felt that she was taking control of this intimate part of herself.  Because she was not concerned with the physical side of relationships, she thought that she was able to forge more meaningful connections.  Her “marriage” to Jesus Christ allowed her to ignore the primal desires of the body because she was “married” to Love incarnate, which amounts to a deeper connection than she ever thought possible outside of the convent.

Whew…To be honest,  I don’t know that I totally understand how all of this equals a fulfilling life (for me anyway).  Personally, I am not the most religious person, I became a sociologist because I think that the physical component of relationships (not just sex, but hugging, being affectionate, making connections with others, etc) are SO important in life, and no freakin way would I be able to deal with that much silence. haha.   Seriously though, in my life I place so much emphasis on  choice, on free will.  I have worked long and hard to become the person that I am and for me the idea of devoting my entire life to doing the work of God takes a lot of that free will away.  Not to mention that I am all about self expression.  I like color, I like jewelry, I like looking good, and a lot of that what influences the way I carry myself  is dressing in a particular way that makes me feel good.  I would feel really drab in such simple clothes, which would in turn affect the way I carried myslef, which would totally make me more self concious.  Basically I’m saying that convent life is not for me.  So there you have it.  In my hunble opinion. 

But, however, the sociologist in me is really fascinated by this whole idea.  These women choose to go against a society that is completely technology and sex driven in order to live a life based on poverty, chastity, and charity.  This group of women works together to promote ideas and ideals that are far from what American society portrays as “normal” or “mainstream.”  As a feminist, I can sort of go two ways.  First, I do respect the idea that these women are not being forced to live in a convent, they are choosing the path that they want to walk.  Regardless of the religious component, these nuns were not forced into this lifestyle, they are not oppressed, they are not victims of brain washing or anything like that, they are calling their own shots.  Way to go, ladies!  The second part the feminist in me is sort of on the fence.  I do’nt know that I can atriculate this point very clearly so I apoligize in advance.  Yes these women are choosing their lifestyle, but is a nun a stronger woman because she is taking complete posession of her most intimate components and choosing a less than easy lifestyle, or is she less of a woman because rather than trying to change her place in relation to men in society she is opting out of it and devoting herself to the ideal man (God)… that is if you consider God is a man… that’s a debate for another day… very philosophical…

Thoughts??

Vegas Files: Volume 3

VOLUME 3: GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS…

          

Ok, I haven’t been good about updating (shocker!) but here is the next installment of the vegas files, and this is the one that really got me thinking… uh, duh, vegas is a place where skin is in and we saw our share of nearly naked ladies working at the casinos.  From black jack dealers to showgirls, there were many many bare middriffs and bras worn as outerwear.  Ok, I expected that.  The dancing blackjack dealers at the Golden Gate were the most prominant.  Every night they would work their 45 minute shift or however long it was, and then they took turns standing on platforms and dancing in front of the patrons.  Outside of the Golden Gate there was a bar where you could buy margaritas and frozen drinks from similarly dressed skantily clad girls in black bikinis and boots.  Some of the girls were really into it, dancing to the music, shaking around, simulating moves that strippers might make.  Others seemed to have blank stares on their faces and seemed like they just wanted to get the hell out of dodge and call it a night.  On these particular girls, I also observed TONS of tattoos.  I only counted a handful of girls that did not have a “tramp stamp” on their lower backs, and most of the girls had tattoos down thier ribs or on their backs.

Those female dealers who were heavier-set wore uniforms identical to those worn by the male dealers.  Masculine looking button down shirts, usually some sort of tie around the neck, black pants.  It was like either the female dealers were wearing their underwear or they were completely covered up and manly looking because of their acceptible uniform.  Interesting  observation that I took note of later in the trip: yes, the blackjack dealers did wear next to nothing and dance around.  The cocktail severs on the other hand (who were all women if I am not mistaken) were always more covered up.  Yes, short dresses/skirts to show some leg, but always covered up where it counts.  What I found even more interesting is the fact that most if not all of the cocktail servers seemed to be older, say in their 30′s, 40′s, 50′s.  I saw one cocktail server who reminded me of tammy faye baker, with ratted hair and pancake makeup.  It was almost like once you aged out of being young and fit/pretty enough to deal cards in your bikini, you graduated to the world of cocktail servers.  At Red Rock casino, I saw TWO pregnant  cocktail servers working while we were there!  This raises all kinds of questions.  And the fact that there were two pregnant cocktail servers working the same shift at the same casino….interesting…

Here is the kicker, The thing that really challenged my skills as a sociological observer: by the end of the week, I was totally checking out all of the girls, and honestly I made many judgement calls based on these observations.  Don’t get me wrong, At first I was a little wierded out  by all the skin.  I didn’t want to make eye contact with anyone, I didn’t want to seem like I was looking at something that I shouldn’t be, I didn’t want to seem like someone who succumbs to the power of the eye candy.  These girls were everywhere, I saw them everyday.  At least two of the casinos we freqented boasted sexy blackjack dealers.  They stood at tables by the door to lure people into the casino and gamble with them.  I saw so may bras I don’t think it was legal…or something… anyway by the end of the week, I definately took notice.  I definately checked for tattoos, looked at the amount of makeup they were wearing, looked at their faces to see whether or not they seemed happy to be the eyecandy or if they looked bored and wanted to get out of there…

I could expand more on any of these observations, but there you have the basics

• skantily clad women are everywhere in downtown las vegas
• heavier-set female blackjack dealers dress like the men
• older women are always more covered up and rarely work the blackjack tables
• After a week, I definately took notice of the eye candy

These observations raise important questions for me as a sociologist, and for me as a woman.  Would casinos do as well/make as much money if they did not have sexy dancing blackjack dealers on the tables every night?  Is there a benifit to wearing your bra to deal cards and get oggled by blackjack players? (besides the moneyof course. I bet they make bank…many of these women looked so bored tho)  What’s more, how come I didn’t see any skantily clad sexy dancing MALE blackjack dealers?  Think about that one!  Why don’t younger women want to be cocktail servers?  Why can’t heavier-set women dance around too?  Why do they have look so mascuilne?  If you’re comfortable in your own skin, you should be able to show it… I”m just sayin…and Did any of the girls notice that I was checking them out?  Do they get checked out by as many women as they do men, or are men the only intended targets of their clothing/behavior?

So there you have it.  Your thoughts?…