Anthropology

Anthropology 120

Gender Fieldwork Project

I chose to research a social occasion setting, which was called Mission Rock Club. The club is located in San Francisco, Ca, and is an 18 and older club on Thursdays. Mission Rock opens at 9pm and closes at 3pm. People start showing up at about 10pm and 11:30pm. Sometime, if the females get to the club before 11pm, they will get in for free. Other then that, the cost is $20 and if you're on the guest list $10. Everybody who was 21 got in for free. I call this environment, the culture of nightlife and clubbing.

This club is real big, in fact, the building is two stories. There are different DJ's that play different types of music. Upstairs the DJ was playing rap and R&B music, and downstairs the DJ was playing rock and techno music. I stayed upstairs with the rap music. Also, downstairs there were love seats and little tables where people were gathered around. Personally, I didn't sit on the couches because they looked dirty, but a lot of people were sitting on them. The bar had a little section downstairs as well. When people pay their money to get in the club, all 21 year olds got wristbands, so their able to drink inside. The people under 21 got a highlighter marked across their hand. At the entrance of the bar, there is a bouncer looking at peoples hands. The bouncer said, "Let me see your hand", and if peoples hands glowed in the dark, he knew they were not old enough to drink.

There were a lot of people at this club. On Thursdays, there is more under 21 people. Sometimes there is so many people, the line gets shut down with plenty people still in line. A lot of people didn't leave the club after it got shut down because when I came out, the street was full of people. It looked like a block party out there. When I was outside, there seemed to be an even amount of males and females. But actually, I think there were more males then females on the inside. A lot of male were standing on the wall or on the side of some where. I noticed when a guy got a girls attention it was either, touching of the hand when they walk by, making a lot of eye contact and smiling, and coming from behind and whispering in the ear. The whispering in the ear is to intimate for somebody I don't know, I don't want nobody touching my hand unless their real cute, and the eye contact is the method that works for me. A lot of males would approach a female by asking them if they wanted a drink. So, I had seen a lot of female at the bar, because they weren't paying for the drinks. When I was on the dance floor, the males wanted to stop dancing and go and talk. The females seem like they were more interested in just dancing and have fun with their friends. I looked at this like, "Okay, were at the club so lets just dance and have fun, and I'll get the number and talk later". Now