Deviant Behavior

For this assignment on deviant behavior I decided to do something that would be fairly normal for me but completely odd for the average Jane Doe. I decided to perform this act in a place that would be completely public but would also allow me to have someone who knows me well there. I decided that the perfect public place would be the hospital cafeteria. This is a world where some of the people that are there on a daily basis have seen it all and aren’t shocked by anything anymore. The families of the patients are easy to pick out, they look completely lost and  never thought to be involved in such chaos.

My latest Sociology project

It was a Monday during lunch. Monday’s are always incredibly busy in the cafeteria and lunch is absolutely the busiest time of the day. I was in the cafeteria with one of my coworkers. Nonchalantly I picked up a plastic spoon and walked around with it in my mouth handle first. The spoon was situated so that the bowl of the spoon was sticking out.

This act would be considered deviant because normally people don’t walk around with silverware in their mouths, particularly not in public. That is one of those things mothers all over the world yell at their children about. “Don’t run around with that spoon on your mouth! You’ll trip and it will choke you or go through the back of your head!” I believe that is a common scene in most people’s childhoods. And if they were to walk around with a spoon in their mouth,  they would normally hold it in their mouth in the correct way, not backwards. I was an oddball in a sea of people who were trying to act normal.

I didn’t feel odd or excited by the deviant behavior. This is something I would do completely unconsciously on any day of the week. I tend to be a little bit of an oddball and walk off the beaten path on a regular basis. My friend and I did have a good giggle about it later.

My biggest test was  when I waved at the CEO of the hospital while holding the spoon in my mouth. He didn’t say anything. He just smiled and nodded with an odd quizzical look on his face. My friend, who is used to that sort of behavior from me, didn’t say anything she just shook her head and went on about her business. She did give me a hard time about waving at the CEO later. The majority of the people in the cafeteria didn’t pay a bit of attention to me. For the most part they were rushing around to get the chance to eat during their lunch break. Or they were trying to find something fast and easy so that they could get back to their families up on the floor. There are always the rare few who are taking their time. These are usually the people who are waiting for a surgery or a test to be done.

I think if I were to try this test again I would do it in a public place where people aren’t used to seeing oddballs.