Doug's Perspective
From my perspective, I found that most of the people who I opened doors for were a little bit unsure of why I was opening the door for them. I feel like most of them were more intimidated than thankful of me opening their door. Although they all said thank you, most of them failed to make eye contact with me when they spoke, or even lift their heads. In my opinion, having me open the door instead of Meagan was less productive because it seemed to me that most of the people were way more comfortable having a female open their door rather than a male.
Meagan's Perspective
I would definitely say that I had a far easier time opening doors and getting a friendly smile and "Thank you!" rather than Doug. I think my being a female and being smaller than Doug made me appear more approachable. In fact, the first person who Doug opened the door for thanked me instead of thanking Doug. I felt like people saw my opening the door as a way of being polite and friendly, whereas they might have seen Doug's attempt at opening the door a poor attempt at starting conversations with females.
Check back in next week to read about more sane ways to show crazy love!
I love the idea behind the blog and look forward to reading about each of your experiences and how each of them view those experiences.
ReplyDeleteCould it be that male and female roles in society played a part in the number of "thank yous" given? Men are expected to do things such as open doors, let ladies go first, etc. No matter how far we appeare to be off from those base standards, our society has made sure that we keep them in mind. I would like to see how this blog looks at how kindness and society are intertwined as well as various aspects of culture? Is it polite to do same activity in all cultures?
Great job, Meagan and Doug! :) You both are awesome and deserve a big thank you for this blog!
Thanks, Morgan! I really appreciate your responding. I hope to see our breaking down barriers with cultural like men being expected to hold the door by allowing people to see men and women participate in the same acts of kindness. That way people can see that men and women can do the same random acts of kindness, despite what society tells us is "right" for either gender to do. And, secondly, I hope to find out about other cultures and what they see as acts of kindness by participating in certain things (homeless shelters, volunteer at diversity events). Thanks again!
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