week 13

WHAM!! Out of the corner of my eye I see one of my best friends Josh crash into two metal garbage cans outside at a weekend party. Out of instinct, I immediately fly to my left in the assailant’s direction, near the side of the grey vinyl house. As I reach the culprit I draw back my fist ready to swing. “WHOA WHOA!” screams the perpetrator, as I come to a halt, breathing heavily, fist still drawn. “Nick?” I ask. . . He responds with a distinct surprised/startled “Farmer?” I had just realized that the “culprit” was also one of my and Josh’s best friends. Apparently, Nick had jokingly shoved Josh after he had teased him about a past girlfriend. Josh, slightly flustered pushed back a little too hard. In retaliation/displaying dominance, Nick heaved Josh; losing his balance Josh tripped over a weed ridden gutter and smashed into the garbage bins spilling debris everywhere.
We laugh now, but this was a typical case for white, adolescent, males attending a party. They had just finished playing Beer Pong (a drinking based ping pong game involving eliminating cups of beer), and were swapping stories with a group of peers they had just met (including several attractive women). After our ethnography project was assigned, I sat down with them individually about this incident to hear their explanation. Nick didn’t even recall at the start of my inquiry; however, after describing the begging and place of the event he remembered. Basically, Nick felt he was in titled to retaliate, and Josh’s slight humility at the party was his own doing. “Well, he shouldn’t have made me look like an ass with the girl friend comment” he says smiling and shrugging his shoulders.
In my research, Mini Stark’s evidence stated that Caucasian adolescent males get physically aggressive while drinking (especially with friends) 13% MORE than any other race, while in college. In our shared opinions, this has a vast amount to do with male dominance and its importance relating to social networking.