OPPapers.com

Action Or Drama: Gender Differences In A Video Store

Hayes 1

Abstract

The difference between male and females was examined in five investigations in a large, well known video store chain. Different genders were looked at in groups of all male or all female, single men and single women, and then groups of mixed gender. Differences between the two were measured in actions, words, and attitudes. The findings were in sync with what society generalizes so broadly as: men and women differ in everything they do. The research was conducted not to prove this familiar concept wrong but to show how men and women differ in a general setting of a video store. The data was quite rich in that the customers did not hold back what needed to be said and actions tended not to be restricted. The findings revealed that not only do men and women pick out different movie titles but they go about the whole process differently as well.

The belief that men and women differ in practically

everything they do is widespread throughout the United States. There have been many studies on how they differ in certain aspects, which never seem to be a surprise to the reader. We are so used to findings that prove time and again the differences that we are ready to offer up a proposal such as a professor of mine once said ?If you find in your setting that there is not a difference between men and women then that is something that needs to be published right away.? However, in the setting of the video store gender differences were found.
Investigating the male-female relationship in a video store has a few different aspects. First, all male groups
Hayes 2

that came in to the store were quite different from the all female groups that came in to the store. They differed not only in the way they talked to each other and what they said to each other but also the type of movie title they chose.
Second, when a single (single referring to coming in alone) man or a single woman came in there were considerable...