Essay/Term paper: Off to the mall

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Sociology Essays

"Let's go to the mall." This comment is one of the few
statements that can be heard coming from the mouths of
both sexes. While typically associated with shopping, and
thus automatically, and unfairly, females, going to the mall
has mutual attractions to both males and females. Since the
massive increase of shopping malls in this country, the
popularity of "going to the mall" has increased a thousand
fold for everyone. For females the reason that "going to the
mall" is so popular is very clear. Females were always
taught that their rightful place is at home taking care of their
families (this statement is aid without trying to sound
chauvinistic). When the car made a sudden impact on the
world during the middle part of the century, even more
responsibility's were added to the wife's list of "to do's."
The wife no longer just took care of the family. She now
was able to go out and shop for food, clothes, or anything
else that her family may need. In a sense the wife now had
more freedom to take care of the family by being away
from the home more. Today women are no different then
their 1950's counterparts. While contemporary women are
much more free-minded about their own place in society,
there still lies the motherly instinct to go out and purchase
for the family. This instinct may change in time, but until that
change occurs this cause shall remain as the chief reason
why women "got to the mall" or "go shopping." On the
other hand, males go for a completely different reason. The
malls are where all the new toys are. This may sound
childish, and theoretically unscientific for a cause of male
insurgence at malls, but the statement lies in fact. Whenever
a new computer product, sports equipment, or "masculine"
item show up, one of the first places that these new toys
are showed off are at center concourses in malls. Nowhere
else in the world can a person see flocks of guys leaving
their wives at jewelry stores to watch a woman who looks
like she was sculptured by a Greek master work-out on
some new, crazy-looking contraption (which I hear can be
very dangerous if a person likes his credit account, or if he
doesn't have a very trusting wife). Another chief reason for
men going to malls is because that location is where all the
women are, or at least malls and single's bars (another
statement said without trying to sound chauvinistic). When
the question is really looked at, there is only one cause for
the sudden insurgence of both male and females going to
shopping malls. Humans as a whole are a communal
species. People always need to be around other people,
the race is very much so gregarious. So, after hours of
being at work, sitting behind a small desk inside an even
smaller cubicle, shut-off from the rest of the world, men
and women just long to be around others of their own
species having a good time. In other words, it is off to the
mall for many people after a hard day of work, so that they
can be around other people. This communal structure of
human society has been around since man was in his basic
primate form. This structure also seems to be continuing,
despite the attempts of computer manufacturers and
Internet entrepreneurs to keep the human race logged-on
24 hours a day. Unfortunately, shopping will always be
considered feminine. The only reason that can be found to
explain this "fact" is the motherly instinct of most women
that was mentioned earlier. According to recent history,
men are not supposed to enjoy shopping or "going to the
mall." However, like so many other things that history has
attempted to control, the gender gap at shopping malls has
been almost obliterated. Today "going to the mall" is a
statement that is not uncommon to hear from males and
females. Even though most men and women will say that
they go to the mall for totally different reason, the truth, as
proven through millions of years of evolution, is far
different.