Off To The Mall Essay, Research Paper

"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.