How close do you sit when you talk to someone?
Race, space and comfortability.
Hello Lovelies,
Before we get into it, just want to thank folks that gave the podcast a listen. So, thank you! In regards to next steps and still defining this newsletter. Overall, I want this newsletter too serve as a look into intention, impact and culture through the lens of different industries and to explore my writing. So, that’s it, just wanted to touch base. Lets get into it though. :)
It’s me again, coming at you this week with a think piece on seating and interaction. Enjoy :)
My History of Understanding Space:
For as long as I can remember, my mom has stood what some might deem too comfortably close to people when she talks to them. This is a trait that I have noticed recently that I might have been passed down genetically from her. Now, my mom is a rarity of women that I have experienced. I used to think she would only do this with people she knew very well, as a showing of an ultimate comfortability. But I believe it is a rather a space that she has earned, experienced, a space she has created for her to safely exist. I have learned now that this is something no one else can do for you, but rather a place you can step into if you’re fortunate enough.
Space, is a precious thing. It has started wars, displacement, and segregated communities for generations. I find myself taking up space very consciously. Not only being black and a woman but it is the way I was taught and shown how to get by. I often worried and still feel like I battle a label of being seen as an angry black woman despite me knowing that I am a very passionate person. This can create a need to often to overexplain myself to be understood. Now, this is not to be confused with being less myself in a space or existing is some distorted fashion. But rather I am aware and know how I have to be.
Space as Seen in Film:
I remember the first time I watched Last Holiday(the OG holiday romcom) starring the one and only Queen Latifah and LL Cool J. There is a scene when she is on her way to Europe where she is confronted by a man who keeps trying to put his seat in her lap. This sparks a bigger conversation of space and shared space. Queen continues to rally the people on the plane in support of not having a grown ass man in your lap all the way to Prague. Which is a question I fully support and raises the question of why the airline tries to cram all of these people onto the plane? Proceeding to buy a first class ticket and getting all the damn space and wine that a Queen deserves! For me this scene created the question, how much would I pay for comfort? If I had the money, I would definitely be willing to pay a decent amount.
Queens character, Georgia did a great job at keeping her cool while understanding her worth and not devaluing herself. This is a noticeable and quite often occurrence that can often occur in films and in real life. Although small interaction, this moment feels like a pivotal and impactful wake up call for Georgia, might be because she was dying, and her character wasn’t speaking up her whole life. In some way this plane ride stood as a wake up call, an invite into Georgia becoming and officially stepping into herself.
Space as Seen in Design School:
While in design school we often talked about seating, through a lens of products but we also learned about how seating and layout can impact and drive human interaction within a space. Two categories that this can be broken down into is sociopetal and sociofugal. Sociopetal is defined as spaces designed for social interaction and to bring people together. Sociofugal is defined as the opposite being, discouraging of social interactions. Below are visual examples of both.
These type of seating offered in a spaces can empower people by having their comfortability be accommodated and represented by something as simple as seating. It raises the question how can something that is innately intimate be a place that also housed segregation and displacement?
As an interior designer, you have a capability to navigate and initiate space planning. This leaves human comfort and interaction under your jurisdiction. You can often tell when you enter a space, how you feel about it. This might not be something you think immediately if you’re not looking for it, but it is something that can often go unsaid. From walking into an airport and begin navigated through airline check-in, to security to the food and gates. To a doctors office, that first takes you to waiting room and check-in. Now imagine the chaos of walking into the airline gates first at an airport or an examine room at the doctors office.
Space sets the tone for the design. It helps to create an idea of the work that can be done and how a theme can be explored throughout the space. Design can solve and offer solutions that other things cant, it fills the gap that makes a difference.
A Brief Look at Airline ads: Peggy Olsen would never…
As I continued with understanding space, I was reminded and curious about traveling through the years. Airlines have been selling dreams for years, from spacious seating to perpetuating sexism in their ads since the 60’s. The comfortability that men have been granted in regards to traveling is undeniable. The ads cover an extent of training stewardesses to resemble future wives for the “successful male travelers”.
With this grooming mentality of teaching, I was reminded of my initial ideas in regards to women and space. How can you exist in a space that wasn’t built for you, to be seen outside of a certain standard? In a way it feels impossible and uncomfortable and already exhausting. A clear picture is painted as an ad points out in 1953 that was sought to empower women in the workforce. This same empowerment would be taken by the same industry to propel “devaluing and selling a woman's body, ethnicity, and personhood as a core part of a consumer product during a decade when women had more freedom than ever to define their role in society, in family, and at work”.(vox)
Seating and space, impacts everything we interact with. It determines our well being, intentions and place in society. Whether we have heavily thought about it or not, we are consistently interacting and impacting the world around us. I think about how I interact everyday, how something I say could be perceived every time I interact. Despite the weight of overthinking my roles and interactions everyday to get opportunities to interact, to think, to question. It reminds me of those who came before me and tread a path of difficulty, to have reference and explanation.
Thanks for reading as always,
xoxoxo Your Little Mama