Touch: Public Display of Affection and Game Room Essay

Submitted By leahpandabear
Words: 920
Pages: 4

I sat in the game room in the student center at Louisiana College on a Tuesday afternoon to observe touch behaviors between students. It is the summer when not very many people are on campus other than campers. The fact that I observe touch behaviors between campers that are not Louisiana College students may have given me a slight advantage. The campers this week are from a anti bulling group. The majority of the group seem to not be Christians, by the way they are dissing the Christian music that is playing through the sound system. I unobtrusively observe the high school age campers as they played pool, ping pong, and sat on the couch and talked with each other. In the far corner of the room is a group of over size chairs and a couch that a group of 4 girls and 5 boys are sitting. The group is divided by couples sitting very close by each other and on each others lab. The one boy that is not coupled with any of the girls is sitting on the floor. The couple in the first over sized chair are kissing and are very affectionately touching each other. The rest of the group seams to not pay them any mind, as if this is a common thing for them to do. The couple in the next chair are squishing both of their hips together so that they can both fit in the chair and face the rest of the group. The two couples on the couch were also showing their affection with touches. One of the girls had her feet in the boys lap while he rub them. The other couple were sneaking kisses as the girl sat on the boys lap, both were facing the group. These high school students made me feel uncomfortable as I was watching them and there behaviors. I felt like the amount of touching that the they were doing was a little to much to do in public. In the Louisiana College student handbook under the Code of Student Conduct C5 it talks about Sexual Misconduct. “Sexual Misconduct. Students are expected to conduct themselves at all times in accordance with the highest standards of Christian morality. ” The high school students I observed were not Louisiana College students however they were on the schools ground. I believe that the students wether Christian or not should of had some standards of how to behavior and how much public display of affection is to much. I did not see any camp counselors in the game room while I was observing nor did I see any around the student center. I also believe that the students should of had better supervision and some sort of a camp guide on how to act and what physical touches were not permeable. Affectionate touches in public should be kept to handholding, light kissing, and hugging. When people go pass this I can cause the on lookers around them to feel uncomfortable. However, the other students that touched affectionately, I observed were innocent touches. For the most part when a new student interred the game room their friends would hug them as they said hello. I also saw a couple holding hands when it wasn't there turn to shoot pool. I feel like this is a better representation of what I observe on a normal day in the student center game room during the fall or spring semester. I observe playful touche behaviors between students as they played games together. Two of the guys playing ping pong together would do a hand shake when