The Utilization of Space
Reasons for Scouts' Proxemics
by Nanami
Proxemics is the study of distance between humans and cultural relations regarding spaces. From intimate, personal, social, and public spaces, humans keep a certain distance according to someone whom they feel comfortable with. Madden suggests urbanites maintain a marvel of balance with acceptable distance from each other. In other words, proxemics can reflect people’s feelings with distances (1999).
Scouts have different proxemics from pedestrians as their spatial strategies. There are two reasons why scouts have different proxemics. First, scouts do not want to stand out from pedestrians. When scouts and targets are in intimate spaces, they look like friends or significant others. Merging into the environment, scouts and targets are indifferent from pedestrians, that is Blasé attitudes (Simmel, 1900). Being in intimate space can deceive pedestrians' eyes. Second, no matter how targets feel about the proxemics, scouts can make targets listen to their talk. The intimate spaces which targets cannot easily shake it off, allows scouts to force targets to listen and reach targets. Given this background, proxemics are the result of scouts' size of using spaces in approach, targets' reactions, and fork in make-or-break.
(Madden, 1999)
Size of Space in Approaches
Scouts mostly invade targets' spaces when they approach. In other words, scouts have much bigger spaces than targets do. This is related to the ways scouts transform public spaces into private spaces. They have different ways of looking at spaces. Scouts' way of seeing spaces is somehow a private while pedestrians see it as a public. In this way, scouts have bigger interpersonal spaces compared with the target. This difference allows scouts to violate targets' spaces vice versa.
Scouts’ vs. Targets’ interpersonal space
In addition, considering scouts' territories and hubs, "their" spaces in public are huge while Kabuki-cho is the place where pedestrians visit not belong to. That is, Angus argues people who have bigger spaces are dominant than those who do not . The different size used shows their power imbalance (2012).
(Marquardt, 2012)
Targets' Reactions when Approached
Targets sense danger or nastiness when approached by scouts, which is brought about by the unusual proxemics for targets. Usually, Madden notes that people walking on a street have public to social spaces (1.3 to 7.6 m) from others in urban cities. Personal spaces allow people to communicate and intimate spaces are for non-verbal communication such as friends, family, and significant others to show affection for example (1999).
Speaking about scouts, their distance to targets is a personal to intimate space. Since intimate spaces are for people who targets permit to enter, targets immediately respond to the irrelevant affairs. This is why they feel disguised.
According to the observations, when targets react ambiguously such as bitter smiles or nods, scouts take it to be a consent of scouting. Once scouts see these signs, they get closer and closer to targets and try not to leave targets by walking flat against targets. In other words, if targets obviously grimace and reject the scouts, they may be disgusted by the proxemics from scouts. Given the responses, scouts shortly maintain more distance from the target. Trying to gauge targets' feeling from their facial expressions, scouts change the distance between them. Hence, the proxemic between scouts and targets is the result of how much scouts feel possibilities of luring women into the industry.
Fork in Make-or-Break?
Scouts have both successful and unsuccessful approaches because of the effects of their actions made to targets. Since there are no observations that scouts successfully lure targets to an adult entertainment business, successful approaches refer to the case when scouts walk beside the target as long a distance as they can in this context. Unsuccessful approaches on the other hand refer to when scouts are rejected immediately before concisely explained about the work.
Proxemics between scouts and targets are intimate spaces which are from 45 cm from targets. Targets respond to the invasion of intimate spaces immediately and react distastefully which is the sign of uncomfortable feelings as mentioned above. Based on this fact, it seems as if women reject scouts because they have less personal and intimate spaces against men; however, it is not always so.
According to Madden, observing female and male participants choosing whether they approach female or male assistants to take a survey in an experiment, the majority of women in the study show preference to the male assistants. Moreover, females approach males much closer than other female assistants (1999).
This result is also proved by Burgoon's experiment to measure the distance and numbers of approaches according to the gender. From this study, it is said that the distances between females and males have less to do with the results of scouts approaching targets (2010).
Conclusion
As Madden mentions, proxemics in urban spaces changes depending on the cultures that space has. It cannot completely denied that females to males is much closer than females to females (1999). This contradiction is against the result of scouts’ proxemics.
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