Week 7: Santa Anita Mall

This past week we read the chapter in The Blackwell City Reader by Sophie Watson called "City A/Genders". After reading that particular reading, I wanted to explore how cities are designed in such a way that enables sexism and gender discrimination. Watson mentions in the article the idea that historically, women are expected to be confined to the suburbs while men go off to the city to work. Women in the neat, trim suburban single family houses represent a sense of "home" that men get to come back to every night after their 9 to 5 jobs. Cities are built so that spaces where women and their children frequent feel "safe" so that women can perform their duties are "domestic labourers"(Watson, 238).

I felt that malls - a staple of most suburbs here in the United States - are a good representation of how spaces are designed exclusively for a certain gender. A collection of stores that is easily accessible caters to the stereotype that women like to shop. It is okay that most of their time is spent chasing after their children at home because every once in a while, they can indulge themselves by buying a few nice things. Malls also have huge parking lots (great for minivans) and are brightly lit and usually have security guards patrolling, which makes it feel very safe. Especially around the holiday season, malls are decorated to seem like a wonderland, no doubt to encourage consumerism as well. One of the most interesting cases of spatial manipulation I saw is the special expectant mother parking spot (painted in baby pink, no less). Instead of classic handicap parking spots, this mall had designed a space especially for women; however, it's not for just any women, it's for the ones that are fulfilling their duty historically deemed most important - reproducing. In one sense, it's nice to see society going out of its way to make life easier on one particular group. On the other hand, though, it is also clearly a form of discrimination as well.

The location of the expectant mother parking spot in relation to the entrance of the mall.