Informant Background:

This informant is a sophomore at USC in the Naval ROTC program. She grew up in Pennsylvania in a middle class family. As a child she enjoyed all things sci-fi and fantasy, and in high school she developed a passion for the military in JROTC.

Informant’s story:

“There was this game that me and my little friends used to play when I was little where one of us would write the name of a boy in another on us’s hand, and they couldn’t look at it until school was over. If they looked at their hand before school was out, they had to go on a date or kiss or something like that. I don’t really remember. We did this during middle school.”

Analyses:

Given the stage in which the young girls were at in middle school, it is unsurprising that games like this would come to existence. It’s around this time that girls stop realizing that there’s a difference between boys and them and they become attracted to them, girls generally maturing in this way faster than guys. As puberty starts to slowly set in, games like this are used as excuse to interact with the opposite gender. Being able to say “Sorry, I had to because the game” is a lot easier to admit than admitting that you liked someone. During middle school, embarrassment was a kids worse nightmare.