Category: Unit 05

Personally, I believe that the way that we dress shows our character and personal values. When I personally reflect on myself on my appearance, I do believe that I tend to dress like I was raised and the guidance of my parents. For example, I like to dress and look clean cut because it shows class, well mannered, and confident. Growing up my parents would tell me that baggy jeans were bad and expressed that I should never wear jeans like that. I didn’t understand fully on why they were against it so strongly, but now I believe that It gives you a bad look and people can judge you from a small thing like that, either by my peers or by random strangers; possibly someone that would be observing me for an assignment about body adornment…

My parents or others parents seems to be the primary source of our personal choice of dress. At a certain age, some parents will allow their child to pick and choose what they would like to wear, excluding the parents’ preference. Other parents would shape the child and ensure that their closet was filled with clothing that they would approve of, along with purchasing it as well, until the child is conditioned to believe that they wouldn’t want to wear anything else other than what they were used to wearing. As for me, I was that child that I would choose what clothes I would want to wear, but if my parents (mainly just my mom) were opposed, I would have to justify why I personally like the outfit or how it’s fashionable. Omitted variables could be a factor as well, such as the importance of demographics. Depending on the families income, geographic location, age group, etc… all would factor into appearance as well.

In the society we live in today, our peer community is a huge factor in our body adornment and beliefs. I would confidently say that a majority of the people that we are close to dress semi close. I say this, because dress and appearance strongly associate you with what type of people you like to be around. There seems to be big pressure on us today to conform with others and follow fashion trends to feel accepted into social cliques. Although, there is people that are more independent than others and don’t feel the need to care about what’s fashionably accepted and follow their own dress.

Today I sat in the library for a few hours as I had some spare time in between my classes. I tried to sit in an area where I could a good view to “observe” people for the assignment. It was difficult at first to know when or who to choose to quickly judge what I see. What I saw was mostly similarities between a lot of them. They all seem to be focused and determined to find a place to study and get to work. In their dressing apparel and body movement them seemed to in a comfortable manner. They didn’t stand out of the ordinary for me to determine what their beliefs could be. If I were to determine what their beliefs were to be from analyzing styles of clothes, I would say that their beliefs are to be clean cut, well dressed, and have proper social skills. Their ages were all similar as well, all around their twenties. They all seemed to be well off, in financial terms, as they were well dressed and had expensive possessions. These assumptions make me believe that, without judgement, we are used to describe what people may be like from not getting to know them, sorta like judging a book by its cover. We don’t know who they are, but how they are dressed and body language, we as a society are able to determine stories for people from their appearance.