Adornment
OBJECTIVES
- Evaluate personal values and paradigms around body decoration and physical beauty.
- Investigate how physical appearance affects definitions of identity and belonging.
- Analyze values and belief systems of physical appearance across cultures, sub-cultures and generations.
ORIGINAL POST
People Watch
The first person who got my attention is a medium height guy with short black hair. The reason I specifically noticed him is that he looks very energetic and confident even though he is wearing simple clothes. He is around twenty years old, and he is a mixed. He has clean face with deep eyes and thick brows, and he wears a white gold necklace and I have feeling that is a gift, which is probably forming a very important person. I guess he is a very nice guy because it seems like he has a lot of friends. He always say “bless you” when people sneeze, and always hold doors for others. People seem happy when they are around him like he is sunshine. However, if I have to give an analogy, he would be a deep ocean rather than sunshine because I feel he is someone whose life is full of stories.
The second person I want to bring up is a very strong man. He is a black guy with very short curve black hair, and he is really tall. I guess a place he usually go is gym because he is so robust. I just assume that he loves sports and maybe plays a lot too. I would say he is around twenty years old. He is wearing silver earring on his left ear, and he always has headset on him probably listening R&B or Hip-hop music. He has big feet and several tattoos so I just feel like he is probably crabby, and I would afraid to talk with him. By watching the way he talking with his friends and the way he act, I believe he is a pretty straight forward guy. I guess he would not hide his feeling, and if he likes something or dislike something, he will just say it.
The third person I am impressed is an international girl from China. I believe she is a kind of girl who likes fashion very much because she’s clothes are all big brands. She is medium height with brown curly hair, and I guess she probably did hair premed. She is wearing heavy makeup and she just wear short skirts and T-shirt, which are all in light colors, in such cold weather. I don’t mean to judge her but I think she maybe come from a very wealthy family. I guess she probably likes party a lot, and maybe love drinking too. I can feel that the expensive brands stuff make her feel good, and I can understand why as a Chinese student. But my point is I probably would not dress like this go to school. If I give an analogy to her, I think she is like a beautiful cat. She could be herself and she doesn’t care what anyone else thinks.
I have to say that all these assumptions are all just based on general guessing or first impression. In real life, I am not a kind of person who can read someone by looking at dress, instead, I always find out some people is totally different than I thought when I actually start getting know them.
REFLECTION
Dressing and physical beauty are the two things that give first impression to people who don’t know each other, and I think most of people will have at least some judgment on someone when they first meet by looking at his or her dressing. For example, I will guess a girl who is wearing sportswear might like work out a lot, and these are all based on that one second feeling. I found it is very interesting when I did people watch activity last week because even though I made assumptions on people when I saw them, I never thought about it deeply or in a human value level. I used to categorize people into general groups, but I think I have different view of this after I took this course. Like Sanders mentioned in his article that “people use appearance to place each other into categories, which aid in the anticipation and interpretation of behavior” (Sanders, 1), I start to think about people’s dressing in a different way, which is combine it with culture, gender, race, and even environment.
http://tapiture.com/image/levy-tran-3-the-anonymous-tattoo-girl-is-levy-tran-12-photos
Personally, I am not a person who likes tattoos, especially girls. I don’t like a girl in first place just because she has tattoos. But I think I change the way to see it when I consider more factors when I see someone. I think the girl in that picture is very cute. I guess the more important thing compare to tattoos is her smile, and because of her real smile, I start to think she is a good girl. And this is how my perspective changes after I did this assignment.
I really don’t analyze people before because I think the only way to know a person is to communicate with him or her in person. By listening someone else’s description or by judging the dressing or physical beauty are not the way I know a person. One of my friend is not kind of person I want to make friends with when I first met her, but after get along with her because we are in a same group in a class, I find out that she is actually really cool, and we end up become very good friends. I know people can’t help making assumptions just by looking at others’ clothing or the way they acting, but personally, I learned from this class is that I should think about more factors when I start to make assumptions.
Bibliography:
FUTURE
I hope I can at least try to not judge people by looking at their clothes and physical beauty. Everyone has their own way to live, and they can choose whatever they want to wear or tattoo on. I know I would see some of tattoos as art since now because I guess I start to understand the reason behind this.
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Table of Contents
· What is Art?
· Food As Art
· Adornment
· Horror
· Creative Spirituality
· Technology
· Remix
· Public Art
· Bibliography
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