Course Objective

• Examine contemporary and historical cross-cultural examples of art.
• Examine the political, regional, economic, technological, religious, ethnic, gender, and generational influences that shape conceptions of art.

Learning Objective Achieved

• Analyze values and belief systems of physical appearance across cultures, sub-cultures and
  generations.
• Evaluate personal values and paradigms around body decoration and physical beauty.

Original Post:

As I think about what influenced the way I dress and my body adornment, I have come to the conclusion that there are two factors that have had the biggest impact on me. The first one is my family. Within my family, my parents have the biggest impact on the way I dress and I have adopted some style from each of them. Overall, my family has fairly relaxed dress habits. My dad grew up in San Diego, California so he has a casual, laid back way of dressing while my mom was taught to dress a little nicer. When I was growing up, I was dependent on my parents so I could only buy clothes that they approved of. Although they were not super strict, I used to want shirts that had designs with skulls on them but my mother would never allow it. In addition, my brothers always influenced the way I dressed because I looked up to them and I wanted to dress just like them. However my parents were not as relaxed about body adornment. Growing up, my father always had two rules: no tattoos and no piercings. While I was in high school, my dad told me if I ever got a tattoo or a piercing he would cut me off financially and would not pay for my college. This sounded a bit extreme but I did not want to test him. There were times in high school when I wanted to get a tattoo or my ears pierced but I had to refrain from doing so. Right now I am a senior in college and I still have not had a piercing or a tattoo. Although this is something that I would never admit to him, I am now thankful for his no body adornment rule. I also find it interesting how my dad’s pressure for no body adornment has slowly transformed my opinion to now agree with his view.

The second factor that has influenced me is society and the area I grew up. I feel like my generation has the greatest appreciation for body adornment thus far. You can see this while walking around campus or back home in California because you can constantly see people with tattoos and piercings. In addition, I feel like they are much more casual than they used to be. If you ever ask someone about their tattoos they are generally very open about them and they will tell you the story while showing you the art on their body. When I see this, it makes me want to get one because people express themselves so freely. The author reveals how ancient societies used to think of tattoos much differently than we do now when she writes, “Tattooing in ancient Egypt was confined to women, especially concubines, dancers, and priestesses” (Sanders 9). This is interesting because this is the opposite of how modern society is. The external societal forces and the area I grew up in also impacted the way I dressed myself. Although I would not consider myself the ‘trendiest’ person, I do like to look nice. The time in my life where society and the people around me influenced the way I dressed the most was when I was in middle school. I can clearly remember this because this was when designer jeans started to become very popular. There was a pressure that if you wanted to be cool you had to wear designer jeans. Nowadays, I do not let that kind of external pressure decide what I am going to wear. When I am shopping, I will take other people’s opinions into consideration but it will not be the deciding factor.

The biggest value that is expressed by the way I dress is the belief that there is a time and place for everything. What I mean by this is that there are certain occasion where it is acceptable to wear casual, comfortable clothing and there are certain places where you should put on your suit and tie. I love wearing sweats around because they are easy and comfortable but I am not going to wear them in a place where it is not suitable. I think the reason that I have made this choice can be tied back to my parents. As I mentioned earlier, my dad dresses casual while my mom tends to dress up and as a result I see myself falling somewhere in the middle. I can also definitely witness myself changing overtime. My first couple years of college I would often wear sweat pants to class because dressing up for class was not very important to me. However once I got into the business school, I noticed myself starting to change. Everyone around me was wearing nicer clothes so I started to do the same. This year I have not worn sweat pant once.

Reflection

This artifact has allowed me to consider the cultural changes that have occurred between generations. Although I do not talk about this much in my actual reflection, it is interesting to acknowledge what has impacted the way that I dress and how I actually dress then compare it to the past. If I look at old photos on the internet such as the one below, you can see some major difference in style right away.

In my opinion, over time you can see the biggest change in dressing style as you look at the progression of women’s dressing habits. If you look at the picture above, you can see how this style of dress is much different than women dress today. Women used to cover up their entire body and would often times not even show their ankles in dresses. Nowadays, it is not uncommon to see a female in a dress that is well above their knees. In addition, you can see major changes in the way hair styles have developed as well.

Although there is definitely a change in the way men dress and do their hair as well, in my opinion, women’s changes in style are much more prominent. With the completion of this assignment, it has allowed to me see myself for how I actually dress. By doing this, it has allowed me to compare and contrast the changes in styles across generations.

I chose to put this artifact in my portfolio for two reasons. The first reason is because of what is mentioned above about the changes in style. This assignment has allowed me to consider how art and styles have changed over the last 100 years. It is amazing to see the progression that has occurred and it makes me excited to see what will happen in the next 100 years. The second reason I choice this reflection is due to the fact that it allowed me to see what main factors influence my decision making process. I believe that in order to make the best decisions, it is important to recognize the factors that contribute to you making this decision and this assignment helped me with that.

Future

My goal for the future is make sure that I am making the decisions that I want to make. I do not mean this in a selfish way because it is important to help people but often times I make lots of decisions because it is what other people want for me. At the end of the day, I have to live with my own life so it is important to live it in the way that I see fit. However, I still think it is important to listen to what people have to say. This is why over the course of the next year, I will make three decisions that I want to do even though other people may want me to do something else.

References

http://static.squarespace.com/static/50873ddce4b0cc2d87576079/50874124e4b06d030fd2fe6a/50874125e4b06d030fd2fea2/1351041317771/1000w

https://fbexternal-a.akamaihd.net/safe_image.php?d=AQACYk8jFtth2-dz&w=470&h=246&url=http%3A%2F%2Fi.dailymail.co.uk%2Fi%2Fpix%2F2014%2F12%2F03%2F23B2B57100000578-0-image-2_1417606408572.jpg&cfs=1&upscale=1&sx=0&sy=24&sw=636&sh=333

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