Unit 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.
Artifact: Adornment Reflection
- I tend to dress very casual and comfortable. This, I feel, is how just perceive things and how I go about my daily tasks, work in school, and hanging out with friends. I want to be able to just be comfortable and casual with of aspects of my life. I do not exactly feel that clothing should be an expression of oneself, or that we should ever judge people by the clothes they are wearing. I do not think that is a good starting point for talking about the character or values of a person. Still though it is hard not to make superficial judgments of people, so I just try to just comfortable and casual; maybe a little bit with the current trends. Over the years my life values have stayed pretty much the same. I think the only times that may have been different for me was when I was really young and I was a lot more shy. Now that I am older I have become much more outgoing, comfortable with the people around me, and with meeting new people as well. I feel the choices I make are based on the set of values that I hold in the highest regard which are: to be honest with myself and others, to not be judgmental of others, to work hard at what tasks I choose to take on, and to have fun doing with life and friends. These are the points that I try to live by on a daily basis and the ones that help me make decisions.
- My parents taught me to be respectful to others and to always try my hardest at what I choose to do. They were also the ones that helped to encourage me to go to the University of Oregon and pursue an education here. They also have encouraged me to pursue a career in whatever field I choose to after college, so I would have to say that they have also taught me the importance of believing in others and being supportive of them. There was not a lot of body customization in my family other than my sister who has earrings. I would say that my father and mother have always been well dressed and had very good hygiene. I feel that this is a good habit and one that conveys how you feel about yourself to others. It is a practice that I have kept over the years; one of being well dressed, while casual, but with good hygiene practices.
- Most of my peer community would probably be other Chinese like myself and they seem to have most of the same values that I have and the same ones that I practice. Most of us just stick to our studies and have a tendency to be friendly but not as outgoing as maybe we would be in our home country. The peer community of my age group though is a whole different story. At the U of O there are all kinds of students with all kinds of dress attire and body customizations. I have seen pretty much everything that I could have imagined people could wear or do to their bodies since moving here to the US. There is such a different set of dress attire here and so many different styles of body adornments that I imagine it would be very hard to put all that into different classifications of core beliefs and values. Again, like I have said above, I do not think it is a good practice to judge people by the attire or body adornments, nor do I think any of those are a good representation of exactly what they hold to be their core values.
Reflection:
Through this artifact, I learned how to evaluate personal values and paradigms around body decoration and physical beauty. The personal values or beliefs can affect a person’s dress style and body decoration. Meanwhile, the body adornment also can reflect a personal’s values or beliefs. In another artifact in this unit, we investigate how physical appearance affects definitions of identity and belonging through observing three people.
Through analyzing different people’s dress, I have to say the culture play an important role in people’s dress. For me, I am Chinese student who be influenced by Chinese traditional culture. Therefore, I am shy think I would never have tattoo in my body. In contrast, American culture is really open and focus on individual’s unique personality. Therefore, tattoo is a good way to show own personality for American people.
Future Intention:
In the future, I think I will persist in my current dress style. Also, I would like to continue to observe other people’s dress and analyze their personality, values or beliefs.
Bibliography:
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