Objective:
- Evaluate personal values and paradigms around body decoration and physical beauty.
- Investigate how physical appearance affects definitions of identity and belonging.
In the chapter, we were asked to people watch and reflect on how our own personal adornment to analyze how we associate clothes with values and artistic expression. Part of the effect of the chapter was to look at the way we judged people by the way they dressed.
Artifact:
The first person works behind the counter at a pizza place. She is wearing a low-cut black t-shirt and her chest is tattooed with dark flowery patterns. Both of her ears are pierced and she wears black spiral earrings with scorpion-like stingers at the end of the spiral. Her hair is black but she wears it up in a bun at the back. She has on jeans and a thick, silver studded belt. There appears to be brass knuckles hanging off of her back belt loop. I think she is trying to draw attention to herself and I feel like her style is trying to be anti-establishment. I believe she is trying to distance herself from what she deems as societal norms so that she can stand out as an individual. Mostly, I think her dress makes me stereotype her as angry. Not necessarily that she is hard to get along with but that she clashes with authority and is angry in a universal sense. Her adornment shows me that I am maybe too skeptical of people’s motives. Immediately, I was a bit judgmental because I see her dress as a fad that a lot of people use to stand out, but if it is common, then it really is not individualistic. However, her dress is not necessarily a statement, but could be what she likes to wear.
The next girl is eating a few tables from me. She has curly dirty-blonde hair that is browner in certain areas and actually looks tangled. She has a green hooded sweatshirt and wears horn-rimmed glasses with wide yellow earpieces and thick lenses. Her sweatshirt is tucked into her maroon jeans in the back but I don’t know if that is on purpose. I see her as kind of geeky. Her outfit could be ironic, which is popular with some people, but I don’t think it is. She is not necessarily pretty and her disheveled look seems natural more than forced. I think she is socially awkward but not self-conscious. I think she values close personal friendships more than the approval of the majority of her peers. I think she prefers not standing out and I feel like she is introverted. Most of this is because she sits in the corner with one friend and they have not paid particular attention on looking “pretty” according to society. This tells me that I subscribe to some societal ideas on attractiveness. I have been influenced to deem outward appearance with self-confidence and happiness.
The first thing I notice about the last man is he is wearing a Portland Trail Blazers hat, and because I also like the Blazers, I realize I am already thinking of this man favorably. He has facial hair, but it isn’t wild and he wears a t-shirt and jeans. He has silver studs for earrings, and I think that they look okay. His hair is short, brown, and kind of fuzzy and curly. I think he is comfortable with his individuality and I am less skeptical of his individualism than I was with the first girl mostly because of the Blazers hat. I believe he is not just showing his individuality for the sake of standing out because he openly identifies with a mass of people in a mainstream activity. Now that I write this, I am not sure how that is different than the first girl identifying with a mass of people. I think I judge them differently because this man likes something that I like. That tells me that I hold my values and beliefs higher than I hold other people’s.
Reflection:
Up until this chapter, I never once took time to think about how I dress and what it says about me. In fact, I never really took the time to think about how I feel about the ways other people dress. In actuality, I liked seeing how much I judge other people by what they wear and taking the time to analyze why I felt that way. When I encountered the three people for this assignment, I had already made judgments about them before they had done a single thing.
Also, it was really important to me to see that the way I dress actually makes a statement about who I am. I wear what I wear to be nonchalant. I don’t want people to notice what I wear or to make any kind of extreme judgment based on the clothes I have. By dressing plainly, I allow for more room to be judged by my actions and personality. I want to be completely unimpressive at first sight, but I had never truly thought about it that way before this assignment. As soon as I saw the piercing in the first girl, I decided that she had a problem with “clashing with authority,” and I immediately deemed the second girl “introverted” before getting to know anything about her.
In the future, I will be able to encounter people with my biases in mind. With this ability, it will be easier to not jump to conclusions about people and approach new people with more openness. I also think it is important to manipulate my own dress to portray different emotions and moods. Having a one up on the messages I convey is an important quality to have.
Artifact One – Understanding Values
Artifact Two – What is Art For?
Artifact Four – The Art of Personal Adornment
Artifact Five – The Appeal of Horror
Artifact Six – Creative Spirituality
Artifact Eight – Remixing Culture