Objective

• 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

The way that I dress and customize myself is a rather simple one. I enjoy smelling good, which mostly means just showering and wearing deoderant every day. I wear for the most part the same kind of outfits everyday from a style standpoint. The outfit consists of pants a shirt, and some sort of jacket or coat, and usually nike shoes. The shirts all all pretty simple, and usually loose fitting, and mostly from target, and have nothing on them but a plain color. I stopped really caring about brands that I wear, and just kind of wear colors that I like, and use that to show what kind of person I am. I’m not the kind of person that will freak out over brands, and will wear whatever pretty much with comfort, and practicality being top requirements. I kind of give off a plain vibe I feel like from the types of clothes I wear, I feel like this because of the lack of brand names that I wear. The fact that I do wear nikes somewhat counteracts that, but at the same time they are also incredibly common. For the most part I show of a minimalist mentality from what I wear because it is all very inexpensive clothing.

I make the choices to wear what I do, because I don’t feel the need to buy fancy clothes when I can find nearly the same thing for cheaper with a different label on it. I feel like it can be a big waiste when people spend tones of money on all of these designer clothes, when I can wear the same kind of things for much cheaper. I do think that how you dress expresses what kind of person you are, but to me wearing fancy brands doesn’t make you any better of a person. By wearing primarily cheap clothes I am able to have much more clothes, and just wear them for the functionality of covering my body and keeping me warm.

Besides functionality I don’t really have any other reason for the types of clothes I wear, or how I present myself. If I am given clothes or something to wear, I will most likely just wear it. I have some specific styles and tastes that I do not like to wear, but that is purely because I do not feel comfortable in it, or I don’t think I look good in it. I will wear clothes that I personally feel good in, as well as clothes that I believe I look good in. This is purely my kind of style, and is not based around a brand or type of clothes. For to part about body adornment I have pierced ears. I actually just got them pierced today mostly on a whim, and not for any particular reason. I had thought about getting them done for a very long time, mostly because I thought it would be a fun and new kind of thing to do, and today finally it happened. I’m not exactly sure if it will make people act differently around me, but I am curious to see if I will be treated any differently because of being a guy and having my ears pierced.

Over the years my style of dress has changed slightly, but for the most part it has stayed with the fact that I wear clothes that are comfortable and functional. When I was younger I had a different kind of style for clothes that I wore, and didn’t mind as much what I was given to wear. As I became older I grew into my own type of fashion sense more so, in the way that I don’t like to wear certain clothes, like v-necks. When I was younger though I would almost always wear two blue shirts over each other with shorts, and some sort of jacket, and I would wear this rain or shine. While growing up I slowly adopted the normality of wearing pants, as well as only one shirt at a time. One piece of clothing that I really enjoy wearing is flannels though, and that started at a young age and has stayed with me ever since.

My family did not pressure me with any kind of values or beliefs around the way I dressed and were pretty much fine with anything that I would want to wear. I grew up in a Jewish household, so I’m not sure if that makes a difference on how I was effected in this way, but my parents were always very understanding and helpful in allowing my siblings and I to wear whatever we wanted as long as it was appropriate. I feel like in the values and beliefs of the community around me are pretty similar to mine, in the fact that they do not mind much what a person is wearing or makes themselves look, as long as it is not to far from the normal. Here at University of Oregon, the normal is a little bit more out there compared to where I am from, so you really have to do something big if you want to stand out around here. The people around me for the most part dress very similar to me, and because of that I feel very comfortable going out, and not feeling like everyone is looking at me, which is a big part of the way I like to dress. I do not enjoy being a huge eye sore, or center of attention and for that reason I always try and wear clothes that will make me fit in with my peers.

Reflection

During this topic I was able to look deeper into personal adornment, as well as how people present themselves and decorate their body. Physical appearances also effect the definitions of how we see people and their ideas of belonging. During the weeks assignment I had the time to look at people and decide how I viewed them and why I thought certain things about them. I was able to identify things that I saw as beautiful, as well as traits on people that I thought lead to specific traits in people. When people would adorn themselves in certain ways it also made it possible for me to see if their actions and appearance led to a sense of belonging. This artifact gave me time to think about how I presented myself, as well as what certain things meant to me.

I would analyze values that people had based on their appearance and was able to do it for myself as well. This allowed me to really think about the way I present myself and why I look the way I do. I was able to reflect on my image because of this and analyze myself and how I show off my styles and what I value. I feel like the way I adorn myself reflect well with the type of person I am, and try to be, and in a sense was a mental check to make sure I am on the right path in being the person I want to be. The most recent way that I changed my personal adornment was by piercing my ears, which was a spur of the moment decision, and was not really for any good reason, but happened, and is now part of the way I present myself.

Future

In the future I want to remember to try and do this because it allows me to dive deeper into the kind of person I am and why I present myself the way I do. I want to try and stay true to the person I am in the future, and make sure that I stay in check. My personal image is something that I take very seriously and because of that I want to continually check it and make sure it is the kind of thing I want to be presenting.

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