1.    Take some time to reflect on how you dress and customize yourself. Consider and respond to the following questions:

a.    Are there any personal beliefs or values that are supported and expressed by your dress or body adornment?
b.    Why do you make the choices you do?
c.     How has this changed over the years?

The way I dress has a lot of variety. I am not one to go shopping a lot. I buy an article of clothing here and there about once every few months. So I like to make my clothes last. I wear a lot of jeans and tops, ranging from t-shirts, long sleeves, to nicer blouses and knit type shirts. I get cold very easily so I tend to wear many hoodies, sweaters, and jackets. I have a few shoes; black work shoes, white Nike shoes, a pair of black and white KED knock offs, a pair of Romeos, a pair of heels (that I never wear!), and a few old navy dollar flip-flops. I’d like to say my style has a lot to do with being comfortable but not sloppy. I am most comfortable in jeans rather than skirts or dresses although I do have a few I just don’t wear them as often. (a lot because of the whole cold situation). My tops can be fitting or a little loose but not constricting my body just because it is “fashionable”. Beliefs and values I have that my clothes reflect is comfort, modesty, and financially sensible.  I am comfortable with the way my body is but I don’t feel that is necessary to show off your stomach or flaunt your boobs which is why I like to be more modest and cover those up! I also value being financially sensible. My thought is that if the clothing I have is still perfectly fine the way it is then why not still wear it? I see many people buy clothes all the time and I feel that it is a waste of money to always but more and more clothes.

I make my choices of clothes because of my values and beliefs. I’m open to new things to wear. Sometimes I will see an article of clothing at the store that I normally wouldn’t wear and still fall in love with it. I just go with my intuition on if I like it or not. I do not keep up to date with the latest trends and do not care if I have that latest “Gucci” bag. My style and choices have changed through out the years for the better. When I was younger I was insecure about myself and did not like to stand out a lot. For example with colors, I used to wear a lot of darker colors because I thought it would be more flattering on my body. I have now become more comfortable with who I am and have branched out to more colors. I love to wear turquoise, bright red, white, blues, plaids, etc. they help express your emotion and can put you in a better mood. I feel that my mood can rub off on other people too. If you see somebody in dark clothes you may get a different vibe than from somebody in bright colors.

2.    What were the core beliefs and values in your family and how were they communicated/sustained through dress or body customization?

I was raised in a Mormon household and so a huge value that my parents held was to be modest. This meant to not show off your body. You couldn’t wear tank tops. Your shirts had to have sleeves and short had to be to your knees. Other adornment like tattooing and piercings were out of the question. I am no longer following that belief system although I do value modesty just not as extremely. I am more about not flaunting body pieces like they’re objects. I also have a tattoo, a dream catcher on my back. I find it expressive to who I am. Dream catchers were made to keep the good dreams and let the bad dreams escape. I believe people should keep their dreams and strive to reach them. This is another one of my beliefs that is expressed through adornment, tattoos.

3.    What are the core beliefs and values of your peer community? How are they expressed through dress and body adornment?

My peer community is full of different types of people that have very different beliefs and values. You have got some people that value family and who dress accordingly with appropriate clothes. You have teenage girls who don’t value modest, and dress quite revealing, maybe valuing on getting a guy? There are skaters who value skating and dress with all “skater” attire. There are people who value their jobs that dress professionally whatever associates with their job. Then there are others like me who wear what is comfortable and speaks out to them about whether they like it or not.

The fact after writing this and after doing the watching people assignment this week is that there are so many different values that different people can believe in and it can be reflected on from what they where. And the judgments we make could be totally skewed from the person’s reason for wearing what they do or it could be dead on. You can never know unless you ask a person. And I believe that not everybody knows what their clothes can represent either. I never even thought about what my clothes had to say about my values until this weeks lecture.

The first lady that I saw was wearing a green crew neck long sleeve sweater. She was wearing pretty big gold hoop earrings. Her hair was a short bob cut that was curled. She had quite a bit of make up on as well. Blush, drawn on eyebrows, and pink lipstick. She wore blue jeans and some black shoes with a slight heel. She also had on a gold bracelet. She had a tan purse with a long strap. Based on what this woman wore and the accessories with her I would say that one value of hers could be to be modest. He did not have anything that was revealing like a low cut blouse. I feel that she cares about her looks and wants to look good not only for herself but for others as well. I think this is because of her jewelry and her makeup. I have an assumption that she wants to look younger than her true age especially with the drawn on eyebrows. I believe she may not feel comfortable with how her natural eyebrows are. She looks like she has a well-put together life. She had on a wedding band, which shows that she is married. I would assume she might have a family since she is older. The assumptions that I have of this woman could say that my values and beliefs are that people use makeup to beautify themselves or look younger. I also have a belief that many people who marry often will start a family and have children.

The second person I saw was a gentleman that wore blue jeans with a straight leg. A bright orange t-shirt, crew neck style. He wore a black baseball style hat with sunglasses on top of the bill of the hat. His hair was short and closely cut with a clean trim line. He wore really worn Nike tennis shoes. His clothes were not clean. They had dirt or some type of grease stains on them. On the back pocket of his jeans you could see a circle permanently on the material. His face and hands were also dirty. He had facial hair, a goatee, which was neatly trimmed. Based on this mans dress and body adornment. I assume that this man cares about his looks in how his hair was neatly trimmed. I also believe he is a hard worker based on how dirty his skin and clothes were. I think normally he would be kept clean but I assumed he had just gotten off work. He had a ring on his finer which showed hat he is married (also he was with a woman and child presumably his wife and son.) I would think the gender he considers himself would be male based on the stereotypical “male characteristics” The circle on his back pocket is from a chew can which shows that his health is not the highest on his list of values and beliefs. I made the assumption that he is a dedicated father and husband and provides for them. These assumptions show that I value family and dedication.

The third person I saw was this girl. She wore really expensive looking jeans like Silvers or Miss Me’s. She had on some black toms shoes.. She wore a Cabela’s camouflage hoodie along with a black north face jacket. Her hair was platinum blonde and was crimped. The bottom layer of hair was dyed with very dark brown or black. Her skin was very tan, like fake tan to where her skin had a tint of orange to it. She had on a lot of makeup. You could see she put a lot of concealer on, mascara, eyeliner, and eye shadow, as well as lip-gloss. She had on a few silver rings on each hand. She had acrylic nails too. Her purse she was carrying was couch. From the things I saw with this woman my assumption is that she values fashion and beauty extremely. I think that she follows with the latest trends and strives to be what today’s society’s definition of beauty is like in magazines and television. I believe she comes from an upper middle class or high class financially. Every piece of clothing or accessory I saw was very expensive. I believe she may emotionally not feel naturally pretty and must cover up with “fake beauty”. I think she expresses her gender as female based on the stereotypical characteristics that are feminine. She looks healthy but may be headed to a path of bad health with all of the fake tanning. She looked very young. The assumptions that I have of this girl show my value of naturally beauty. I don’t think you have to cover up your natural features so drastically. A little bit of makeup to emphasize your features I think is nice but not necessary.