Objective:
- Evaluate personal values and paradigms around body decoration and physical beauty
Values within the fabric
Trying to take a step back and look at myself and how I dress and the reasons why I dress a certain way is not an easy task. I would like to think that I simply just get up and put on clothes and do not really think about what I am doing, but I do not think it is as simple as that. All the clothes I have in my closet I choose to put there. There must have been some driving views in my mind on way I picked one shirt over another at the store. Or why I have more plain colored items than articles with lots of designs on them. Maybe it is just that I like they way some things look over other things, but maybe my beliefs are really the influencing factors to my style and way of dressing.
I am not someone who has a lot of permanent body adornment, as in I do not have any tattoos yet, and I only have five piercings in my ears. I think the fact that I say I only have five pierings must say something about my views. Some people might think five is a lot of earrings, whereas I do not view this as many. My I have had all of them for at least two years, and four of them since I was in middle school. I never really think of them as a statement of who I am but I guess my decision to get them in the first place and never take them out speaks for itself. When thinking on the subject now I would say I view my jewelry as simple but pretty and edgy but sophisticated too. I like to think it may be a representation of myself. I like things to be clean and put together, but I’m always up for a little fun to get things dirty and spice things up a bit. I think over the years my choices on my body adornment have changed a bit. I used to think I would get a lot more ear piercings but I have recently decided that I have enough and probably will not get any more. On the other hand, I used to never want a tattoo, but recently I have been thinking that I do want one sometime soon, and am keeping my eyes open to something I might want to be with me forever.
I think that a big core value in my family is respect. This is something that I believe is communicated through the way I dress. This is because I respect my thoughts and the way I want to portray my body to world. That is that I do not like showing my skin than I feel comfortable with and I do not wear clothes with statements that don’t feel right to me. Also, I feel like I dress respectful for the events I attend. When I attended my grandmothers funeral I wore a conservative black dress, something that would have made her feel comfortable. Then when I attend something like a business event or an interview, I will dress up in a blazer or something appropriate for that style and I would not just wear my sweat pants that I may wear to a basketball game. I believe that being who you are but also respecting the attire for the events you attend is important.
I believe the saying “Just do it” is something peers my age communicate through their dress and body adornment. There are so many different ways people can express themselves these days and I think many people go with “if it feels good, do it.” I feel like a lot of my peers focus on solely themselves and if they like something they will wear it and do not think much on the consequences or ways their choices have on other people. I think this is something that has changed from generation to generation. Back in my grandpa’s day, I think the way he dressed was specifically because it was the “right” thing to wear, I could be wrong but it was just what I picked up from conversations with him and the way he would view the clothes my siblings and I would wear. I think looking at values from the way people dress is a hard thing to do but from this weeks assignment I do believe that you can begin to talk about values in this way but know that not every choice of clothing is going to represent a major value in someone’s life and sometimes we just like the way things look on us.
Reflection and Future:
This assignment was one of my favorites so far this term, though it was a challenging issue. I attempted to evaluate my personal values and paradigms around body decoration and physical beauty. It was hard to look at these things without too much judgment coming through but that is where are values come in, in how we view others and make comparison against ourselves and this artifact let me explore this.
The biggest thing I got from this assignment was discovering something about what I feel like my generation does in our choice of clothing. We dress for ourselves and for ourselves only. Our clothing choices and body adornment are things that only we get a say in. I think this related a lot to me, as a lot of things in my life I do not have control over, but my clothing and what I choose to do to my body is my choice and I have complete control over it. Since I choose these things, when I look at my closet and body expressions, I believe my values hold that I am adventurous but cautious and healthy but lazy at times too.
Looking at the future I believe body adornment and dressing will be something that will be with me everyday till the day I die. The hard part will be choosing to acknowledge the reasons people dress and decorate themselves the way they do, and to do this without an overwhelming amount of judgment coming through.
This is a picture I took of my friend. He has a lot of tattoos and although I do not have any myself I think it is very interesting to hear the reasons and stories behind people choices in what they permanently put on their bodies.