Category: Unit 05

With the development of society, people are more and more pay attention to their outward appearance.  According to the Sanders, C. R.(1989), he mentioned that people construct their appearance in a wide variety of ways to control their social identities, self-definitions, and interactional prospects.”(Page 4) As far as I am concerned, people’s appearance in their daily life can  particularly demonstrate their value and belief in some certain way and I am not the exception one in the world.

In my opinion, the most important “dress principle” for me would be warm and comfortable. Now I am living in Eugene, which is a city always changing its weather during the whole day so I always prepare a  coat and an umbrella when I go to school. I like to dress like an student, which it means I will never dress too mature or sexy in the school.  My favorite  “cloth set” would be a sweater with soft feeling and jeans with boot. I believe that I would consider “comfortable” to be one of my reason to choose cloth is because I really enjoy my life and I am fond of simple and fulfilling life.  I believe that I am able to adapt any different circumstance and I don’t have a specific future  goal, but I do have some small target need to be finished, such as my next week’s exam and an academic paper I need to finish today.

However, the reflection on my dress has changed as the time goes on. I prefer to wear colorful skirt in the summer these years because I gradually find that I might want people to think I have more femininity than before. I start to enjoy being a female and feel more confident to “act like” a female. For example, I would consider to be more gentle when I have some problems or speak slowly during a communication.  Actually I am a girl when I was born, but I always play with boys in my childhood. I like to climb trees and throw sand to my friends so my parents sometimes think I might not become a “lady” after I grow up. I would never wear dress before 10 years old, nevertheless , things changed after I grow up. I start to separate myself to boys and enjoy have numerous “girl friends.” I understand I am a girl and I need to be different than the boy.  I enjoy to wear skirt and I always think I need another cloth when I look at my  wardrobe. According to the Sanders, C. R.(1989), he states that :” attractiveness, then, affects self-concept and social experience.” Sometimes I think that a girl like to dress up themselves is because they want to be more attractive.  I might feel more confident after wearing a beautiful dress or a new shoes, which is because I sometimes would judge people by their appearance. For example, if a person wear a dirty shirt in the school, I might think he is a little lazy and careless.

I think that my parents do influence a lot of my “adornment”, especially my mom, the first thing that she affects me is that she really love herself and her life. She always concern about her appearance. The most significant thing that I remember of her about she care appearance is because she takes exercise every day for three hours.  Sometimes she even controls the meals to keep fit. She believes that:” There are no ugly woman, but only lazy ones.”  I think her belief of appearance really influence me because I don’t want to be a ugly women just because I am too lazy.  Second, my mom  is a person like to keep every thing clean. Due to her job—she is a doctor in the hospital, she need to pay attention to not carry germs back home. It is why she like to wash hands in any environment.  This habit also reflect on her dress up style because she would prefer to wear clean and simple cloth when she need to go to work. It is why I also like to wear some “simple style” cloth when I need to go to school. I will concern that school is also a place that I need to finish some works their, if I wear a kind of cloth that is too complex to do some activities, it might make me feel uncomfortable.

In sum, to consider the appearance  is a important principle when we judge people’s heart. However, it might not always be the truth. I believe that my taste of clothing will change in the future as the time goes by, but I will always be the one who enjoy the life.

Sanders, C. R(1989). Introduction: Body Alteration, Artistic Production, and the Social World of Tattooing. In Customizing the Body(Chap. 1). Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press

l watch the people who are passing by the street and I found three of them are caught my eyes particularly.

First I meet a white man in front of my classroom. He looks about 30 years, with a little bald and an classical glasses. He wear a brown suit for top and a blue shirt but go with sports pants and sneakers. He through the crowd people very quickly while watching his watch, it seems like he have something to do right now so he can’t wait even a second. According to the Sander, C. R.(1989), he states that :”people use appearance to place each other into categories.” I am totally agree with that because I think the person I maintain before might be a teacher or an master student in the school just because his appearance looks like a “standard scholar.” He is really cherish time might because he has another class need to take or teach. He might already married because I can catch sight of his finger that he has a wedding ring. However, he won’t be an too serious scholar in his life because he still wear sports products in his body. I believe that he like to enjoy his leisure time with his family and exercise outside the doors, but he still wear an suit in the top to show his respect to the class and school.

The second person I watch today would be an meddle-age woman in the Eugene station.  She is a white woman with a messy hair and looks a bit overweight.  She wears a loose sweater and baggy pants. She is trying to talk with the strangers who are sitting next to her, however, they don’t really want to talk to her maybe because he sad face. I guess she might be a women who just encounter some problem in her life, it might be some small things like she lose her dogs or something bigger like her husband just cheat her. I try to imagine that she is a housewife and has some extremely boring daily housework to do.  She might doesn’t care about weather she has a goal or not. However, I know she wants to be attention and take care, maybe just a friendly communication can release her sad and give her a warmer afternoon.

The third person I want to state here is a elder homeless in the street. The reason why my eyes is attached by him is because the other homeless probably would have a dog stay with him, however, he lead a cat on the corner of the street. As I can see, he wears some dirty and old clothes, but he never looks like a person who need to have people’s sympathy. I can see that the harmonious and nature happiness show up in his face, so he must be an very positive person, even though he is poor. The cat is a yellow and brown cat with a red cloth. The cat looks exactly like its  owner. Even though I am watching them at that time, they just enjoy the sunshine and singing some songs leisurely. I guess that he might not be a homeless who become a homeless because of gambling or drugs. He might be a person who has a bad experience or unlucky so that he lose his house and money, but still have a very positive attitude and goal for his life.

If I use those standard to look through myself, I think that those standard might not be always true. For example, sometimes I don’t really pick up myself and my face expression. Some people might think I am a lazy girl, however, it might  not be a good way to judge someone just because of one time observation and adornment in their body.

Sanders, C. R(1989). Introduction: Body Alteration, Artistic Production, and the Social World of Tattooing. In Customizing the Body(Chap. 1). Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press