In this week’s reading, the author states “people construct their appearance in a wide variety of ways to control their social identities, self-definitions, and interactional prospects.” (Page 3-4) I totally agree with this statement. I personally believe that my dress or body adornment depends on the situation that I am in. When I was in a high school, I had to wear a uniform. The uniform was really formal outfits. I had to wear ties, a vest, and slack pants every day.  My appearance represents my social identity and self-definition as a student. In this week’s reading, the author also says “Clothing style is of sufficiently symbolic importance that it often is controlled through “sumptuary laws” that allow only members of specific (usually high status) groups to wear certain materials or fashions.” (Page 4) In my case, the uniform represents the symbolic importance of my status as a student because the uniform that I have worn was only given to the specific students who are attending to my high school.

When I was graduated from high school and started attending to the university, I had my own choice about what to wear. I believed that wearing the same outfits are bad, so I tried not to wear the same thing with others. I tried to find the outfits such as shoes, jackets, hats, and pants that others might not have. I valued the uniqueness the most at that time. In retrospect, I think that I was in the beginning stage of constructing my appearance in my own way to control my social identity and self-definitions. By trials and errors, I built up my personal beliefs and values with my dress. Now I wear normal clothes and do not prefer unique items. Rather, I prefer comfortable outfits such as sweatpants, hoodies, and tennis shoes. I believe comfortable clothes would help me study more and focus more, and I believe it would make me healthier to wear comfy outfits.

I made the choice of wearing comfortable outfits because of my responsibility of studying as a student. Back in the days when I valued the uniqueness the most, I had no passion to study and all I cared about was hanging out with my friends. My parents, however, supported me to study abroad here in the United States to motivate me and give me an opportunity to develop myself.

With these supports from my parents, my values have been completely changed. I prioritize studying to anything. The reason why I started wearing comfortable clothes is that I cannot concentrate or focus on something when I am uncomfortable. For example, I had a presentation for my marketing class one day, and I had a mid-term the day after. Thus, there was no choice for me to change my clothes and study for the mid-term. I studied with my suits on and it was very uncomfortable, which was not very helpful for me to study. As a result, I was distracted a lot by my outfits and I did not do well on the mid-term.

The core beliefs and values in my family are that there is nothing impossible if you do your best, and my family thinks the processes are more valuable than the results because the results come from the processes. To do my best, I must have adjusted my surroundings and circumstances to my best fit. I think what I wear depends on the situations where I am. When I have to wear nicely and formal, I wear nice formal outfits. When I need to do something important that requires concentration such as studying for exams, I wear comfortable outfits to do my best. By wearing the best fitted outfits to the specific situations, I think my family’s core beliefs and values are communicated and sustained through.

As a student at University of Oregon, many others wear clothes imprinted with the school logo. I think the core beliefs and values of my peer community is originated from the pride of school. By wearing hoodies, pants, shoes, or hats with the school logo, they create their own certain barriers that others cannot enter. Again, the author states, “Clothing style is of sufficient symbolic importance that it often is controlled through “sumptuary laws” that allow only members of specific (usually high status) groups to wear certain materials or fashions.” (Page 4) I think the school logo creates the symbolic importance for specific members which are students at University of Oregon. They are expressed through dress with the school logo imprinted.