Unit 5: Adornment
Person A
This person is not wearing any shoes. That is the first thing that I notice about them. It’s probably because I wouldn’t be caught dead without shoes in a place like the Lillis atrium. He is wearing some capri-length pants, and a t-shirt. He has a messenger bag style pack, with white ear-buds in his ears. His hair is short, nothing remarkable. No piercings or tattoos, as far as I can tell. I feel that his clothing and bodily adornment tell me that he values comfort over perception, in my opinion. It may not be a huge deal, but walking around a crowded building with no shoes is a bit taboo; looks out of place. He seemed to have no problem drawing that kind of attention to himself. I’m guessing he doesn’t worry about things like athlete’s foot, or stepping in dog-poop. His lack of shoes bothered me. Observing him made me realize that I value wearing shoes.
Person B
This person had tattoos all over his body. When I say all over his body, I mean ALL OVER HIS BODY. His entire face was covered in tattoos. This is not something you see every day. I saw him while walking back home from class, so I didn’t get a chance to linger for fear of looking like a creep. He was wearing jeans, skate shoes, and a t-shirt. At least I think he was. It was hard to look past the tattoos and piercings to take a mental note of anything else. I think that this person must highly value his body. There had to be thousands, if not tens-of-thousands of dollars’ worth of piercings and tattoos on his body. You can’t sell a tattoo, so it’s a commitment for life (for the most part). In my belief, he is either the world’s most decisive person, carefully weighing the pros and cons of each decision he made in regards to his tattoos, or the most impulsive person with a pretty addictive personality. The way I reacted to his tattoos made me realize I value the long-term. I know I could never get a tattoo because at some point in the future, I would regret it.
Person C
This person was wearing a crew neck sweatshirt with three Greek letters on the front. Nothing else about her get-up was worth mentioning. I think that the sweatshirt told a lot about what she values. The Greek letters represented the sorority that she belongs to. I believe that she values community, comradery, and commitment; all things that come along with being in a club, organization, or family, like a sorority. I believe that she values that distinction so much so that she advertises it on her chest for the world to see. She wants people to know that she associates with that particular sorority, and that she accepts the fact that people will transfer their perceptions of that sorority on to her. This tells me that I too value community/family. I noticed the letters first, and thought of her first as part of a unified group, then as an individual person.
Every spring a bunch of people stop wearing shoes and I am the same way as you, I see it and flinch. Walking indoors without shoes is not as big of a deal as walking outside across campus shoeless. Maybe the guy values living in constant danger, he could easily step on a piece of glass or like you said, doo doo. He obviously does not value other people’s opinions of himself.
I wonder if he values his memories because a lot of people get tattoos for past events or for certain people. I think it is interesting you were afraid to stare at him as he was walking by. Once you have that many tattoos I would see it as a compliment for someone to be checking them out. He obviously values attention; I don’t see what is wrong with giving him that attention.
I like what you had to say about seeing her as part of an organization before you saw her as an individual. Depending on what you wear or who you associate with determines if anything were to supersede your own personal identity. Was she wearing yoga pants and uggs? That is the typical sorority look to go along with the crew neck with letters. She obviously values whatever her sorority values, I am sure if we knew the letters we could look it up and see exactly what they value.
Your descriptions and interpretations of the people you observed are very clear-cut and to the point. I like the way you presented these people as well as the way you interpreted them. It made a lot of sense to me and the simplistic manner in which you came to conclusions was relatable as well as interesting. A distinction that I really enjoyed was when you described person A either to be extremely decisive or just very impulsive. Do you consider it possible for someone with this type of image to be both decisive and impulsive? Although the decision to tattoo his entire face and body may have been a spur of the moment decision each time, he still may have thought it through for a given amount of time and rationalized the decision in his head, even though he just came up with the idea. Or do you consider these two manners of decision making to be completely separate from one another? Furthermore, I along with you group girls together who sport a sorority logo. As much as I should see each girl as different, they all are somewhat grouped together in my head. Do you think its bad that we view these girls as apart of a larger group? When I see these girls I think of their personalities all being very similar, even though I know this may not be true. Do you view it as negative that we don’t see them as individuals but instead as a member of a larger classification?