Objective
- Evaluate personal values and paradigms around body decoration and physical beauty.
- Investigate how physical appearance affects definitions of identity and belonging.
- Analyze values and belief systems of physical appearance across cultures, sub-cultures and generations.
Original Post (personal adornment reflection) (Click here)
During different time or period in my life, I always have different dressing. Depending on different situation, people may dress differently to show their respect and dressing in a right way can make a great impression to others. The other accessories can help you to make a difference and become special in a situation as well, maybe is a pair of ear rings, maybe is a colorful tie, maybe is a pair of shining heels, those things can catch people’s attention well. As for female, the makeup can help them to be confident and positive. When I have a presentation, the dressing become really an important part; I wear suit (a coat and a skirt) and put some makeup, and then a pair of heels always give me a lot of confidence. What I believe is that putting on makeup is a way to respect your audiences, and can give you courage to stand in front of them and stand out. Only if you believe what you talk about, then you audiences do. Sometimes, when I was in a party, my dressing always depends on the topic of the party. If it is someone’s birthday, I would like to dress colorfully to celebrate. If it is a formal party, I would like to wear a dress to make it formal. Therefore, I think the situation influence my choices of dressing, and it is what I consider and what I believe.
When I was a middle school or high school student, I prefer to dress in athletic wear. Athletic wear is really casual and do not need to be changed when we have PE class. Right now, I am still a college student, there are no many opportunities to dress formally; but when the time is the end of each term, I always have several presentations that need to dress formally to show professionally. At that time, I always put up some makeup. However, the rest of the terms, I prefer to dress in casual, sometimes, athletic wear, because it is comfortable and convenient. More importantly, those kinds of clothes are easy to wash. It can both save time and care less. As a result, my dressing style changes over the years. People always grow up, the perspectives always change. I think when I start my career life in the future, my dressing style will become more formal, more suits, more heels, and more makeup.
People always affect by parents and families. I think I believe almost what my parents and family believe. The first important thing I got from my parents is confidence, which is to believe yourself that can overcome everything. Only if you are confidence, you will have the courage to show your values and abilities to others, you can keep moving when you are in trouble, and then you can make progress step by step. That’s why I believe dressing suitably can help me to become confident, it is more about to find another me in the world. My parents also taught me to smile all the time even if you got a huge gap to your goals. Until I study abroad, I realize how important and necessary to smile to face the challenge. To help myself become relaxing, I would like to dress in casual in daily life. Sometimes, wear some special or customized ear rings or necklace can always help have a great mood in a day. In that case you can gain a lot of positive power and have a strong heart. Just like that, my parents give me varieties of positive energy to encourage me. Besides that, they told me to relax myself if I had a hard time in my life. Just relax, nothing behind. Then, I can regulate myself well and re-start my life. During this time, I would like to stay at home and wear pajama, just like stay with my parents and family. I would think and live by myself and obtain some new ideas at the end.
As for my peer community, the atmosphere is relaxing and exciting. As for international student, I was surprised by the football game in U.S. when the first time I came here. Then, I just cannot stop purchasing t-shirt, hat. I still remember, I and three of my friends purchase the same t-shirt together and wear them on campus which brings people’s attention. In addition to that, as a student in University of Oregon, I would like to say the custom in our school are really cute, the slogan is “Once a duck, always duck”. It shows the attitude for students, and I think we love our school and we all have a happy time and life in U of O these years. The first time I back China, I got 3 t-shirt for my family, I just want to let my parents know that I like my school and they can feel the happiness through the t-shirts.
Reflection
I choose these pictures because I really like traditional Chinese adornment, and those pictures are really close to the assignment. When I travel to other places in China, it is easy to view many minorities and their attractive clothes. In the first picture, there are eight small pictures with eight different styles of clothes, those clothes are from different minorities in China. As people know, China has 56 minorities which live in different provinces and areas. Those adornment have long history and represent them really well.
The second picture is the developed design of the Qipao (the name of the traditional cloth) from Qing dynasty. The last small picture in the left picture is the traditional design of Qipao, the right picture is the developed design of it. I remember when the first year I came to U.S., my mother took me to a store to customized the Qipao for me. I brought Qipao to U.S. and expect one day when there is a condition to show traditional clothes from different countries in the whole world, I can wear it to show people.
Wearing different clothes in different situations is necessary for me, because I believe only you dress appropriately you can show your respect to others, just like I said in my original post. “A person’s physical appearance affects his or her self-definition, identity and interaction with others” (Sander, 1). I really agree with what Sander said in this statement. It just means that the different people wear different clothes just by their understanding of their own values. For some businessman, they prefer to wear suit, but for some waitress, they prefer to wear uniform when they work. It just because they define themselves differently.
I think my personal adornment is influenced by my family a lot. My parents just influence my to dress appropriately in different situations. This original post just show how I value myself and how I dress.
Future Goals
This unit is helpful for me to think about how I dress in daily life. Before this unit, I had no more time to think deeply about my adornment. I knew I should dress appropriately, but I actually had no more idea about how. Right now, I get some idea about how. So I want to try different types of clothes in the future. Maybe when I travel to different places, I will try their clothes on instead just take a look. Besides, I would like to dress more formal than the way I dress now, because it related to my career goal in the future.