Weylyn’s ChangeLog

While I was waiting for my ride after work, a student walked by me wearing t-shirt that had a picture of the Anime Style Strongbad. His face was familiar enough that I was relatively certain he worked in our office, and I couldn’t resist the urge to comment on his attire. When he walked past I said, “You gotta have blue hair,” in a voice which was my poor attempt to impersonate the character featured on his shirt. He laughed, nodded, made some comment back, and went on his way.

As I was thinking back on this incident later, I realized that I had talked to a relative stranger because I felt a connection to him, simply based on the clothes he was wearing. I felt I knew him, or at least a little about him, since he obviously enjoyed the same website I did. It amazed me how much impact a simple fashion decision(1) can make on how you are perceived.

Especially in current times where fashion runs the gambit from jeans and a t-shirt supporting a favorite website to dress attire, from business suits to the goth look, what you wear definitely has an impact on how people perceive you and how they react to you. I have found that though I try not to make pre-judgments on people I haven’t met(2), what a person is wearing certainly has an effect on how I react to them.

I may venture to speak with a stranger if I feel a “connection” because they obviously enjoy the same things I do. I’m wary of people walking down the street in all dark clothes, dyed hair and body piercings(3) simply on the impression I get. Employees at businesses who dress in “work attire”(4)tend to get my respect, if not a degree of unease. I perceive them as an “authority”—though sometimes I prefer to speak with the employees who are more casually dressed because I feel they will be more sympathetic to my concerns. At the do-jang(5), simply wearing the do bak(6) puts me in the mindset of the disciplined structure of the class. Everyone who comes together and wears a do bak for that hour becomes part of the same team, and respects the hierarchy established by belt color, regardless of age.

It is interesting to me that in our times, when we consider ourselves “enlightened” and “open” something as simple as what you wear can have such a defining nature on how we perceive ourselves and others. In effect, we wear costumes everyday appropriate to the roles we play and the way in which we are perceived. Also, to some extent, what we wear defines the roles we are chosen to play(7). Thoughts like these make me take a little extra care when I’m standing in front of my closet trying to decide what to wear.

Footnotes

1. Even if it was only selected because it met the criteria “Is this clean?” Some days I find that a valid way of selecting my attire.
2. Of course, there is always some quality of categorizing people you don’t know. It’s simply the way the human brain operates.
3. Though I’ve meet people who dress like this, and they are sweethearts.
4. You know, like suits, ties, skirts or pant sets.
5. I study Choi Kwang Do, a Korean art, so the school is called a do-jang rather than the Japanese term Do-jo
6. Our uniform.
7. For example, applicants certainly take care to dress appropriately for a job interview.