People’s sense of style can tell you about them (although of course not always). For example, someone who identifies heavily with Goth culture will wear a lot of black, bold lipstick, heavy jewellery; accordingly so. I value my appearance, that’s why I dye my hair and wear lipstick and got my nose pierced and REALLY want to get tattoos. I value my appearance because it makes me feel good about myself. As someone who’s always struggled with self-esteem, making myself look good is a way of cheering myself up. Doesn’t mean looks are ‘everything’, but for me they’re tied to how I view myself.
So it does make me sad when people are shamed for how they dress. For example, why do youths in London give so much of a shit about ‘swag’? Why shame someone because they’re not wearing designer clothing? Why do you ‘have’ to wear high heels if they hurt your feet? Oh, look, you’re wearing socks with sandals. Jesus, call the fashion police! ARGH!
Something that really bugs me though, is this ‘policing’ of what girls wear, particularly in schools. The SKIRT obsession. God, that takes me back. Somehow the length of the skirt is never right. EVER. Too short makes you a slut, a bit longer makes you a tease, longer makes you prudish or proper and super long...well you’re clearly a nun.
I get it. Girls can’t wear skirts that are too short because ‘oh god help me, the boys will go mad!’ Will they really? Do boys even give a shit? Are they really going to be THAT distracted by the length of a girl’s skirt? And if a girl is wearing her skirt in a risqué way, chances are she may be wearing it deliberately for male attention.
There’s nothing wrong with dressing for attention. If I’m out at a club and wearing short tight clothes and smiling and flirting with lads, clearly I want attention. DUH. If I’m walking down the street in my jeans with my hoodie up and scowling on my face I clearly DON’T want attention. Because I have a big red afro, I do tend to get a lot of attention, but that’s what happens. When you have a distinguishing feature about you, people are going to notice it.
I think people should dress how they want, but whatever you wear is probably going to attract judgement from someone, be it good or bad. Even if it’s as simple as ‘I love your top!’ Humans are naturally judgemental. Yes, it would be nice if we could be less judgemental in some areas, but sometimes we just can’t help ourselves.
When I was 14 I went to Tanzania with my family, and it was great (besides my teen depression), but I realised a big difference in gender between Britain and Tanzania. In Britain, girls can dress how they like. In Tanzania, a boiling hot country, wearing shorts can get you SERIOUSLY stared at. I don’t mean brief glances, I mean freakish ogling. People stare at each other a lot, and tourists get stared at the most. I’m from a country where it’s considered rude to stare, so I find that SOOOO unnerving.
Anyway, I was 14, and my parents did warn me that I had to ‘be careful’ of how I dressed, and I tried, but the stares were still there. My mum even said once that ‘if we were white it wouldn’t matter cos that’s what they would expect.’
That made me kind of depressed; I was wearing T-shirts and long shorts, not even tank tops and ‘short’ shorts, and boiling hot. When it’s hot I wear less clothing. Most people wear less clothing BECAUSE IT’S FUCKING HOT. When it’s cold, you wear more clothing. Nothing to do with ‘being inappropriate’; how many clothes you wear correlates with the weather. Plus some people get more/less cold than others, etc.
In conclusion; wear what you want, but people WILL make judgements because, well, humans suck ladies and gentlemen.