Do Clothes Make The Man?
May 20, 2010
There is much to support the view that it is clothes that wear us, and not we, them; we may make them take the mould of arm or breast, but they mould our hearts, our brains, our tongues to their liking.
Virginia Woolf
I don’t entirely agree with this quote. I work tirelessly to resist the moulding of my heart and brain and tongue. How about you?
Why is it that clothes seem to make the man? And by ‘clothing’, I speak broadly of all components of outward appearance. That visual shorthand is acceptable because of the sad fact of modern life, we’re too busy to get to know one another.
I’m wearing multi-colored dreadlocks because I’m working as a hairdresser again and I like them. In real estate I wasn’t too eccentric looking and people responded easily to my authority. Now people are surprised I’ve got a decent vocabulary and a college education. On the rare occasion someone isn’t hindered by social propriety, they’ll ask what I think is an oft unspoken question, “so why are you working as a hairdresser?”
I’m acutely aware of how white collar versus blue collar ‘clothing’ influences how we are perceived by our fellow man. People are fluent only in the expedient language of the visual shorthand because there’s no patience or pleasure for the literacy required to visualize a whole person. I’m sure there’s some defensiveness on my part because I guess I’m more accomplished than my appearance or occupation should indicate. But I’m irritated by people who suffer such poverty of imagination.
It would do the world some good if people traveled more adventurously between identities over the course of a lifetime. We ‘clothe’ ourselves in nothing more than transitory roles as we go from port to port.
Why be so attached to flimsy disguises and single destinations?
