I went clothes shopping with my mom today. Actually, let me be more specific. I went shopping for clothes to wear at a wedding I'm attending this weekend. For those of you who don't know me that well, I have a rule that goes "any occasion that requires me to dress up is not worth going." Of course, I make exceptions (once every few years, literally) but the bottom line is, I hate dressing up.
When I'm told to dress a certain way against my will, I consider it a blatant attack on who I am. I see it as another example of society's lack of respect for individuality, and the individual. I don't think I'm being excessively individualistic or self-centered when I say that. I understand full well that from time to time, sacrifices on the part of individuals are needed to serve a greater good. But the way one dresses is not such a case. I mean, what function does one's attire serve, apart from classification, conformation, and segregation? In fact, is making judgments about people based on attire any different to making assumptions based on skin color? Sure, you can change your clothes more easily than you can change your skin color. But isn't it fundamentally the same in that you're making judgments solely based on physical appearances?
My mom thinks my aversion towards dressing up is immature, and I can't deny that I might sound like some punk kid. She tells me that it's just the way it is and that I should suck it up and accept it. It appears that, often times, growing up means to conform, or worse, accept injustices as being inevitable and unavoidable. But, as immature as I may be, I also know just enough history to know that social norms are not to be trusted. After all, at one point in time, slavery was the norm. At another time and place, extermination of Jews was the norm. If being accused of immaturity is the only consequence for questioning the norm, then that is a risk I'm willing to take.
In any case, it really isn't that extreme. It's not like I was insisting on going to the wedding in t-shirts and cargo shorts; I just didn't want to wear a business suite. My mom thinks someone my age should own a business suite, and she went through a whole list of reasons. I'll need to wear a suite to my dad's funeral, if he's killed in a plane crash ("Mom, let's deal with that if and when it happens"), if I go to a job interview ("Mom, I'll be in college for a few more years"), if I win some prestigious award ("So what, they're going to retract my award if I don't dress up?"), or if I meet some rich girl and she insists I wear a suite when I meet her parents ("Mom, any girl I date will be more understanding than you"). After a while, though, I realized that my hatred for business suites was unusually strong, which usually implies some psychological reason that goes beyond mere preference. Alas, I have yet to find a plausible explanation (although, Freudians would be quick to point out that I associate business suites with my dad).
At the end, they bought me a blazer and dress pants that I actually liked. I like blazers because it's more modular than a real suite. I can practically wear it on top of anything, and instantly become a little more formal, whereas a business suite is like a monolithic kernel.
Posted Thu, October 16, 2003 12:26 by Rittenhouse Garden Tools
Can not believe that I read the whole thing. Quite a story.
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