A little soap-boxing about how people dress (triggered by hoodies and the "pants half down the ass" look)
What people don't realize is how you present yourself to the world affects how the world views you. Sure, other droopy-pants friends think they look just fine, but there are a lot more people in the world viewing you. Of course, people should not judge by appearance alone, but we naturally perceive things first by appearance. That is the first thing we know about a person: how they look/dress/walk/talk. Story after story on the news about kids in thug-wear committing crimes helps you form a subconscious (and often conscious) correlation between thug behavior and thug wear. Then you see someone wearing a hoodie and pants half down their ass, your mind will bring up the conditioned connection. Of course, a person's character and actions are a much better gauge of who they are but we see half their ass first and start to form a preconceived idea from that.
This certainly applies to other forms of dress as well: Dressing like a hooker, wearing dirty work clothes to anywhere other than work, mixing hot pink pants/chartreuse shirt/purple blouse/one plaid/one paisley shoe/three hats/47 bangle bracelets, walking around naked at the park. I just used the hoodie/droopy pants as an example because of current events.
(note: the thug pic above is an actual thug. Surveillance video still of a liquor store robber.)
1 comment:
I have to agree. My sister worked for a large metropolitan police department and I asked her once if they "profiled" people. Absolutely they did. If it looks like a duck and sounds like a duck and walks like a duck it probably IS a duck.
Unfortunately too many people come into our lives for brief moments and so we cannot judge them on who they really are - only how they appear.
I work with many women in a large building and a good percentage of them show enough cleavage to park a bus in or jeans they are poured into apparently.
Of course seeing guys with half their ass showing pants on, makes me form a preconceived notion of who they are.
Hate to admit it but it's true: If I'm going into a liquor store or any small store at night and some guy or guys in hoodies go in before me - I'm NOT going in until they leave.
Post a Comment