You are what you eat.\u00c2\u00a0 You are who you hang out with.\u00c2\u00a0 You are what you do.\u00c2\u00a0 You are what you wear.<\/p>\n
Which one of these are true?<\/p>\n
Well, I’m sure most of them are relatively true.\u00c2\u00a0 But recently, I’ve been wondering about the last one: You are what you wear.\u00c2\u00a0 How true is this?<\/p>\n
If we look to society, there are arguments both for and against this expression.\u00c2\u00a0 For instance, there are so many “poseurs” out there who attempt to mimic others’ style of dress when that isn’t even their preference at all (think back to middle school when A&F was all the rage).\u00c2\u00a0 However, in many cases, what we wear does define who we are– to a certain extent.<\/p>\n
At masquerade balls, during Halloween, our costumes give us the advantage to be whomever we choose.\u00c2\u00a0 We can be that silvery masked beauty who smiles mysteriously or that frolicking, bubbly princess who grins widely.\u00c2\u00a0 Under this disguise, we are made more free to become someone we normally are not, and to do things we may not do regularly.\u00c2\u00a0 Even in regular daywear, certain things render us more or less confident in ourselves, thus shaping our personalities for the day.\u00c2\u00a0 Wearing a spiffy new sports jacket or a pair of sexy heels can make us more outgoing or willing to put ourselves out there.\u00c2\u00a0 When we perhaps would not want to be noticed, that day, we do.\u00c2\u00a0 Should we have a bad hair day or wear ill-fitting pants, we feel self-conscious and fidgety, wishing to be overlooked so as to avoid embarrassment.<\/p>\n
With this notion in mind, then to some degree, our outward appearance does influence our own inward personality.\u00c2\u00a0 Many times it can be a reflection of our personal traits, characteristics, or preferences.\u00c2\u00a0 At others, it can be a reflection of society’s.\u00c2\u00a0 Or both.\u00c2\u00a0 For example, in the case of the hijab for Muslims, it is both a personal choice and a socio-cultural value.\u00c2\u00a0 It is quite possible that one could wear it because of societal pressures although she may not wish to or that one would wear it in spite of cultural norms to pursue her own personal convictions.<\/p>\n
What, then, becomes of a law<\/a> that restricts the right to wear “ostentatious symbols of religion”, as such exists in France?\u00c2\u00a0 After reading several articles and a book<\/a> on this subject, I couldn’t help but wonder, who is right?\u00c2\u00a0 Which belief holds precedence over the other?\u00c2\u00a0 Is the desire to unify a secular country greater than the desire to express one’s religious affiliations?\u00c2\u00a0 If an individual’s choice in clothes represents her choice in self-expression, her visible manifestation of her invisible qualities, is that a right to be protected or a privilege to be lost?<\/p>\n If we are what wear, then is such a law that restricts our ability to wear what we choose a law that denies our own intrinsic qualities as unique human beings?<\/p>\n —–<\/p>\n Gabby Park is a both a rationalist and an idealist, who occasionally wrestles with the understanding of deeper questions of human nature.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You are what you eat.\u00c2\u00a0 You are who you hang out with.\u00c2\u00a0 You are what you do.\u00c2\u00a0 You are what you wear. Which one of these are true? Well, I’m sure most of them are relatively true.\u00c2\u00a0 But recently, I’ve been wondering about the last one: You are what you wear.\u00c2\u00a0 How true is this? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":616,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608\/revisions\/616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}