Consrtucing Your Personality through Apperance
Your body is your canvas. People use their bodies to construct an apperance that ultimately affects their personality
People have always used clothing as a way to represent themselves. Fine clothing has been an indicator of wealth and social status. In today’s society that still hasn’t changed. And as more clothing designers are mass producing their lines, clothing has moved from being and indicator of economic status to something more, a mark of one’s personality. The body has become one’s own personal canvas and people use body art and piercings, in addition to clothing to decorate it. One’s appearance is constructed in a way that the person likes and gives off the impression that they want to give others.
How do your clothes reflect you? If you have ever ran into someone who was dressed completely different from everyone else, like a businessman walking into a group of boys in hoodies and baggy-jeans, you have some sort of automatic response. Whether that response is one of embracing, curiosity, or animosity towards the different depends on the person having the response. Judgments based purely upon first appearance are unavoidable. People are aware of this unavoidability, and therefore create an appearance that will evoke the response that they want. “There is a time and place for everything,” is what I have always been told. For example, if you were trying to present yourself in a business-like manner you wouldn’t want to be seen walking around in a belly-shirt or baggy pants down to your knees. Since people are aware of how their appearance reflects them, they try to mold it into something that is modeled after their personality or possibly something totally different.
Tattoos and body piercings are also reflective of one’s personality. You might a tattoo for some very deep symbolic reason or simply because you like a certain pattern. Both are reflective of your personality, the former because it gives insight into your past and present, the latter because it shows your personal taste. People have many reasons for getting some type of body art; some like it, others view it as an art form, and others still do it simply because they want to fit in. I wont claim to know all the reasons people get tattoos but that they do realize that even though they might have had some significant reason for getting one, others will still notice and judge them because of it. Working at some jobs requires that no tattoos or random body piercings, such as the bridge of you nose be noticeable. And even though a person might start off with a very specific reason for getting a tattoo or piercing, other might see it a different way and ultimately change the way the person who got it done views it.
The body is a way for people to represent themselves, through clothes and more permanent piercings, and even more permanent tattoos. These things help a person openly display, or hide, some aspect of their personality. However, when others view the person who is essentially “on display” changes that person’s view of himself or herself. So the body is a canvas to be constantly be constructed and reconstructed based upon that person fellings at that specific time.
Comments
Posted by: franco
Posted on: September 23, 2007 02:45 PM
I like the "body is a canvas" idea. Maybe you could use more specific examples (from stuff you see on campus) to prove your point.