In Jennifer Egan’s story, “Ask Me if I Care,” she often brings up uniforms and the messages they send. The kids in the story, Rhea, Scotty, Bennie, Alice, and Jocelyn all wear a teenage punk rock uniform. They wear angsty clothing like shredded t-shirts, and Rhea has green hair. The punk-rock uniform portrays the teens as angry, rebellious individuals. Meanwhile, Alice’s blonde hair seem to prove how she is not “punk-rock” or rebellious enough. Although they might aim to be angry and disobedient, most of the teens seem to be interesting, emotional people, each with their own aspirations.
While clothing is a huge part of self expression for teens, it is also a source of major misjudgement. In the story, Rhea was simply aiming to fit in with her punk-rock friends, but others around her definitely made assumptions based on her appearance. Most teens dress a certain way in order to fit society’s standards and expectations. Others try to display their rebelliousness or break away from the standards, aiming to be unique. Whether dressing to fit in or dressing to stand out, or just altogether not caring, there is too much categorization and labelling based on appearance among teenagers. It is entirely unlikely that one’s apparel will exemplify their personality. However, judgement among teens is inevitable, so these observations are useless.
Great post! I totally agree that clothing is a major source of judgement for so many people. Sometimes, I think that certain styles of clothing ought not to be taken so seriously, because for the most part, we are all trying to achieve the goal, which is to fit in with some group.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree! I get more what you said about people breaking away from standards, since most of my friends and I dress how we want to dress, not to fit society's standards. People get to choose whether they want to fit in or try to stand out, but its up to the rest of us to take their style with a grain of salt. Because like you say, how much are we really getting just from how a person dresses?
ReplyDeleteI agree with this. I think that the clothes we wear are indicators for who we are or what we strive to be. It really goes to show how many objects can define us.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you completely. I don't think that clothes are really the best way to define a person's character traits, but people are often immediately judged by what they wear because it is their visual first impression to the world. It's true, teenage judgement is inevitable.
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