Friday, June 24, 2011

Be nice or leave.



Hi folks. I've missed you. Our computer broke for a little over a week about two weeks ago. And when my husband jimmyjacked it to make it start working again, I had to spend time catching up on my pinning of stuff on Pinterest (my newest internet obsession.) I've had a lot that I've wanted to blog about, so I figured I'd jump right back in with a random thought that I had while lounging on the hammock in my in-laws' backyard a few days ago.


You know how when someone is dressed up, or just looking good but not necessarily dressed up, we often say "You look nice!"?

We all know what that means. But 'nice' also means kind and friendly and other similar words. I am wondering how much we all equate looking a certain way (clean, fashionable, well fitting clothes,) with being kind and friendly. And if dressing in dirty, unfashionable, ill-fitting clothes makes people tend to think you are not 'nice.' Even in my earlier sentence I called it looking good. The opposite being looking bad. Dressing up vs. dressing down--you get the point.

I told you it was a random thought, but I think it is worth pondering how often we illogically base someone's personality traits on their outward appearance. And how the dominant culture's standards of what "dressing well" means can influence our views about the personality traits of people from marginalized groups. And how people who don't have the means (or the desire,) to conform are judged in ways that are detrimental to them.

If you have your own thoughts to share, leave me a comment.