by sparkyoriental » Sat Apr 12, 2014 8:24 pm
I kinda have a slightly more mature style than most people who live in my city which is pretty grungy/90's obsessed. As a result, most people seem to think that I'm a grad student and 7-8 years older than I actually am???? I'm Asian so I'm assuming that's a part of it but it's weird to be 21 and strangers thinking that I'm 30..it's been beneficial, people automatically take me more seriously because they think i'm doing a phd in math or compsci or whatever when I'm actually just another lowly struggling undergrad....
how has your style of dress affected outside perception of you as a person?
edit - I also had this weird moment last summer when I realized "holy shit I'm gonna be doing a phd in a year (hopefully) and I'm going to have to meet important people and try to get them to listen to my research etc" and reacted rather severely by 1. buzzing my hair 2. dying it platinum blonde 3. getting 7 piercings on the same day (ouch....). Now about a year later all the piercings are gone and my hair is back to black and grown out to a bob. I feel so much more like myself. With the blonde hair and piercings it felt like a walking adjective on my head. People made assumptions about me, that I was "cool" and "alternative" when I am actually none of those things. On one hand, I hate that my physical appearance says something about me, regardless of what it is, good or bad. Sometimes I dress in totally innocuous clothing, sweatshirt and jeans and converse when I meet people for the first time. I like the blank slate.
edit2: speaking of feeling more like myself, I dislike that I even associate my appearance with "myself" at all. yeah, it's the western norm but intellectually there's a strong line between the two and i think there shouldn't be any crossover. obviously i've got some cognitive dissonance there though.
Last edited by
sparkyoriental on Sat Apr 12, 2014 8:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.