electromagnetic pulse

MMeo. thoughts.

Beauty norms are rules of communication. But why is it useful to operate within them? When is it better to exacerbate them for social progress?

Take it back to the level of the individual. A girl does what other people do because then she fits in, she doesn't have to think so hard, and she has one step of interpersonal communication taken care of (in a way). More than doing as do others on a grand scale, she copies family and social environments in which she spends most of her time (these may just as likely be a real environments as imagined ones).

Then there are extremes. These stereotype people because we read extremes so heavily. And what about people who suffer from the confusion at this level of communication? What about the trends and revolutionary changes? How do they affect the individual?

It gives us something to use to communicate our agreement, our adherence to an idea, our commitment to a group. It helps us show that we are, for example, young, hip, new, fresh -- but do we always put these tools to use to communicate what they're meant to say?

What if the style or trend or dictates of the time, movement, or fad confuse the individual? Confuse her sense of self, her perception of self. Or do worse? Because a trend or movement will not be deep enough to encompass all of our idiosyncrasies or, more importantly, all of what each of us wants to say. What of times and places where added appearance is even less diverse in option? And what of the fact that ultimately we probably define our sense of self (or lack thereof) in the terms of current trends?

Is clothing an extension of our physical selves or are we an extension of our clothing?

Labels: MMeO

posted by e m p @ 10:19 PM