1:18 p.m. - 2006-09-12
Dressing/looking your age?
I have always wondered how much stereotype and peer pressure goes into how people dress. There was a time I thought this was a teenage phase (keeping up with fashion, dressing like their friends do), but now I'm not so sure. It seems like most of what's "in" is geared toward people in their twenties and thirties. Anyone younger or older and society seems to have little rules and regulations about what's appropriate for what age. What bothered me since I was a little girl was people around me telling me what's the "right" or "appropriate" ways to do things (what's acceptable to wear, in this case). Needless to say, I didn't like being told what to do then and I don't like it now.
I was 12 years old one summer when two of my aunts and my brother and I went to the mall. We were in some departmental store and I saw a dress that I liked. Mind you, I didn't want to buy it, but it piqued my interest. I showed it to my older aunt, who said that it's for adults. I mean, sizewise, it would have fit me, but they were trying to explain to me that it wasn't for girls, but ladies. Looking back on that incident, that's probably why I liked it. I didn't like being lumped in with "kids", so I liked a dress that was "grown-up". Not grown-up in the revealing-too-much sense (I hate those), but grown-up as opposed to girls' dresses which had pretty little bows on them. At age 12, I got told a lot that I was too young for this or that. Usually it was my older aunt kept repeating that statement. I needed more explanation than that. Mind you, the last thing I would condone is letting children dress the way some pop stars dress (or should I say don't dress, considering they don't wear much:-)) these days, but I was precocious for my age as a child and that kind of clothing was not something I was into anyway. I used to think only teenagers and pre-teens felt that certain clothes are forbidden for them. Evidently not.
About two summers ago, I was talking to another one of my aunts who colors her hair. When I asked her why she does so, she said that if she let her real hair (a lot of which is turning white) show, she would have to stop wearing bright bold colors because it wouldn't look right for her age. She told me that she wasn't quite ready to resign herself to wearing just pastels and hence was dyeing her hair for that. Excuse me? Mind you, I told her that when I get to be her age (and older), I'll do whatever the hell I want. I mean, who decides what looks right when you start "aging" (which is a relative term because we're getting older every single day from when we're born)?
I certainly don't dress or look my age. At 26, I mostly wear scrubs or jeans and t-shirts. And I wear no make-up. In an academic environment, it seems to be working. God knows what pressures I'll go through to dress "professionally" for job interviews when I have to step into the hell hole people refer to as the "real world?" But even if I have to do that for work, I'm certainly NOT going to worry about what women "my age" are wearing or take my cues from them during any other part of my life. I go for what's comfortable and that means no high heels, no tight skirts and dresses that don't allow me to move around freely, and certainly no makeup which will prevent me from bursting into tears freely (which is something you have to worry about if you cry at the drop of a hat:-)).
And no one will dare tell me what to wear when I'm old. I'll wear bright bold colors to pastels to black and white and mix and match whenever I see fit (pretty much like I do now). Here's to destroying the herd mentality, folks, whether it comes from teenagers, old people, or in-between.
